 "Ashwani Kumar satiates hunger with historic IPL debut as Mumbai Indians' scouting network unearths another gem")
“I just had a banana because there was pressure, so was not feeling very hungry. I had planned a little but they told me to enjoy myself on debut and bowl what I have been bowling.”
An excited Ashwani Kumar hardly thought about food on Monday after being informed by the team management that he was in line to make his Indian Premier League (IPL) debut later that day, against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Mumbai Indians’ first home game of the season.
It was a very different hunger that the left-arm pacer satiated with his match-winning haul of 4/24 at the iconic Wankhede Stadium on Monday, that of performing and excelling against some of the best in the business in the world’s biggest and richest T20 league.
Not many in the cricket world would have noticed MI team owner Nita Ambani and her son Akash raise their paddle for Ashwani at the IPL mega auction in Jeddah in November, buying him at his base price of Rs 30 lakh.
Even skipper Hardik Pandya’s confirmation of his debut at toss did not generate the kind of buzz that someone like Rajasthan Royals’ Vaibhav Suryavanshi would have, or Punjab Kings’ Priyansh Arya was able to against Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad last week.
Ashwani thrives at Wankhede’s pace-friendly conditions
Ashwani, however, did not need to bowl out his full quota of overs at the Wankhede on Monday evening to announce his arrival to the cricket world.
The Punjab left-arm quick made an instant impact in his very first delivery, getting rid of Ajinkya Rahane as the KKR skipper – someone who knows the venue like the back of his hand – steered a full, wide delivery straight to Tilak Varma at deep backward point.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsAshwani’s initial strike helped break Rahane and Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s third-wicket partnership that was starting to repair the damage caused by Trent Boult and Deepak Chahar, who removed openers Sunil Narine and Quinton de Kock respectively in their first overs of the evening.
Also Read | Rahane laments 'collective batting failure' after KKR are outplayed by MI
MI’s abundance of riches in their bowling department, especially when it came to seamers, meant skipper Hardik Pandya could afford to take Ashwani off after just one over in the powerplay and save him for the middle and death overs.
Pandya’s decision were on point on Monday evening as Chahar, who had conceded three boundaries in his second over, got Venkatesh Iyer caught-behind with a sharp bouncer after being brought back for the final over of the powerplay.
Ashwani, meanwhile, would effectively snuff out KKR’s hopes of their middle-order staging a late fightback and guiding them to a respectable total, getting rid of Rinku Singh and Manish Pandey in the same over at the halfway mark before claiming the prized wicket of Andre Russell in his third over.
Debut straight out of a storybook 📖
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 31, 2025
The perfect first chapter for Ashwani Kumar 👌👌
Updates ▶ https://t.co/iEwchzDRNM#TATAIPL | #MIvKKR | @mipaltan pic.twitter.com/npaynbIViX
And what stood out in his match-winning performance was his ability to set experienced batters such as ‘Dre Russ’ and Pandey up with some short, wide stuff before firing the wicket-taking delivery – bowled fuller and along the stumps, which got both batters cleaned up.
It certainly was an impressive spell of bowling for a cricketer who had played just four Twenty20 games in a senior career that had begun in 2019, highlighting his potential as a future member of the Indian bowling unit.
MI’s scouting network delivers yet again
Mumbai Indians have a long history of unearthing gems in the Indian domestic circuit and turning them into world-class cricketers, and boast of the best scouting network among the 10 franchises in the world’s biggest T20 league.
Jasprit Bumrah, the current leader of the Indian pacer unit who is counted among the greatest pacers of all time, remains the franchise’ greatest contribution to Indian cricket. All-rounder Hardik and his brother Krunal too were nurtured by this very franchise, with the former going on to captain the franchise and becoming an integral part of India’s limited-overs teams.
More recently, MI went out of their way in the 2022 mega auction to secure Tilak Varma, who was an unknown name back then but is a core member of the Suryakumar Yadav-led T20I team in the build-up to next year’s T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.
Ashwani isn’t even the first MI debutant to impress this season – Kerala left-arm wrist spinner Vignesh Puthur was among the few positives in what was otherwise a disappointing evening at Chepauk in their season-opener against Chennai Super Kings, which they lost by four wickets. The season has also witnessed the debuts of explosive Jharkhand wicketkeeper-batter Robin Minz and Andhra seamer Satyanarayana Raju.
“First of all, it’s all because of the scouts. All MI scouts have gone all the places and picked these young kids. We played a practice game and it looked like he had that zip and late swing, had a different action and plus he is a leftie,” Pandya said during the post-match presentation after Ashwani’s four-fer powered them to an eight-wicket victory over KKR.
Ashwani’s stellar debut not only has made him an overnight sensation, it will also have got the attention of the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee and the Gautam Gambhir-led Indian team management.
There have been plenty of cases of Indian cricketers getting fast-tracked into international cricket after a stellar season – fellow Punjab left-arm quick Arshdeep Singh was one such case in 2023 – and a few more of these could help Ashwani don the coveted blue jersey later this year.
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