Manan Vohra

A promising young opener and a technically sound batsman as praised by the 2011 World Cup winner Yuvraj Singh, Manan Vohra rose through the ranks of Punjab cricket.

Belonging from a sporting background, Vohra’s father was an Indian hockey player but he chose to be a cricketer and started piling up runs in every age group before being made the captain of the Punjab’s U19 team. 

Vohra was initially named in the ICC U19 squad for the World Cup in 2012 but was unfortunate to miss out due to an injury. After a major setback in the early stages of his cricketing career, he bounced back and smashed 187 against Jharkhand in the 2013-14 Ranji Trophy.

Vohra’s aggression caught the eyes in the 2013 auctions of the Indian Premier League (IPL) where he was bought by Punjab Kings (formerly known as Kings XI Punjab) and made a splendid debut scoring 43 runs off 26 balls. 

The next season was one of his best where he racked up 324 runs in eight games and was immaculate at the top of the order. The Chandigarh-born batter played five seasons for Punjab Kings and after the second season, his flamboyance got the better of him. 

Vohra’s ordinary performances failed to fetch him the ladder to success until 2017 when he played one of the career-defining innings of 95 against SRH on a pitch of inconsistent pace and bounce but ended up on the losing side. Being inconsistent obstructed his regularity in the squad and finally, he was released by Punjab Kings before IPL 2018.

At the 2018 IPL auctions, RCB bagged the services of Vohra for a whopping amount of INR 1.1 crore, but his string of failures came to haunt him yet again. 

Before the IPL 2019, the Chandigarh swashbuckler was released by RCB and was obtained by Rajasthan Royals for a salary of INR 20 lakhs and was retained in the 2020 and 2021 season. 

With the likes of Sanju Samson and Jos Butler at the top of the order, it is highly unlikely to be a regular in the squad but age and class backing up Vohra, he might hope for some eye-catching innings whenever he gets a crack.

(As of March 2021)