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Swapnil's journey from almost calling it quits to going on a dream run

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Swapnil Singh, 33, is in the midst of a dream run with Royal Challengers Bengaluru. He has now been part of each of their six straight wins that have catapulted them into the playoffs. He has so far picked up six wickets in six games at an economy rate of 8.76. He has bowled in the powerplay with great control, and has delivered key wickets, starting with that of Heinrich Klaasen. It was the foundation of RCB's defence of 206 against a rip-roaring Sunrisers Hyderabad side. RCB haven't looked back since.

Swapnil was originally picked as a back-up left-arm spinner to Mayank Dagar, who had been traded from SRH. But when Dagar wasn't as effective and RCB found themselves at the bottom of the points table with seven losses in eight games, Swapnil got his opportunity.

"When I came here, I knew I wouldn't play initially," he told RCB Bold Diaries. "But I never got onto the field for training thinking I won't play. Our first practice session was like my first match. From the first ball, I had to be on target if I had to play. Nets was like my match."

When Swapnil arrived for RCB's trials in November 2023, he made one request to Andy Flower, the new head coach.

"Just give me one chance, this might be my last chance." Flower was non-committal, but knew Swapnil from his previous stint at Lucknow Super Giants, where he was a net bowler for one year before being signed in 2023. Swapnil was called for a pre-season trials followed by a camp conducted by Malolan Rangarajan, RCB's head of scouting.

"My camp [called by RCB] wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either," Swapnil said. "On auction day [for IPL 2024], I was in Dehradun for the start of the Ranji Trophy. When I wasn't picked, I frankly thought it was over. There were so many other ways to win the world. I thought I'll finish playing this season and quit. I was very disappointed. When my family called, we just broke down."

To Swapnil's surprise, RCB eventually picked him right at the end. It was the first time he was picked in the IPL for two seasons in a row.

Prior to being signed by LSG last year, he was first called up as a net bowler, a role he reluctantly accepted. "When Deepak Hooda [his Baroda team-mate who was also picked by LSG] called me and asked if I wanted to be a net bowler for LSG, I scolded him and hung up the phone. Then he called again and said, 'just think about it'."

Swapnil called Irfan Pathan, one of his mentors. When Swapnil found his career hit a dead end at Baroda, Irfan had helped him find a new team, Uttarakhand. Swapnil's Baroda stint had ended abruptly because he'd been told, "there's no place for you in the team" by the state captain at the time.

"I asked why and was told they were preferring a youngster. It was a blessing in disguise that I left Baroda. Sometimes when you're kicked out of your own home, you learn to go outside and stand on our feet. I realise now maybe it was a great thing to have happened. I would've been finished had I remained in Baroda."

Pathan advised Swapnil to take up the net-bowling offer. "I honestly didn't go out of happiness. I went with a heavy heart, reluctantly," he said. "But in the first couple of days itself, they were impressed. Every net session, I used to bowl from the first ball till the end.

"Narendra Hirwani (spin consultant of LSG for their first season in 2022) liked me a lot. He transformed my bowling 180 degrees. I really wish I was associated with him from a lot earlier in my career."

Swapnil was primarily a left-arm spinner, but an equally handy lower-order batter. He has two first-class centuries, six List A fifties and two T20 fifties. In fact, when he made his Ranji Trophy debut in 2006, aged 14 years and 355 days, he was primarily a batter. But bowling would soon take over.

Swapnil was in the running to be a part of India's Under-19 World Cup squad in 2008. But he was eventually left out as the selectors preferred Ravindra Jadeja. It took him eight years from there to make his IPL debut, for Punjab Kings in 2016, and another seven to double that tally. Last year, he featured in two games for LSG but couldn't pick any wickets.

"Honestly, Andy played a big role," Swapnil said. "I asked him, 'sir, why don't you give me an opportunity to bat? He agreed and allowed me to bat. That day, GG (Gautam Gambhir) was also there, and they were both impressed. I may have been the first net bowler to have been given the chance to also bat in the nets."

Despite all that, Swapnil nearly walked away from the game after seeing his name in the 'unsold' list in the first few rounds of the mini-auction last December. But here he is, five months on, content with the way he has progressed this season.

"I would always speak to my brother and tell him, 'I haven't hit a four or six, I just have one wicket. So I want to hit a four and a six, as I have the wicket anyway (smiles)'. I knew this season if they play me in a game, Faf [du Plessis] will give me at least one over. In that game [his RCB debut], I hit a four, a six and I didn't bowl six, but seven balls in my first over [due to a no-ball]. I picked up a wicket off the seventh [two in the over - Aiden Markram and then Klaasen]. It's all god's blessings."

His long journey of two decades in domestic cricket has taken him from Lucknow to Baroda and now Dehradun. On Saturday night, he won over Bengaluru, not just with his bowling but with the pressure catch he took to dismiss MS Dhoni in the final over.

Now with potentially three games to go, can his dream season continue to flourish and get the perfect ending?