Ashwani Kumar, picked up his first IPL wicket on the very first ball of his debut match. The 23-year-old, left-arm medium pacer, who hails from Mohali, bowled a full delivery that was angling across Rahane, who sliced it hard towards deep backward point. Tilak Verma fumbled but eventually held on it and young Ashwani became the 3rd bowler for Mumbai Indians (MI), after Ali Murtaza (2010) and Alzarri Joseph (2019), to pick a wicket on the very first ball of an IPL debut.
He now becomes the 10th bowler in the history of the IPL to do so after Ishant Sharma (2008, KKR – Rahul Dravid), Wilkin Mota (2008, PK – Suresh Raina), Shane Harwood (2009, RR – Azhar Bilakhia), Amit Singh (2009, RR – Sunny Sohal), Charl Langeveldt (2009, KKR – Rob Quiney), Ali Murtaza (2010, MI – Naman Ojha), TP Sudhindra (2012, DC – Faf Du Plessis), Alzarri Joseph (2019, MI – David Warner) and Matheesha Pathirana (2022, CSK – Shubman Gill)
After Rahane’s wicket in the fourth over, the skipper Hardik Pandya, brought back Ashwani in the 11th over and he repaid the faith in full measure.
After being smashed down extra cover for a boundary by the ever-dangerous Rinku Singh, Ashwani banged in a shorter one as Rinku came down the track and cut one that went straight to Naman Dhir at deep point.
Three balls later, he bowled Manish Pandey, KKR’s impact player, with a delivery that skid and cut the batsman in half to take the top of leg stump. On just the previous ball, Pandey had hit the young bowler for a scintillating boundary through mid-off.
Ashwani Kumar becomes third youngster to make a debut this season for MI
On two occasions in the same over, Ashwani Kumar showed his mettle by coming back after being hit for a boundary.
In the 13th over, KKR’s giant Dre Russ hammered one down extra cover to score a boundary off Ashwani and yet again, the left-armer made a solid come back. He varied his length brilliantly to deliver two dots with shorter deliveries before bowling Russell with a full delivery that scuttled his middle stump.
Ashwani Kumar has become the only Indian bowler in the IPL to have taken a four-for on debut. He was picked by MI for INR 30 Lakhs during the mega auction last year. He was part of the Punjab Kings setup last year but did not play in any of the matches.
This season, the Mumbai Indians are making the most of their young, uncapped bowlers with Satyanarayana Raju and Vignesh Puthur bagging one and three wickets on debut respectively.
Unfortunately MI lost both those matches but with just 117 to chase at Wankhede tonight, they would be looking forward to registering their first win of this season.
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