Akshay Karnewar

Akshay Karnewar was 13 when Balu Navghare, his coach at the time, noticed that the right-arm offspinner batted and threw left. Navghare encouraged him to take up left-arm spin seriously, and Karnewar ended up becoming an ambidextrous bowler. Standing at nearly six feet, Karnewar bowls with a flattish action and does not spin the ball much. In 2008, Karnewar, who hails from Pandharkawda village in Maharashtra's Yavatmal district, attended the Vidarbha Cricket Academy trials and found a backer in former Mumbai wicketkeeper Sulakshan Kulkarni, who encouraged him to bowl in BCCI-organised tournaments.

Karnewar went on to play the DY Patil T20 league in Mumbai and trialed for Rajasthan Royals, but he was not selected. His big break came in December 2015 when Vidarbha handed him a List-A debut against Odisha in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. In that match, Karnewar, who is also a handy batsman, scored 72 and picked up two wickets in a losing cause. With 16 victims from seven matches, he finished as Vidarbha's leading wicket-taker in the tournament, and went on to take seven wickets from nine games in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament. Karnewar was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore for INR 10 lakh in the 2016 IPL auction.
ESPNcricinfo staff