An attacking wicketkeeper-batsman, Nikhil Naik was a product of age-group cricket in Maharashtra. Naik's journey to cricket, though, was far from easy. He lost his mother to paralysis in 2010, when still a teenager, and his father, a fish vendor, used to borrow money from his friends to pay for Naik's kits.

After having led the Under-16 and Under-19 state sides to national titles, Naik made his List-A debut at 19 for Maharashtra, against Gujarat in the 2014 Vijay Hazare Trophy. He was one of the finds of the tournament, scoring 234 runs in four matches at 58.50.

His big hitting caught the eyes of Mumbai Indians with whom he trialled, but an IPL contract did not materialise. It did the following year when Kings XI Punjab bought him for INR 30 lakh. He was retained by the franchise in 2015 ahead of the 20-over Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in which he scored 196 runs in five matches at 39.20.
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Nikhil Naik Career Stats

Batting & Fielding

Format	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	50s	4s	6s	Ct	St
FC	7	10	1	197	48	21.88	330	59.69	0	21	4	16	4
List A	46	40	10	1245	82*	41.50	1159	107.42	8	85	56	46	7
T20s	66	54	15	1077	95*	27.61	836	128.82	6	70	50	36	10

Bowling

Format	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10w
FC	7	1	18	19	0	-	-	-	6.33	-	0	0	0
List A	46	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
T20s	66	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Nikhil Naik T20 Stats

Batting & Fielding

Tournament	Teams	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100s	50s	4s	6s	Ct	St
IPL	2 teams	4	4	0	31	22	7.75	50	62.00	0	0	2	0	3	0

Bowling

Tournament	Teams	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10w
IPL	2 teams	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Recent Matches of Nikhil Naik

Match	Bat	Wkt	Date	Ground	Format
Maharashtra vs Vidarbha	49	0c/0s	16-Jan-2025	Vadodara	List A
Maharashtra vs Punjab	52*	2c/0s	11-Jan-2025	Vadodara	List A
Maharashtra vs Railways	41	0c/1s	05-Jan-2025	Wankhede	List A
Maharashtra vs Andhra	28*	0c/0s	03-Jan-2025	DY Patil	List A
Maharashtra vs Sikkim	46*	1c/0s	31-Dec-2024	Wankhede	List A