Anukul Roy

Anukul Sudhakar Roy was born on November 30, 1998, and hails from Birha, a remote village in Bihar. The all-rounder is a slow left-arm orthodox bowler with the ball and comes in the final phase of an innings to get some quick runs for his side.

Roy started playing cricket in tennis-ball tournaments in Samastipur and relocated to Jamshedpur for better opportunities in cricket. The 25-year-old is an athletic fielder who has a powerful throwing arm, a dynamic lower-order batter and is a specialist bowler, a role similar to Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.

Anukul Roy: Along the Years

Anukul Roy Records

• Joint-highest wicket-taker in the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup 2018, along with Qais Ahmed (AFG U-19)

Anukul Roy Career

Though Anukul Roy has a fine domestic record, he has not gotten enough opportunities to break the deadlock at the top tier. 

Anukul Roy Domestic Career

Anukul Roy, the player from Bihar was unable to participate in the Ranji Trophy as they haven’t contested in the tournament for the last 18 years. However, Roy, like his friend Ishan Kishan, moved to Jharkhand to pursue his dream of playing in the Ranji Trophy.

He made his domestic debuts across all formats for Jharkhand and was impressive on his Ranji Trophy debut when he scored 80 runs in the first innings against Assam.

Anukul Roy IPL Career

Riding high on the euphoria of the U19 World Cup victory, it was natural that Anukul Roy would pick in the IPL. He came under the hammer in the 2018’s-Mega IPL auction and was snapped up by Mumbai Indians at his base price of Rs 20 lakh. With Krunal Pandya being the senior left-arm spinner in the side, Anukul had to wait for his turn but he did make his IPL debut in 2019 and picked up one wicket from the only game that he played. 

Roy was signed by the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL 2022 mega auction. He currently represents the Knight Riders and won the title in the 2024 edition of the T20 extravaganza in purple colors.

Though he has not played many matches in the IPL, he has been an astute substitute fielder and has pulled off many stunning catches.

Anukul Roy Under-19 Career

Anukul Roy had represented Jharkhand Under-19s before making it into the Indian Team after catching the eye of Rahul Dravid. He made his debut for the U19 team on February 01, 2017, during England's tour to India.

He bowled 7 overs at the cost of 34 runs and scalped 3 wickets in the process. He followed that with another 3-wicket haul as India went on to win the 5-match series by the margin of 3-1. Roy made it into the U-19 team at the very last moment as an ankle injury forced him to miss the U-19 Challenger Trophy and U-19 Asia Cup in 2017.

But Rahul Dravid’s faith in him earned him a place in the traveling final squad as he was directly included after completing his rehab process. Roy picked the wicket of Jack Edwards in the first match of the campaign against Australia in the opening match. Following that was his maiden fifer at the international level as India thrashed Papua New Guinea by 10 wickets with 252 balls remaining.

He claimed 4 wickets in the 3rd match against Zimbabwe and a single wicket against Bangladesh in an economy of 2.80. Roy then scored 33 against Pakistan and claimed a wicket as India won the match and progressed to the finals.

In the final that took place on 3rd February, Roy scalped the important wickets of Jonathan Merlo and Param Uppal (34), the highest run-getters for Australia in the match. This match resulted in India getting the coveted trophy for the 4th time in history as Roy finished as the joint-highest wicket-taker of the tournament, with 14 wickets at an average of just 9.07, along with Afghanistan U-19 bowler Qais Ahmed.