Just 20 and rising fast - the story of LSG's new boy Naman Tiwari

Naman Tiwari started out as a batter. But at the academy he went to near his home in Lucknow, Tiwari rarely got a chance to bat. Instead, he watched fast bowlers knocking stumps out of the ground in the nets, and that sight got his juices flowing. "I decided to take up fast bowling," he says, "and also made a promise to myself that I would become the fastest bowler in the world."

That hasn't happened, but at 20, the left-arm quick regularly clocks 145kph.

Tiwari was the most successful fast bowler of the Indian team that finished runners-up at the 2024 Under-19 World Cup with 12 wickets in six innings. This year, after 19 wickets in ten matches at an excellent average of 16.26 and strike rate of 11.00 in the Uttar Pradesh T20 League, Tiwari was acquired by Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) for INR 1 crore at the IPL 2026 auction. When it comes to feeling at home, Tiwari now has his own flat in Lucknow, one he bought after the Under-19 World Cup, to move his family out of the rented place in the city they were in earlier.

LSG is where Tiwari had been a net bowler for the last two IPL seasons, where he finetuned his skills under team mentor Zaheer Khan.

"On the very first day in the nets this year, [head coach] Justin Langer sir introduced me to Zaheer sir," Tiwari says. "Zaheer sir gave me a lot of time and seriously watched my bowling. I used to have a problem bringing the white ball in, and he is the best left-arm inswing bowler of the country. He taught me how to improve my inswing bowling.

"He praised my action and run-up and said that with time it would become more mature, which would also increase my wicket-taking ability. For me, learning from him was like a dream. I still have notes of everything I learned from him, and I try to apply those things in my bowling."

Tiwari started attending a local cricket academy in Lucknow when he was nine, but he began taking cricket seriously only after his father suffered a heart attack and had to leave his job as a building contractor and start working as an insurance agent. At that time, Tiwari was 12. There was a chance he would have to give up cricket and focus on a more stable career because of the financial difficulties at home.

"My father had migrated to Lucknow from Deoria [a small town around 300km from Lucknow], and we were living in a rented house in Gomti Nagar," Tiwari says. "When my father had the heart attack, the financial condition of the family was very bad. He was the only earning member of the family, and when the head of the family is unwell, the atmosphere at home also becomes difficult. I have three elder sisters. I did go to the academy, but I was not very serious about my cricket at the time.

"But because of the situation at home, I had to become serious. My father gave me two years' time, and within that, at 13, I was selected for the Uttar Pradesh Under-16 team. I bowled well there and took 13 wickets in three matches. After that, my family also started believing that I could make it my career. Before this, there was also pressure on me to focus on studies. But after that, I played Under-14, Under-16, and Under-19 cricket for Uttar Pradesh, and now I am with the state senior team."

A major turning point came in 2021, when the "Speedster" contest was held by Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Red Bull in Lucknow. This is the same competition through which Ashok Sharma came into the limelight. Sixteen-year-old Tiwari bowled at 135kph and became the Lucknow winner of the competition. Then, in 2022, RR called him up as a net bowler.

"When I went to the nets on the first day, I was completely amazed," Tiwari says. "The players I used to watch on TV were now right in front of me. Since I am a left-arm bowler, I follow Trent Boult, but I was a little hesitant to talk to him. However, he watched my bowling in the nets and came to me himself. Apart from this, I also learned some details about bowling yorkers from Lasith Malinga sir [the bowling coach at RR at the time]."

Alongside bowling to batters like Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson and Shimron Hetmyer, Tiwari also performed well in the Cooch Behar (Under-19 four-dayers) taking 13 wickets in five games and the Vinoo Mankad Trophy (Under-19 one-dayers) picking up ten in six. Then came the 2024 Under-19 World Cup.

Tiwari typically moves the new ball away from right-hand batters. Most of his wickets during the Under-19 World Cup came from that. But keeping in mind the demands of T20 cricket, he has added some variations - he can now bowl yorkers, bouncers, and a variety of slower deliveries. At the Uttar Pradesh T20 league, he often bowled from around the wicket to right-hand batters, created a wider angle, and bowled toe-crushing yorkers. Malinga had done the spadework for those. Jasprit Bumrah, who was at the BCCI's National Cricket Academy at the same time as an Under-19 camp before the World Cup, did the rest. Mitchell Starc is Tiwari's other hero.

Immediately after IPL 2024, where he was a net bowler with LSG, Tiwari took just four wickets in six matches in the Uttar Pradesh T20 League and had to leave the tournament with the injury he mentioned. It turned out to be a right-side oblique tear.

"After performing well in the World Cup, I started getting trial calls from different IPL teams, and I went to almost all of them. At that time, I did not understand workload management very well. My performance was good, and I was on high that time, so I kept going with the flow and did not pay attention to managing my workload," he says. "Because of this, I got a side injury, due to which I could not play the entire domestic season last year. But now I understand how I need to take care of my body."

He could well provide some excitement at LSG in IPL 2026 if he gets a chance. Not easy, with Mohammed Shami, Avesh Khan, Mohsin Khan and Mayank Yadav, among others, in the squad. But his target remains unchanged.

"My ultimate goal is to wear the India jersey and become the fastest bowler in the world," Tiwari says. "My father's dream is that I help India win the World Cup and become the Player of the Match in the final. So whenever I step onto the cricket field, only these two dreams run in my mind, and I do not think about anything else."