At 21 years old, Angkrish Raghuvanshi is already being talked about in the same breath as India’s most promising batting talents of his generation. The Kolkata-born right-hander — Under-19 World Cup hero, KKR title winner, and one of the IPL’s most exciting young batsmen — is building his game carefully, deliberately, and with a very clear role model in mind.

“Shubman Gill is one of the best players in the world,” Raghuvanshi told ANI recently. “I can just learn a lot from him as to how he goes about building his innings, and he gets so many big runs, and his hunger to get more and more runs — I can learn that from him.”

It is a revealing choice of inspiration. Raghuvanshi doesn’t cite an aggressive T20 bludgeoner or a power-hitting finisher as his batting idol. He cites the player who perhaps best exemplifies the art of building — and then accelerating — a major innings. In Shubman Gill, the student has found the right blueprint.

Why Gill Is the Ideal Blueprint

Shubman Gill’s cricket journey has been defined by the hunger Raghuvanshi specifically references. The 26-year-old Punjab batter, now India’s Test and ODI captain, has accumulated 6,665 runs across all formats in 137 matches since his international debut in January 2019 at an average of 44.43, hitting 19 centuries and 28 half-centuries.

But statistics alone don’t capture what makes Gill special to a young batter studying the game. It is the manner — patient construction of an innings, reading match situations intelligently, and then shifting through gears to punish bowlers once set. His historic 269 at Edgbaston against England in 2025, where he hit an extraordinary 93.28 control percentage while also scoring at pace, perfectly illustrated the blend of discipline and aggression that the next generation of Indian batsmen is trying to understand and replicate.

Gill became the highest-scoring India batter in World Test Championship history during the England series in 2025, surpassing Rishabh Pant, Rohit Sharma, and Virat Kohli. He registered five Test centuries in a single calendar year as India’s captain — matching a benchmark previously set only twice by Virat Kohli. The hunger to accumulate, to go past fifties and convert them into match-defining hundreds, is exactly what Raghuvanshi says he is trying to absorb.

Raghuvanshi’s Rise — From Kolkata’s Streets to Eden Gardens

Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s cricket story is already the kind that gets told in dressing rooms for years. Born in Kolkata, nurtured through Bengal’s domestic pipeline, he announced himself on the global stage with 278 runs in six matches as India’s highest run-scorer at the 2022 Under-19 World Cup — though a two-ball duck in the final against England left a wound that still fuels his drive.

His IPL debut in 2024 was the stuff of instant folklore. Walking out for KKR against Delhi Capitals in Visakhapatnam, he smashed 54 off 27 balls — becoming the youngest player in IPL history to score a fifty in his debut innings. The strike rate of 200 didn’t just turn heads; it announced an arrival.

Under Gautam Gambhir’s mentorship at KKR that season, Raghuvanshi contributed 163 runs in 10 matches as the franchise lifted their third IPL title. In 2025, he grew noticeably more assured and responsible, scoring 300 runs in 12 matches at an average of 33.33. Across 22 IPL appearances to date, he has 463 runs at a strike rate of 144.69 — numbers that comfortably validate KKR’s decision to retain him for IPL 2026 at ₹3 crore.

What Gambhir Taught Him

The Gambhir angle adds an interesting dimension to Raghuvanshi’s development story. The current India head coach was KKR’s mentor-slash-team-director during the 2024 title-winning campaign — a figure of intensity, focus and demand whose influence on the dressing room culture was significant.

When asked what Gambhir’s first words to him were when he joined the KKR camp, Raghuvanshi’s answer was characteristically simple and revealing: “He didn’t say anything to me specifically. He said just work as hard as you can, and we are going to win this season.”

No individual pep talks. No special instructions. Just a collective mission statement delivered with Gambhir’s trademark directness. For a young player trying to find his feet in professional cricket, that clarity of purpose proved galvanising.

“His intensity was very good, and he was always talking about winning the tournament, which we ended up winning. I think we became better players because of it,” Raghuvanshi added — a tribute to how high standards in a team environment elevate individual performance.

Dreams of Winning Trophies For India

The question every young cricketer gets asked is where they see themselves in a decade. Raghuvanshi’s answer, for someone who grew up watching Gill, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma dominate world cricket, was both humble and purposeful.

“I can’t say where I want to see myself a decade from now, but my dream is to win trophies for India.”

Trophies — plural. The plural matters. It speaks to the ambition of a batter who knows that individual milestones, while personally satisfying, are secondary to collective glory. It is the mentality that Gill himself embodies, and that Gambhir instilled at KKR during their 2024 title run.

Whether that ambition finds expression in T20 World Cups, ODI World Cups, or Test series remains to be seen. What is evident is that Raghuvanshi is building his game patiently, drawing on the right influences, and letting his bat do the early talking.

IPL 2026 — The Next Chapter

KKR’s retention of Raghuvanshi at ₹3 crore ahead of IPL 2026 signals unambiguous franchise faith. With Gambhir now serving as India’s head coach and KKR looking for new leaders to emerge from within their squad, Raghuvanshi’s role is expected to grow considerably this season — possibly a more consistent top-order position and greater responsibility in middle-over situations.

His IPL form through 2025 showed exactly the improvement KKR’s management was looking for: more runs, a better average, and the confidence to handle pressure situations without going for the big shot too early. The innings of 44 off 31 and 44 off 32 against DC and RR respectively showcased a batter willing to build before accelerating — the exact quality he says he is trying to develop by watching Shubman Gill.

Between the study notes he is taking from Gill’s innings construction and the winning culture Gambhir embedded in him during KKR’s title season, Angkrish Raghuvanshi appears to have found the two pillars he needs to fulfil those trophy-winning ambitions.