Naga teenager shortlisted for Indian Premier League 2021 auction

Our Reporter
Dimapur, Feb. 13 (EMN): Moving a step closer to playing first-class cricket, 16-year-old Khrievitso Kense from Nagaland has been shortlisted for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 auction, which is scheduled be held on February 18 in Chennai.

A total of 292 cricketers have been shortlisted from the initial 1,114 players to go under the hammer at the upcoming IPL auction.

Chief Minister of Nagaland, Neiphiu Rio took to Twitter to extend his support to the young lad.

“My best wishes to Khrievitso Kense from Nagaland, the youngest Indian player to be shortlisted for IPL 2021 auction. I hope he gets picked by a great franchisee that will perform excellently in the IPL 2021,” he wrote.

Secretary of Nagaland Cricket Association (NCA), Hyunilo Anilo Khing also informed this newspaper that Kense has been shortlisted for the IPL 2021 auction. However, he said that there is no certainty which team will bid for the right-arm leg spinner at the auction since it is open for all the nine franchise teams.

Khing went on to inform that Kense had left for Chennai on Friday (February 12) along with the members of Nagaland cricket senior team to play in the upcoming Vijay Hazare Trophy 2020-21 which is scheduled to be held from February 20 to March 14.

Nagaland cricket senior team will play in the Plate group that consists of Uttarakhand, Assam, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, and Sikkim. Matches for Plate group will be played at Chennai, while the elite groups consisting of six teams in each group will play across different venues — Surat, Indore, Bengaluru, Jaipur and Kolkata.

Nagaland failed to qualify for the second stage of the recent Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2021 despite finishing second in the group, but the young leg spinner from the state caught the attention of an official from five-time IPL champions, Mumbai Indians.

Kense was later selected to undergo trials with the Mumbai Indians. After the trials with the franchise for five days at Mumbai Reliance cricket ground, he got a call from Rajasthan Royals officials to undergo trials at Royal Academy in Nagpur on February 3.

He had played in Dimapur District boys U-16 Inter-School Tournament (2017-18); part of Nagaland boys U-16 team in Vijay Merchant Trophy, where he took five wickets against Uttar Pradesh in his debut match in the pre-quarter finals (2018-19); and attended zonal camp for north-eastern states and was selected for inter-zonal tournament.

Kense was also in Nagaland boys U-16 team for Vijay Merchant Trophy in 2019-2020. In the same year, he was selected in Nagaland senior cricket team and played in the recently concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2021 in Chennai where he took seven wickets in four matches.

Caption: File photo of Khrievitso Kense.