Cricket is a great leveller, they say. On a day when Mumbai Indians' first match hero Vignesh Puthur went for runs, another 23-year-old made a dream debut on their home ground.
Left-arm pacer Ashwani Kumar made a sensational IPL debut with a four-wicket haul against defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium. He almost single-handedly broke KKR's back with the prized scalps of skipper Ajinkya Rahane, Rinku Singh, Manish Pandey and Andre Russell.
Kumar also became the first Indian bowler in IPL history to take a four-wicket haul on debut.
Debut straight out of a storybook 📖
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 31, 2025
The perfect first chapter for Ashwani Kumar 👌👌
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On a night when Hardik Pandya seemed to do nothing wrong, the MI skipper won the toss and chose to field. And his bowlers did not disappoint.
KKR lost their swashbuckling openers Sunil Narine and Quinton de Kock within the first two overs, with just two runs on the board. Though Angkrish Raghuvanshi tried to hold the innings together with an important knock of 26 and Ramandeep Singh played a cameo of 22 runs, the KKR batters never really recovered from the regular strikes, and were bowled out for 116 in just 16.2 overs.
In response, Mumbai Indians romped home in just 12.5 overs, with Ryan Rickelton anchoring the chase with a 41-ball 62 and captain Suryakumar Yadav (9-ball 27*) finishing off the match with a six.
Skipper Pandya was spot-on with his bowling changes and fielding placements. And he could have had the Kolkata side bowled out for an even lower score, had two catches not been dropped by, guess who... Kumar!
However, he hardly put a foot wrong with the ball in his hands. The Jhanjeri lad had played only four T20 matches in the domestic circuit before his dream debut today at the Wankhede.
He caught the attention of the scouting teams with his death bowling for Punjab in the Sher E Punjab T20 tournament last year and was bought for Rs 40 lakh at the IPL 2025 auction by the Mumbai Indians.
Bowling in the mid-130s, his ability to vary his length effectively and alter his pace (his back-of-the-hand slower ball, being a special) reaped dividends against KKR.
After Puthur, MI's scouting team seems to have unearthed another young talent this season.
