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“I didn’t start playing cricket thinking about the IPL or India. I had no idea where this journey would take me. But now, my goal is to play for India across formats, in any format,” Rasikh said in a release by the franchise on Monday.

His persistence was evident when he made his first appearance of the season at the Wankhede Stadium, returning with figures of 1-23 against Mumbai Indians despite battling cramps.

“When I came on to bowl, I got a cramp, something I had never experienced before. After almost every ball, I was cramping. I was falling over while delivering, and I couldn’t even bend properly. My only thought was that I had to complete the over. If I could do that, the team would be in a better position,” he said.

Those efforts earned Rasikh praise from RCB assistant coach Omkar Salvi. “There is a character in him. Staying in the hills of Jammu and Kashmir, that hard life, travelling long hours to go and play cricket, you can see the way he has grown as a player.

“The first thing I saw was that he was competitive. At the same time, he was creative in his approach. Apart from swinging the ball both ways, he had a slower one and a different perspective on how to approach T20 cricket,” he said.

Rasikh recalled the early doubts around his career, before he got encouragement from his mother. “When I started playing professionally, my family and relatives used to say that no one can take cricket as a profession because very few people were playing from our region. But my mother always believed in me. Since childhood, she used to say that my son will become a cricketer.”

His journey included long travel to attend trials, guidance from Irfan Pathan, and later setbacks with injuries after being picked by Kolkata Knight Riders, amidst a two-year break from the sport.

“When I first went for the Under-19 trials, I didn’t even know the process properly. I wasn’t selected that year. The next year, when I went again, Irfan Pathan was there.

“After watching me bowl a few deliveries, he stopped me and started guiding me. That’s when I felt that maybe he saw something in me. I got a back injury after playing two matches. Then I got injured again during recovery. At that time, I realised I shouldn’t rush. I had to follow the process, no matter how long it took.”

“When I first went for the Under-19 trials, I didn’t even know the process properly. I wasn’t selected that year. The next year, when I went again, Irfan Pathan was there.

The effort behind the scenes was evident to Salvi. “He always kept working hard for himself. He was always trying to learn from every game he watched while sitting out. And then he had his own opinions, which we used to discuss later after the game during practice. With Rasikh, he has the ability to move the ball both ways,” he said.