Raj Bawa Biography: Age, Family, Career, Stats & More

From his record-breaking U-19 World Cup journey to his IPL career, explore Raj Bawa’s age, family, early life, major achievements, career records, and latest cricket stats.

Raj Bawa’s cricket story is inseparable from a family legacy that predates the sport itself in his household, a grandfather who scored in India’s first Olympic gold-medal match after independence, and a father whose own playing career ended before it truly began. Raj has spent his own career trying to convert that inheritance into cricketing substance, from a record-breaking Under-19 World Cup double to a still-unsettled hunt for regular IPL opportunities. This article covers his childhood, coaching journey, career highs and lows, personal life, and a complete statistical record.

Quick Facts

Born Under an Olympic Shadow

Raj Angad Bawa was born on 12 November 2002 in Nahan, Himachal Pradesh, and grew up in Chandigarh. His grandfather, Trilochan Singh Bawa, was part of the Indian hockey team that beat Great Britain 4–0 in the final of the 1948 London Olympics, scoring a goal in that match himself, a result widely regarded as the birth of independent India’s sporting glory, arriving just a year after independence. Raj was only about five or six years old when his grandfather passed away in 2008, and has spoken candidly about not having many direct memories of him: “I don’t have many memories of my grandfather because I was a kid when he died, but I have heard his stories from my grandmother and my father, which will stay with me forever.”

Learning the Game at His Father’s Academy

Cricket coaching ran just as deep in Raj’s household, through his father, Sukhwinder Singh Bawa. Sukhwinder had played both hockey and cricket in his youth, representing Haryana’s junior hockey team and even attending an India Under-19 cricket camp in 1988, before a slipped disc injury at age 22 ended his own playing ambitions and redirected him toward coaching. He went on to become a respected cricket coach, training India internationals including Yuvraj Singh and VRV Singh.

Raj trained under his father from a young age and drew direct inspiration from Yuvraj Singh’s presence around the academy. Despite being a natural right-hander, Raj deliberately switched to batting left-handed purely to emulate his hero, while continuing to bowl right-arm. His father, recognising that fast bowling came naturally to his son, initially wanted him to focus purely on batting, Raj has recalled that he started out bowling off-spin before eventually developing into the right-arm medium-fast bowler recognised today.

162 Not Out and a Historic Final Spell

Raj’s breakthrough came at the 2022 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup in the West Indies. On 23 January 2022, at the Brian Lara Stadium in Trinidad, he smashed an unbeaten 162 against Uganda, sharing a big partnership with Angkrish Raghuvanshi (144), the innings broke Shikhar Dhawan’s long-standing record of 155 against Scotland (2004) to become the highest individual score by an Indian in Under-19 World Cup history.

He wasn’t finished. In the final against England, Raj produced a match-winning spell of 5 wickets for 31 runs, playing a decisive role as India lifted the trophy for a record fifth time. The individual batting record and the final-clinching bowling figures, achieved within the same tournament, remain the signature achievement of his career to date.

A Wicket With His First Ball

Raj made his first-class debut for Chandigarh on 17 February 2022, against Hyderabad in the Ranji Trophy, and made an immediate mark, dismissing a batter with the very first delivery he bowled at that level. He has continued to represent Chandigarh in all domestic formats since, and heading into the 2025–26 season, was noted for bowling tough, high-pressure overs with visible fighting spirit for his state side, even as his overall first-class opportunities have remained relatively limited in volume.

Career Highs

Two Franchises, Few Chances

Despite his standout Under-19 pedigree, Raj’s IPL career has so far been defined more by scarcity of opportunity than by regular starting-XI cricket.

Across his 2025 IPL season with Mumbai Indians, Raj featured in only three matches, scoring an unbeaten 8 in his single batting opportunity and not being used as a bowler at all, yet the franchise retained him for IPL 2026, valuing his long-term all-round potential and the chance to develop alongside senior players like Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, and Jasprit Bumrah.

Career Lows: Warming Benches and a Thumb Injury

• Years of limited IPL game time: Despite being signed by two different franchises since 2022, Raj has played only a handful of IPL matches in total, with several seasons yielding little more than a squad seat.
• Underused as an all-rounder: In his rare IPL appearances, Raj has predominantly featured with the bat only, with franchises yet to give him a real opportunity to showcase the bowling skills that won India the 2022 Under-19 World Cup final.
• A slow-burning first-class career: Four years on from his 2022 first-class debut, Raj had featured in only around a dozen first-class matches by 2026 — a modest volume that has limited his ability to press a case for higher honours.
• Thumb injury ends IPL 2026 early: Raj suffered a ligament tear in his right thumb during IPL 2026, ruling him out for the remainder of the season and forcing Mumbai Indians to bring in Ruchit Ahir as his replacement, a fresh injury setback just as he was building form with the ball for Chandigarh domestically.
• Yet to break into the senior India picture: Despite matching the U-19 World Cup pedigree of contemporaries who have since gone on to play for India, Raj has not yet earned a senior national call-up, underlining how competitive the transition from age-group stardom to the senior XI remains. 

Family, School and Roots

Raj completed his schooling at DAV Public School, Chandigarh, before fully committing to a cricket career shaped substantially by his family home. His father Sukhwinder remains his most significant cricketing influence, while stories of his Olympic-medallist grandfather Trilochan Singh Bawa continue to inform his sense of the family’s sporting legacy, passed down through his grandmother and father rather than firsthand memory. He is also the cousin of Reetinder Singh Sodhi, a former India international, adding a second generation of family cricketing pedigree beyond his own immediate household.

Little-Known Facts About Raj Bawa

• His grandfather Trilochan Singh Bawa scored a goal in India’s 4–0 win over Great Britain in the 1948 Olympic hockey final, a result regarded as the start of independent India’s modern sporting story, decades before Raj’s own final heroics against England in the 2022 U-19 World Cup.
• Despite being a natural right-hander, Raj deliberately switched to batting left-handed as a boy purely to emulate his cricketing hero, Yuvraj Singh, whom he watched train at his father’s academy.
• His 162 not out against Uganda remains the highest individual score by any Indian batter in Under-19 World Cup history, surpassing a record set by Shikhar Dhawan nearly two decades earlier.
• He is the cousin of Reetinder Singh Sodhi, who was himself Man of the Match in the 2000 Under-19 World Cup final for India against Sri Lanka, giving the family two generations of age-group World Cup final heroics.
• His father, Sukhwinder Bawa, had his own hockey and cricket playing career cut short by a slipped disc at just 22, redirecting his sporting ambitions into coaching future India internationals instead.
• Despite scoring a maiden wicket with his very first ball in first-class cricket, Raj initially bowled off-spin as a junior before transitioning to the right-arm medium-fast style that won India the 2022 U-19 World Cup final.

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Career Statistics: Complete Records Table

Key Records at a Glance