Punjab Kings batter Ashutosh Sharma slammed a sensational 28-ball-61 but it ended up in the losing effort during the IPL 2024 match against Mumbai Indians on Thursday. It was a valiant effort from the 25-year-old who has shown glimpses of brilliance in the competition this year and his knock took PBKS extremely close to victory despite losing four wickets early. His knock comprised of 2 fours and 7 sixes at an impressive strike rate of 217.86 which took his tournament tally to 156 runs in 4 matches. This was the not first time that he played an explosive knock as he stitched together a brilliant partnership with Shashank Singh to complete a brilliant victory over Gujarat Titans in IPL 2024.
This was a huge moment for a cricketer who went through a tough phase in his life from 2020 to 2022 when he was not clear about where his career was headed. "There was a time when I wasn't even allowed to get a feel of the cricket ground," Ashutosh revealed during that period of time.
The youngster had an alleged falling out with then Madhya Pradesh head coach Chandrakant Pandit.
"I would go to the gym and retire to my hotel room. I was sinking into depression and no one told me what my fault was. A new coach had joined Madhya Pradesh and he had strong likes and dislikes and despite scoring 90 odd in 45 balls in a trial match, I was dropped from the team," Ashutosh said.
"I had three fifties in six Mushtaq Ali games in the previous season yet I wouldn't even be allowed to go to the ground. I was very depressed," the 25-year-old told reporters.
During that time, it was a job offer from Railways that proved to be his saviour and during the 2023 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, the batter equalled Yuvraj Singh's record of scoring the fastest T20 half-century when he slammed 50 in just 11 deliveries against Arunachal Pradesh.
That was the knock that got him noticed by Punjab Kings batting coach Sanjay Bangar and he was picked up by Punjab Kings in the auction ahead of IPL 2024 for the base price of Rs 20 lakh.