Two of a kind: The Bhutra twins and the making of a mystery-spin fascination

TNPL 2026

Two of a kind: The Bhutra twins and the making of a mystery-spin fascination

by Sooryanarayanan S •

Rahul and Rohan graduated through the age group pathways in Ahmedabad. © Rohan Bhutra

Rahul and Rohan graduated through the age group pathways in Ahmedabad. © Rohan Bhutra

Mystery spin is a novelty that seldom goes unnoticed. So it was perhaps inevitable that the league which introduced the world to Varun Chakaravarthy would also be the one to give Rohan Bhutra’s wrong-footed wrist-spin, with multiple variations in tow, a platform from which he could showcase his unusual offerings.

Rohan made his bow in the ongoing Tamil Nadu Premier League, emerging as the Player of the Match on debut for Madurai Panthers with measly returns of 2 for 9 against Salem Spartans. Another Player of the Match award followed for his 2 for 23 against Dindigul Dragons - the team that handed him his first TNPL contract three years ago.

Rohan, though, is only half the story. It also involves his identical twin, Rahul, a name that can be mistaken for Rohan (just ask KL Rahul’s father, who wanted to name his son Rohan). Rahul shares more than just his brother’s facial hair and physique, for their bowling actions are a replica of each other’s. And while Rahul is yet to bag his maiden TNPL gig, the journey of these 24-year old twins is intertwined.

Chennai and the Bhutras were arguably a match meant to be. Their maternal grandparents hail from Rajasthan but ran their business in Chennai before the twins themselves were born there. Soon after, the family migrated to Ahmedabad, where their father ran a readymade garment business.

The Bhutras had a thing for cricket, their father keen to get the brothers to make it big in the sport. The brothers took contrasting paths before stumbling upon mystery spin. Rohan was an orthodox off-spinner, before videos of Varun Chakaravarthy bamboozling batters in the TNPL prompted him to deviate from the norm. Batting was Rahul’s primary suit, but he chanced upon something in his bowling which flummoxed batters at club level. Today, he considers himself a bowling all-rounder.

“It was never planned,” Rahul tells Cricbuzz of the similarity in his and Rohan’s bowling action. “It just came naturally to us.”

Rohan was signed by the Ashwin-led Dindigul Dragons in 2023. © TNPL

Rahul and Rohan graduated through the age group pathways in Ahmedabad but upon missing a district callup in 2019 - just before the COVID-19 pandemic - they were at a crossroads. As it turned out, the path that beckoned took them back to their place of birth, for they were eligible to play Chennai’s divisional cricket tournament without having to serve a cooling-off period.

The move was backed by their family. So much so that their father didn't bat an eyelid before selling his shop in Ahmedabad and moving with his sons to Chennai to fuel their cricketing ambitions.

As the archetypal Gen-Z go-getters, the twins sought out Srinath Suresh, a coach at Cricket Drome, a popular academy in the southern locality of Thoraipakkam. Srinath took them on board and soon enough, the brothers found themselves integrated into the city’s famed divisional cricket culture.

“When we first came to Chennai, we were a little shocked to see the cricket culture here,” Rahul says. “It felt very good that people take even local matches seriously. Even from second to sixth division, there are a lot of coaches who are so interested in buying a team and playing them in club cricket. The coaches and support staff respect the players. They treat players like their best friends and take good care of them.”

With financial support a necessity as they pursued a Commerce degree in sports management in Ahmedabad, the brothers found a godfather in Vignesh Krishnaraj, also one of the coaches at Cricket Drome when the Bhutras reached Chennai. It didn’t take Krishnaraj long to be convinced of the talent that the twins possessed.

“I told Rohan a few years back: ‘You are definitely an IPL product and will play the IPL. And I will help you however I can to get you there,’” Krishnaraj tells Cricbuzz. He duly took the brothers under his wing, convincing their father that he would “look after the boys like my brothers”.

“They needed money to stay here. I arranged match fees for them. It wasn’t enough for them but that's all I could afford,” Krishnaraj says.

