Happy Friendship Day '25: 5 best friends in Indian Cricket currently
As we celebrate Friendship Day 2025, OTTplay highlights five strong friendships in Indian cricket. The list has KL Rahul and Karun Nair's bond, Jemi & Smriti's banter and Abhishek & Gill's fun.
Last Updated: 01.32 PM, Aug 03, 2025
Sports provide some of the best friendships in life. You experience both victories and defeats with your teammates nearly every week. The connections you forge during tough times often endure throughout your life. As we celebrate Friendship Day 2025, OTTplay presents five of the best friends in Indian cricket today.
Watch every ball of the ENG vs IND, fifth test + JioHotstar + Zee5 + SonyLIV + FanCode + 25 OTTs in only 149 per month with OTTplay Premium.
#1. KL Rahul and Karun Nair
KL Rahul and Karun Nair have been friends for almost their entire lives. Both players began their cricket careers together in Karnataka and have competed alongside each other in every age group, progressing all the way to senior cricket.
From U16, then U19, to the senior Karnataka team, and then in the Indian Premier League (IPL), they played together for Punab Kings and Delhi Capitals. They have shared the Indian dressing room as well during the England vs India Test series 2025.
#2. Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill
Both Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill are from Punjab. The two young dashing batters have played for the Punjab U16s and U19s together, and after that, they went on to win the ICC U19 World Cup 2018 as well, where Gill finished as the second-highest run-getter of the tournament.
Moreover, their friendship flourished under Yuvraj Singh. The former Indian cricketer used to take both his home and train them for the international stage.
#3 Yashasvi Jaiswal and Dhruv Jurel
The famous YJ & DJ bond of the Rajasthan Royals started during their U19 India journey. Jurel, who is from Uttar Pradesh, had a lingo bond with Jaiswal, who is originally a UP boy and later on moved to Mumbai to play cricket.
Jaiswal and Jurel played together in the 2020 ICC U19 World Cup, where India finished as the runners-up. Jaiswal and Jurel's bonding flourished during their Indian Premier League days for Rajasthan Royals.
#4 Jemimah Rodrigues and Smriti Mandhana
Although unlike the other cricketers on this list, Jemimah and Smriti are not of the same age, their friendship is something we can see on and off the field.
Both Jemimah and Smriti hail from Maharasthra, and that helped them gel early in their careers. Moreover, Jemimah is a fun-loving girl and is mostly friendly with most of her teammates in the Indian team. However, on social media posts, we can see how Jemimah does pranks with Mandhana, and the Indian vice-captain takes revenge as well.
Both of them have made a show named 'Double Trouble with Smriti & Jemi,' where they used interview sportspersons.
#5 Ramandeep Singh and Harshit Rana
As they say, you can only insult and troll a person without hesitation if he/she is your best friend. The line works very well for the Indian cricket team and Kolkata Knight Riders teammates Ramandeep Singh and Harshit Rana.
Just like the Jemi-Smriti bond, there is also nearly a five-year age gap between Ramandeep and Harshit Rana. Rana, the 24-year-old medium pacer, is from Delhi, and Ramandeep is from Punjab. However, they both can speak Punjabi, and that helped them gel more during their KKR days.
On social media videos, we have seen how they compete against each other and try to make fun of each other.