Bengal top-order batter Sudip Kumar Gharami is making headlines in the ongoing Ranji Trophy season. Gharami, a No. 3 batter, scored a composed century for Bengal in their Ranji Trophy Elite opener against Delhi on Monday, registering a score of 133 runs from 235 deliveries.
The knock helped him continue his impressive run in domestic cricket, having scored 146 runs for East Zone against North East Zone in the Duleep Trophy quarterfinal in August.
Back in February 2026, he had missed out on a triple century after being dismissed for 299 in Bengal’s quarterfinal against Andhra. He followed that up with a knock of 146 in the , which, however, went in vain as J & K clinched a six-wicket win.
While Sudip’s life on the field has recently been fruitful, his path to this platform has been difficult. Sudip’s father, Sushanta Gharami, used to work as a mason in West Bengal.
His family didn’t have enough money to purchase cricketing equipment, so Sudip’s father had to take loans from his friends. “My father used to work as a mason,” Gharami told The Indian Express.
“My father used to work as a mason,” says Gharami. “When I started playing cricket, we did not have enough money to buy bats and other cricket equipment. My father had to take loans from his friends to buy me kits.
“At the time, people used to tell him ‘Have you lost your mind? How will a mason’s son become a cricketer? Bete ke upar faaltu ka paisa kharch kar raha hai (You are wasting money on your son). Just give him some education so that he can get a regular job and make ends meet,” the 27-year-old added.
Sudip then revealed that he and his family used to live in a kuccha house. His father constantly received criticism from several people about funding his son’s cricketing dream, but Sushanta was unbothered by it.
“We did not even have a pukka house at the time. We used to live in a kuccha house. It was only when I played the Under-19 level that I bought a brick and mortar house for my family. So, you can tell how difficult it was.
“Everyone discouraged my father, but he was determined to make me a cricketer. Unko ek zid chadh gaya tha (he was determined). Actually, he was really passionate about cricket as well, but given the financial restraints, he never had the means to pursue the sport,” added the right-handed batter.
Sudip further revealed the role that his father played in nurturing him as a cricketer. His father himself wanted to become a professional cricketer, but lack of financial support meant that it wasn’t possible. Now, his son is making his father’s dream possible by representing Bengal. “So, he wanted his son to do what he could not.
“He would take me to the academy early in the morning every day, and wait there till I was done. Then, in the evenings, we would go together to a patch of ground behind our house, where my father used to throw balls at me. At night, I did shadow drills at the house, under his watchful eyes. He dedicated everything to make me,” he explained.
Sudip made his first-class debut in March 2020 for Bengal in a match against Saurashtra. To date, he has played 43 first-class matches and scored 2745 runs, including 10 fifties and nine centuries. He has also played 28 List A games, in which he has scored 1,210 runs (five fifties and four centuries).
He made his T20 debut for Bengal in a Syed Mushtaq Ali match against Odisha in October 2022. From 26 T20 innings, Sudip has scored 570 runs (Three fifties). Sudip is yet to play in the .
