Ashwani Kumar started his IPL career on the perfect note as the 23-year-old pacer took the wicket of Ajinkya Rahane with his very first ball on debut. Ashwani was included in the Mumbai Indians playing XI in place of Satyanarayana Raju and repaid the team's faith by dismissing the Kolkata Knight Riders captain. Rahane miscued his shot completely and the ball went to Tilak Varma at deep backward point. Tilak did fumble at first but was able to complete the catch as Ashwani started his celebration.
That was just the beginning as the youngster went on to take the wickets of Rinku Singh, Manish Pandey and Andre Russell. It was the first time that an Indian bowler took 4 wickets on IPL debut.
Born in Mohali, Ashwani grabbed headlines with his performances in the Sher-e-Punjab T20 tournament. The young fast bowler is well known for his bowling in the death overs and he was bought by Mumbai Indians for Rs 30 lakh during the IPL 2025 mega auction. In 2024, he was a part of the Punjab Kings squad but did not feature in a single game for the franchise.
He made his debut for Punjab in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in 2022 and played four matches. He took three wicket at an economy of 8.5 during the tournament.
He has also played two First-Class matches and four List A games for Punjab.
Coming to the match, former skipper Rohit Sharma was demoted to the substitutes' bench as Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to bowl first against Kolkata Knight Riders.
While Rohit was relegated to the role of Impact Substitute, Mumbai brought in Will Jacks and also handed a debut to left-arm seamer Ashwani Kumar. Vignesh Puthur also found a place in the playing XI and will most likely make way for Rohit Sharma when MI launch their chase.
KKR, as was expected, brought back Sunil Narine into the playing XI in place of Moeen Ali. Narine had withdrawn from their last match against the Rajasthan Royals due to illness.
(With IANS inputs)