IPL Newsmakers: Sehwag’s relative. Beat Virat in Yo Yo Test. Now a Karodpati.

Can you recognise him?

He is none other than Mayank Dagar.

He is a left-arm orthodox bowling all-rounder who plays for Himachal Pradesh.

His record – 87 wickets in 29 first class matches and 44 wickets in 44 domestic T20 outings made him an attractive all-rounder for many IPL franchises.

Mayank Dagar is a distant relative of former India dynamic opener Virender Sehwag.

The bowling all-rounder was rose to prominence during the ICC U19 World Cup 2016 in Bangladesh.

The Ishan Kishan-led side had made it to the finals before going down to the West Indies in a close contest.

Later that year, Dagar went on to make his first-class debut for HP in the 2016-17 season of the Ranji Trophy.

While the 26-year-old does not have much IPL experience, he was roped in by Punjab during the IPL 2018 mega auction.

The emerging cricketer did not get a chance to feature even in a single game for the Ravichandran Ashwin-led side in that season.

Surprisingly, he disappeared from the scene for the next four seasons only to make a strong comeback this time around.

While Mayank Dagar is yet to earn his India cap, he has already proven that he is arguably the fittest Indian player out there.

In fact, Dagar had pipped batting megastar Virat Kohli in terms of the yo-yo test score back in 2018.

Mayank’s yo-yo test score read 19.3 whereas, Kohli’s score happened to be 19.

How the auction went

Mayank Dagar had a base price of Rs 20 lakh (Rs 2 million),

Initially, he evoked interest from SunRisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals.

SRH were unrelenting in their pursuit and upped their bid to an impressive Rs 1 crore.

With Rajasthan not backing down, both teams soon crossed the Rs 1.50 crore mark.

RR pulled out of the race after SRH upped their bid to Rs 1.80 crore which was decisive.

We wish Mayank all the best.