 "Who is Ashwani Kumar, Mumbai Indians pacer who made bowling record on debut?")
Mumbai Indians bounced back in style after suffering back-to-back defeats on the road, thrashing defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders by eight wickets at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday. The five-time champions thus became the last team to open their account in the 18th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), and jumped to the sixth spot from the bottom of the table in the process.
And at the heart of MI’s clinical bowling performance was Ashwani Kumar, who became the first Indian to collect four or more wickets on IPL debut with a haul of 4/24 on debut. The left-arm pacer dismissed KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane in his first ball of his IPL career and would later dismiss Rinku Singh, ‘Impact Player’ Manish Pandey as well as Andre Russell.
Pace colleague Deepak Chahar also chipped in with a haul of 2/19 while Trent Boult (1/23), skipper Hardik Pandya (1/10), Mitchell Santner (1/17) and Vignesh Puthur (1/21) collected a wicket each as MI bundled KKR out for a paltry 116 .
Opener Ryan Rickelton would later smash an unbeaten 62 off 41 balls that, together with Suryakumar Yadav’s unbeaten 27 off nine deliveries, helped MI chase down the modest target with eight wickets and more than seven overs to spare.
Who is Ashwani Kumar, the latest hidden gem discovered by Mumbai Indians
MI have a knack for making superstars out of unknown names thanks to their solid scouting network, which had discovered the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik and his brother Krunal in the past and Tilak Varma more recently. Ashwani happens to be the most recent discovery of the MI scouts, and highlighted his credentials as a future superstar with a match-winning spell against KKR on Monday.
The 23-year-old Punjab cricketer, who hails from the town of Jhanjeri near Chandigarh, had been bought at his base price of Rs 30 lakh at the mega auction in November. And until his maiden IPL appearance on Monday, he had played just four Twenty20 games along with a handful of games in other formats in his senior career that began in 2019, having not collected more than three wickets in any format.
Ashwani got the attention of MI’s scouts during last year’s Sher-e-Punjab Trophy, the second edition of Punjab Cricket Association’s (PCA) T20 event. Representing Agri King’s Knights, Ashwani collected 11 wickets in six appearances at an average of 21.27. And it was his accuracy in this tournament that led to the MI team owners making a successful bid for his services in the mega auction in Jeddah.
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