Goa cricketers who have played IPL

Goa is not a unknown name for Indians. For all of us, its like a dream stay way from our home escaping us from the mundane life of cities and giving us some moments of joy with those beautiful beaches and pleasant breeze.

With not being too far away from Mumbai, a night drive, Goa also had cricket influence from Mumbai from the very beginning.

Dilip Sardesai, often regarded as one of the best batsman to play against spin was the first Goan cricketer to play for India. He played 30 tests for India.

Recently there are some Goan cricketers who have also made it to India u19 squad. We have Saurabh Bandekar and Rahul Keni who represented India at the u-19 level.

Coming to the toughest competition of all, IPL, there are only 2 Goan cricketers so far who have cut the bar for the most prestigious T20 tournament of the World. Let’s look at who they are :-

1)Swapnil Asnodkar :- Swapnil Asnodkar, now aged 40, played 4 editions of IPL.

From 2008 to 2011, he represented Rajasthan Royals for consecutive years earning 66 lakhs through the IPL contract in total.

Starting his IPL career on high, he struck a 34 ball 60 innings on his debut with 10 fours and one six and let his bat do all the talking on why he belong there.

He used to open with Graeme Smith and was part of some great opening partnerships. The pair scored 497 runs together at an average of 59, the highest in the tournament.

He was just at the brink of selection to Indian cricket team, having played for India Blue and was even called for India emerging players in Israel in 2008.

Swapnil continued to play first class cricket for Goa even after his last IPL appearance and played 85 first class matches with a good average of 40 with 14 hundreds.

A great cricketer, may be the best to come out from Goa who missed the Indian jersey by just few inches.

In 2019, he took to cricket coaching and was appointed the coach of Goa u-23 team.

2)Suyash Prabhudesai :- A rather familiar name among IPL fans is Suyash Prabhudesai. Suyash also plays for Goa.

He has been part of star-studded Royal Challengers squad dor 3 years in row now, as RCB retained him for IPL 2024.

In the 10 matches he has played so far, he would think he has not done justice to himself with a high score of only 34, but that can change if he has worked on his game and is ready unleash version 2.0 of Suyash Prabhudesai in the IPL 2024.

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