Meet Rohit Gulati, the man bamboozling Kane Williamson and ripping up in Plunket Shield

Friday, 5 December 2025

Rohit Gulati’s fingers are still aching, his head still shaking, a couple of days on from his latest starring display in the Plunket Shield.

The Auckland left-arm spinner, unwanted at Northern Districts, started the campaign a couple of weeks back a virtual nobody. Now, he’s the competition’s runaway leading wicket-taker, after proving Kane Williamson’s kryptonite.

Having begun the season with a maiden five-wicket bag in his second first-class match, to seal his side an innings win over Central Districts in Palmerston North, Gulati then kicked on some in last week’s second-round draw against ND in Mt Maunganui.

Not only did he claim six-for in the hosts’ first dig, it came with the prize scalp of Williamson, the Black Caps legend making a rare domestic appearance for his province, when outgunning the charging batting maestro on 17 with a flighted delivery that was sent to mid-off.

That wasn’t to be the end of it. In what proved a marathon fourth-innings shift, Gulati wheeling down some 51 overs as the home side valiantly made 429-6 in pursuit of a record 510, the 27-year-old claimed four more wickets to make it 10 for the match.

And, it included the bamboozling of Williamson (3), where New Zealand’s greatest-ever batter, and notoriously fine player of spin, had no answers fifth ball of his innings to a delivery which careered between bat and pad and into his off-stump.

“Getting a legend of the game… best red-ball player in the world… both innings, it was unreal,” Gulati tells The Post, as he still tries to come to grips with his feats.

“Against the best player, you want your best balls, so I was just thinking that I need to do 110% against him. And it happened.”

Not without shrewd thinking that Gulati has quickly become known for. After all, this is a man who Auckland coach Rob Nicol notes is a highly-diligent operator, a keen learner who is also on the phone every day to his own coach back home in India.

“Trying to not give him any room for cover drives at the start, because he’s so good with his hands,” he says of what his plan was to Williamson. “Bowl at the stumps, or if he steps out, try to bowl the wider one.

“My first four balls he was charging me every ball. Then I thought, last ball of my over, why don’t I try to give flight on fifth-sixth stump. If it goes for a boundary that’s fine, but if he misses it, maybe I’d have a chance to get him out. And that happened.”

Cue a rightly ecstatic celebration which looked like air guitar but was in fact out of the traditional Indian sport of kabaddi, which he used to play a bit as a youngster back home in Punjab.

It got a fair few more airings across his memorable match, with Gulati completing his dream double of Williamson wickets when bowling his second over with the new ball in the second innings, operating virtually unchanged (aside from two switches of ends) from the 59th to the 133rd and final over.

“The three balls before spun against him, so I thought I’d change the shiny side to inside, he’s coming on the front foot every ball, he’ll try to defend towards point to take one. I bowled with the same pace and that ball didn’t turn, just went through straight.”

Gulati duly has the ball as a souvenir, but with Williamson having had to promptly flee for a flight to Christchurch for the test against the West Indies, asking him to sign it remains on the to-do list.

For now, the focus is on keeping the heat on for the top-of-the-table Aucklanders, when they host the bottom-of-the-table Wellington Firebirds at Eden Park Outer Oval from Friday.

Gulati, with 15 dismissals at a mere 16.13, sits at the top of the wicket-taking chart, six ahead of two other spinners in Black Caps reps Glenn Phillips and Ish Sodhi, while it’s a rare twin-tweaker operation (especially pre-Christmas) he’s part of for the Aces, in tandem with leggie Adi Ashok.

And while Ashok (two ODIs, one T20I) has not played for the Black Caps in almost two years, it was his maiden national contract this winter which paved the way for Gulati to be recruited by Auckland.

Having earned debuts in each format with Northern Districts last summer (a very tidy 3-20 in the first of two T20s, before single one-day and four-day appearances), Gulati was overlooked for their contract list in favour of returned-to-fitness 23-year-old Dutch international Tim Pringle.

But in that 61.3-over Plunket Shield outing against the Aces where he claimed three wickets and proved deadly accurate, and a master with his flight, on a very flat surface, Nicol had seen plenty enough to give him a call and offer up a move north.

It was an easy opportunity to jump at, Gulati already based in South Auckland, playing for Counties Manukau, after having made the out-of-the-blue move to New Zealand in 2022.

Growing up in India, and taking up the sport age eight, a left-handed Gulati had initially been steered towards fast bowling by his Zaheer Khan-loving father.

“But then I met my coach, I was a chubby kid, and he said, ‘Nah, he can’t be a fast bowler because he’s not that tall.

“And it’s not a big tradition in India to make fast bowlers. So he said, ‘We’ll try to make him a left-arm spinner’.”

Gulati had an instant Kiwi attraction in Daniel Vettori, a master of his craft who he used to spend plenty of time watching to try and hone his craft.

“The way he changes his pace, I loved that, that’s what I wanted to learn, his arm-ball, I used to watch a lot of his videos, just go on YouTube and search, and how he bowled against lefties.”

Having made the under-16, under-19 and under-23 Punjab age-group teams, Gulati was closing in on a Ranji Trophy first-class debut before an ACL tear to his knee in a warm-up to an under-23 game brought an abrupt end to those thoughts.

It was during his recovery that his New Zealand-residing cousin, Nav Aujla, floated the suggestion of the bold move of joining him at the Weymouth Cricket Club, in a fresh start.

“He said why don’t you just come here and meet us and we’ll give you a sponsor from the club and just play some club games… they supported me with everything when I came here, so it’s a big thanks for them, even provided me with a car,” recalls Gulati, who has now moved to the Papatoetoe club, due to his switch in major associations.

With his parents and two sisters still back home, Gulati is looking forward to soon being able to bring them out here to see him play, upon completing his residency at the end of this month.

That will also not only no longer make him one of two non-New Zealand-qualifying players which domestic teams can play in their teams at any time, but also see him eligible for the Black Caps.

“My goal is to play test cricket,” Gulati declares.

“Even when I was younger I just looked up to red-ball cricket, that’s the format I love to play, and that suits my bowling as well. I’m a spinner with loop and not that much pace.”

Even at 27, there’s still plenty of time, given Ajaz Patel, a man who lives nearby in Auckland and who Gulati chats to regularly for tips, made his international debut at 30.

And it’s understood these last couple of performances have certainly piqued the interest of those higher up.

“He’s probably, at the moment, in terms of the spinners around the country, got the most control around flight and dip,” Nicol, a former Black Caps spinner, himself, acknowledges of his rising star.

“And in that Mount game, he actually got dip and drift away from the bat, as well as his turn, which is very unusual. And he still has energy on his balls when he slows it up as well, he gets a bit of bounce and over-spin on it as well. So he’s a very skilful bowler.

“He’s got an insatiable work ethic, he’s pretty diligent and goes for a long, long time, so it’s pretty impressive to watch. He’s brilliant around the lads, he’s super-funny, he enjoys it, which is great, that’s what it’s all about, making memories.”