Swapnil Singh is a professional cricket all-rounder who is a right-handed batsman and a slow left-arm bowler. He was born on January 22, 1991 in Rae Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, and though his parents Kamaljit and Meetu, are originally from Lucknow, they moved to Baroda in 2001, for their son’s cricketing career. Kamaljit,who is a businessman, is not in favor of his son taking up his profession and rather wants to see him as an international cricketer.
Swapnil Singh has been a consistent performer at the junior levels ever since he began playing in the Under-14 Vijay Merchant Tournament. On May 19, 2002, Swapnil Singh scored an unbeaten 43 for the Kiran More’s Academy against Dilip Sardesai XI to help his team win the Elf Vengsarkar Under-14 tournament at the Oval Maiden. In the same match, Swapnil Singh previously took three wickets and for his all-round performance, he was named the Man of the Match. He reaped a rich haul of 33 wickets while playing at the Under-19 level to catch the eyes of Kiran More, the then Chairman of the selection committee of Baroda Cricket Association.
On January 10, 2006, Swapnil Singh made his Ranji Trophy debut for Baroda, watched by Kiran More, who had been the Chairman of the Indian selection committee by then, and V. B. Chandrasekar, another selection committee member from South. He was just 14 years and 355 days old then and became the youngest player in the country to play in the Ranji Trophy. Before him, this distinction was held by Saheb Jayendra Ghorpade, who played his first Ranji Trophy match, also for Baroda, at the age of 16 years and 113 days against Maharashtra during the 1954-55 season.
Swapnil Singh made his domestic T20 debut for Baroda in the 33-run victory over Saurashtra on April 6, 2007. He was signed by the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Mumbai Indians for the inaugural IPL season.
