Sameer

Rizvi

Sameer Rizvi Biography and Career

Nicknamed the right-handed Suresh Raina, 21-year-old Sameer Rizvi is a promising young cricketer from Uttar Pradesh. Coming from a middle-class family, and seeing his father getting diagnosed with a serious illness, Sameer saw quite a few obstacles in his journey to becoming a well-known cricketer. 

His father, Haseen Rizvi, is a property dealer who suffered a brain haemorrhage just a few days before Sameer's first-class debut in 2020. Sameer's maternal uncle, Tankeeb Akhtar, was the one who motivated his nephew to take up cricket as a career; he was the one who coached Sameer at a young age. 

Suresh Raina spotted Sameer in a Ranji Trophy match in 2011. Raina, at the time, was captain of the Uttar Pradesh team while Sameer was just eight years old. Impressed by Sameer's fielding, Raina gifted him his sunglasses. 

A 16-year-old Sameer made his first-class debut for Uttar Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy on January 27, 2020, before eventually making his List A debut on December 11, 2021, in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. His breakthrough came during the inaugural UP T20 League in 2023, where he played for the Kanpur Superstars. He ended the tournament as the highest run-scorer for his team, amassing 455 runs in 10 matches at an average of 50.56 and a striking rate of 188.8. His performance included two centuries, and he hit 35 sixes, the most in the tournament. From here on, Sameer earned a reputation for hitting big sixes. 

Not just in the shorter formats, but Sameer has proved his mettle in red-ball cricket too. In December 2024, he scored a triple century (312 runs) in the Col CK Nayudu Trophy for Uttar Pradesh against Saurashtra. Sameer's aggressive batting style and ability to score quickly made him one of the most sought-after players at the IPL 2024 auction. The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) acquired him for Rs 8.4 crores, making him the most expensive uncapped player that season.

"Even I kept wondering how did I get so much money, and why did CSK bid for me. Even now I've not been able to make much sense of that amount. I will leave it to my family to decide what to do with that much money," an ecstatic Sameer told ESPNcricinfo. 

However, inn eight matches for CSK, the right-handed batter scored just 54 runs at a strike rate of 118.60. He was subsequently released by CSK before the IPL 2025 auction and was then bought by the Delhi Capitals (DC) for Rs 95 lakh. 

Only a few days after being recruited by the Capitals, Sameer delivered one of his career-best knocks in domestic cricket. He scored a whirlwind 97-ball 201 not out in an Under-23 State A Trophy match for UP against Tripura. He hit 13 fours and 20 sixes during his knock. 

Beyond cricket 

Off the field, Sameer is known to be a humble and dedicated guy. Having come from a middle-class family, Sameer's greatest moment came in 2023 when he earned over Rs 8 crore from CSK. At the time, he was just 20-year-old. In addition to his IPL earnings, Sameer is also well compensated for domestic tournaments like the Ranji Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali. After he was picked by CSK, his uncle said in an interview, “Sameer has a lot of ambitions - a good house, proper treatment of his father and a lot of things like that. Allah dua kare, he can meet all of that.”