An attacking wicketkeeper-batsman, Nikhil Naik was a product of age-group cricket in Maharashtra. Naik's journey to cricket, though, was far from easy. He lost his mother to paralysis in 2010, when still a teenager, and his father, a fish vendor, used to borrow money from his friends to pay for Naik's kits.

After having led the Under-16 and Under-19 state sides to national titles, Naik made his List-A debut at 19 for Maharashtra, against Gujarat in the 2014 Vijay Hazare Trophy. He was one of the finds of the tournament, scoring 234 runs in four matches at 58.50.

His big hitting caught the eyes of Mumbai Indians with whom he trialled, but an IPL contract did not materialise. It did the following year when Kings XI Punjab bought him for INR 30 lakh. He was retained by the franchise in 2015 ahead of the 20-over Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in which he scored 196 runs in five matches at 39.20.
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Nikhil Naik Career Stats

Batting & Fielding

Format	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	50s	4s	6s	Ct	St
FC	6	8	1	154	48	22.00	290	53.10	0	16	2	15	4
List A	37	33	7	968	82*	37.23	953	101.57	7	60	44	36	6
T20s	61	50	15	970	95*	27.71	757	128.13	6	64	44	34	9

Bowling

Format	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10w
FC	6	1	18	19	0	-	-	-	6.33	-	0	0	0
List A	37	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
T20s	61	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Nikhil Naik T20 Stats

Batting & Fielding

Tournament	Teams	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100s	50s	4s	6s	Ct	St
IPL	2 teams	4	4	0	31	22	7.75	50	62.00	0	0	2	0	3	0

Bowling

Tournament	Teams	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10w
IPL	2 teams	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Recent Matches of Nikhil Naik

Match	Bat	Bowl	Wkt	Date	Ground	Format
Maharashtra vs J + K	21	0/19	0c/0s & 0c/0s	11-Oct-2024	Srinagar	FC
Maharashtra vs Haryana	10	--	3c/1s & 0c/0s	26-Jan-2024	Rohtak	FC
Maharashtra vs Rajasthan	48 & 29	--	2c/0s & 0c/0s	19-Jan-2024	Jodhpur	FC
Maharashtra vs Jharkhand	32*	--	2c/2s & 0c/0s	12-Jan-2024	Pune	FC
Maharashtra vs Manipur	11	--	1c/1s & 4c/0s	05-Jan-2024	Solapur	FC