The club are absolutely thrilled to be able to announce their overseas signing for the coming season as Indian - Punit Bisht.
Punit is no stranger to northern England after 3 run laden years in the Northern Premier League for Garstang where he amassed 3700 runs at 52. He also had two run filled seasons in the Lancashire League for Darwen where he piled on 1978 runs at an average of 51 in what is often regarded as one of the toughest leagues in the country. Despite being a keeper, he also managed to pick up 70 wickets during these stints at a very tidy 21 each. Just to top this off, he collected 3 league titles during his previous 5 seasons in England so knows what it takes to compete.
In first class cricket, he has represented Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir and most recently Meghalaya as well as having played IPL cricket for Delhi Daredevils. Across his career, he has amassed a shade under 10,000 runs in professional cricket with a first-class average of 38, List-A average of 38 and T20 average of 21. Primarily known as a wicket-keeper who has just short of 500 dismissals to his name, Punit holds the highest ever fist-class score for a ‘keeper when he blasted 343 in a Ranji Trophy game against Sikkim in 2018, a record that still stands and is also the holder of the most maximums in a T20 innings by an Indian with 17 (yes 17) in a Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy match, where he bludgeoned an unbeaten 149 off just 51 deliveries against Mizoram in 2021.
Bisht is now seeking to go beyond his playing days by taking up a coaching role in the game and his references show that he is very keen to get involved with coaching with both juniors and his peers to help bring the best out of them when he represents a club. He will be seen regularly at the club during all training sessions during the season, is very keen to do one-to-one coaching which we will provide further details of in due course and hopes to see us challenging at the right end of the league in 2025.
Upon speaking to Punit, he said “I am looking forward to making a positive difference at the club and hope that I will be able to help out junior members to progress. I want to be able to add something to the club on and off the field and help Consett to make positive progress in 2025”
Our thanks go to Gary from CricIntro for making this possible. We believe that Punit will be a fantastic fit for the club on and off the field, will help to develop our promising juniors yet further as they look to take more prominent roles in senior cricket and will help to left his team mates to a higher level during their matches throughout the season.
All being well, he will arrive in time for our first game on Saturday 19th April where the 1st X1 host Blaydon. As it’s Easter weekend, we would recommend you pop down and see for yourselves what an excellent signing this is….