Aaron George Varghese and Avanish Rao — similar but different

Aaron George Varghese and Avanish Rao have spent the better part of their cricketing lives chasing the same dream on the same pitch.

One scaled the summit, lifting the Under-19 World Cup in 2026. The other came within touching distance, finishing runner-up two years before that.

They learnt to open the batting together in domestic cricket. Today, they walk out shoulder to shoulder once again, entrusted with setting the tone for Ranga Reddy Risers in the inaugural TG20.

Both benefitted from the tutelage of Biju George before polishing their craft at Coaching Beyond. Every step of the ladder seemed to have room for the two as wherever one went, the other followed.

ALSO READ: Shardul Thakur backs pacers to aid Mumbai’s domestic resurgence

Though their journeys have been similar, their personalities are starkly different.

Aaron lives in his own bubble: headphones on, eyes fixed and every thought focused on the next ball and the next innings. Avanish, on the other hand, has a bagful of cheer that can carry both of them.

“His laugh is a little annoying. I don’t think you’ve even heard him laugh properly. If you do, you’ll get scared,” Aaron tells Sportstar, unable to suppress a grin.

It’s a charge Avanish happily pleads guilty to.

“I laugh in serious situations. It just comes out randomly and very loudly. A lot of people don’t like it. I’ve tried so much to control it, but it’s just not happening,” he says, the familiar smile spreading across his face.

Aaron has a favourite scoring shot for every format while Avanish’s favourite changes almost every week.

Both instinctively look to seize the initiative against the new ball, but neither is obsessed with boundaries. They know when to absorb pressure and when to rotate the strike.

It is their chemistry that convinced the Risers management to hand them the responsibility of emerging from the dugout first and shape their team’s fortunes.

“I think for me and the management it was a no-brainer as they are young and played so much of cricket,” Risers skipper Tanay Thyagarajann explains.

“You guys are young, but you are the senior batters here. And they were up for it,” reveals Tanay.

Quite magically, cricket throws together two people who are different in every conceivable way, but similar in intent and content when they are in the middle. Welcome to the world of Aaron and Avanish.

Published on Jul 01, 2026