7 players who went from Red Bull Campus Cricket to international stardom

Take a look at seven players who went on to make their names in international cricket for their respective countries by using the Red Bull Campus Cricket platform. For many years, Red Bull Campus Cricket has been providing young, talented players with a platform to showcase their skills on the global stage.

It is the biggest college T20 cricket tournament in the world and gives young cricketers a chance to represent their respective countries on the world stage. Many players who starred for their respective countries in the college tournament have gone on to represent the senior national team of their respective country.

With the Red Bull Campus Cricket 2019 World Final happening soon, take a look at the careers of some star international players who started off as campus cricket starlets.

KL Rahul

KL Rahul played in the 2013 season of Red Bull Campus Cricket and ended up as its top run-getter. The superb performance got him into the premier league. Later in the same year, he scored 1033 runs in the domestic season to power Karnataka to the Ranji Trophy title. These exploits earned him a place in India’s Test side for the tour of Australia in 2014, and he has been a regular player for the national side across all formats since.

Mayank Agarwal

He played in the 2012 edition of Red Bull Campus Cricket and has been a consistent performer in domestic cricket since then. His performances in the 2017/18 Ranji season helped him to force his way into the Indian side. He is India’s first-choice opener in Tests now with a batting average of over 60 after just six matches. In October 2019, he scored a double ton – also his maiden international hundred for India – against South Africa.

Aiden Markram

He was already a household name in South African cricket by the time he made his appearance in Red Bull Campus Cricket in 2014. Markram had led the South African U19 team to win the U19 World Cup title in 2014, and his Campus Cricket stint helped him further his career.

He made his international debut for South Africa during the 2017 Test series in Bangladesh. He hit the ground running and had a breathtaking knock of 143 in his second match. Markram is now an integral part of the South African set-up in all three formats. He is also the second-youngest player to captain South Africa in ODIs, a feat he achieved in February 2018.

Kagiso Rabada

Kagiso Rabada is one of the world’s best bowlers at the moment. He made his international debut for South Africa in a T20I match in November 2014 and had a stint in Red Bull Campus Cricket the same year. He rose to prominence soon after his international debut. He firmly established himself in the international scene in January 2018 when he topped the ICC Test and ODI bowler rankings. Rabada holds the record for being the youngest bowler to claim 150 Test wickets as well.

Lungi Ngidi

Another Proteas pacer who made his name in Red Bull Campus Cricket, Ngidi played alongside Rabada and Markram in the 2015 edition of the tournament. He made it to South Africa’s T20I squad two years later with a debut against Sri Lanka in January 2017; he won the player-of-the-match award for a fine bowling performance in his debut. The very next year, he made his Test debut against India and produced a fine second innings bowling spell to claim six wickets.

Niroshan Dickwella

NiroshanDickwella made his international debut for Sri Lanka in a Test match against South Africa in 2014. But some stellar performances in Red Bull Campus Cricket 2016 made him a regular in the national set-up. His exploits with the bat in the three-match T20I series in South Africa helped Sri Lanka register a first series victory on South African soil in any format. Dickwella’s match-winning 50 in the final match of the series got him the player-of-the-match award. Later he also won the player-of-the-series award.

Chirag Suri

The 24-year-old played in Red Bull Campus Cricket in 2015 and 2016. He went on to make his ODI debut for the UAE in a world cup qualifier against West Indies in 2018. Suri was also the first cricketer from the UAE to play in India’s top cricketing league in 2017. Most recently, he was part of the Global T20 League in Canada with the Toronto Nationals, where he was teammates with reputed international stars like Yuvraj Singh and Brendon McCullum.