As they toiled away in the third and fourth division in Chennai, the eagle-eyed TNPL scouts did not miss the many variations that they possessed. Rahul claims to have four variations and Rohan a few more, marrying overspin and topspin to thrive on flat decks. It was Rohan who was signed by the Ravichandran Ashwin-led Dindigul Dragons in 2023, while Rahul was a net bowler ready to be summoned into the squad should a need for a replacement have risen.

Rohan did not feature in a team that already had Varun. But rubbing shoulders with the bowler he always looked up to proved to be an inflection point in his cricketing journey.

“I got his number and I started contacting him,” Rohan recalls. “He started giving me drills, he told me what I could work on. I asked him to let me know if there was any opportunity as a net bowler.”

That opportunity beckoned when Kolkata Knight Riders arrived in Chennai for their IPL 2024 fixture against the Super Kings.

“I got a message from Varun that Angkrish Raghuvanshi was going to bat at Amir Mahal Cricket Ground (a couple of kilometres off Chepauk) and if I could, I should go and bowl to him. The session went really well - I troubled him and I got him out twice or thrice too,” Rohan says.

Word soon spread within the KKR camp. AC Parthiban, Varun’s personal coach, was impressed by Rohan’s bowling and a video recording of his exploits against Raghuvanshi reached Abhishek Nayar, then the assistant coach of the franchise. Rohan was soon roped in as a net bowler for the rest of KKR’s title-winning campaign.

It didn’t stop there though. Training at an academy during their off-season in Ahmedabad ahead of IPL 2025, the Bhutras were asked to bowl to Shubman Gill, who turned up for a net session. Having impressed the Gujarat Titans captain, they were onboarded as net bowlers for the season. A burgeoning reputation began to develop.

Rahul and Ronal were onboarded as net bowlers by GT for IPL 2025. © Rahul Bhutra

The twins’ meteoric rise continued once Krishnaraj picked them for Rising Stars, the third division club that he coached, for the 2025-26 season. Rohan had skipped the previous season altogether to work on his bowling in Ahmedabad, while Rahul had limited game time. But such was their impact that by the end of the 2025-26 season, Rising Stars had been promoted to the second division, with Rohan and Rahul enjoying a lion’s share of the wickets, with 30 and 25 scalps respectively.

“There were times when one took five wickets, the other took four and these two finished the match all by themselves,” Krishnaraj says.

The impact of the duo bowling in tandem lies in subtle differences that are hard to pick for batters facing them for the first time.

“Rahul doesn’t get a lot of turn. His arm-speed is quick. He attacks the stumps a lot and gets a lot of bowleds and LBWs,” Krishnaraj details. “The speeds he bowls, batters find it tough to play him off the surface. That’s a big plus for him,” he adds, citing that Rohan instead extracts more turn to pose questions of the batters.

The twins naturally slip into the Fred and George Weasley prankster mode against their teammates, deceiving them with their identity while playing on opposite sides of their pre-match warmup. But Krishnaraj also witnessed the perks of extending that deception into a cricket match.

“While switching the brothers’ ends, a batter got out to Rahul thinking it was Rohan. He played for the turn and got bowled. While watching by the boundary ropes, I overheard the opponent saying that they got confused since both look alike. So we used this ploy a lot while rotating their ends and fooled opposition teams,” Krishnaraj says.

“After so many years even I get confused as to who is who,” he laughs.

Any uncertainty in the mind of their father is arguably at bay now. Rohan has begun with consecutive Player of the Match awards for the Panthers, who are perched on top of the points table. Rahul awaits his opportunity in the league, while watching nervously every time his brother takes the ball in hand. After all, they remain each other’s closest confidantes.

“We discuss cricket 24 hours a day,” Rohan says. “Whatever doubts I have with my bowling or batting, I go to him and likewise, he comes to me. The biggest strength we have is that we have someone to discuss the game with. It becomes really easy and really motivates us a lot - if one brother is doing well, the other can also do well.”

© Cricbuzz

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