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Who Is Ashwani Kumar? The MI Debutant Who Removed Ajinkya Rahane On 1st Ball Of IPL Career

Aashay Chopade

Ashwani Kumar against KKR (Source: AP Photos)Ashwani Kumar against KKR (Source: AP Photos)

Mumbai Indians are the five-time IPL champions, and are known to unearth special young talents. The likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya are all part of that process, and it seems that they have now brought in another talent Ashwani Kumar.

The 23-year-old left arm-pacer has delivered straightaway in his debut IPL match by removing KKR captain, Ajinkya Rahane on the very first ball and then got big wickets of Rinku Singh, Manish Pandey and Andre Russell. He became the first Indian bowler to pick four wickets on his IPL Debut and seems to be a bowler who can serve MI and Indian cricket for a long time. Let's now dig deeper into his background.

From Punjab Village To IPL Glory

Ashwani Kumar is a left-arm seamer born in Jhanjeri in Punjab and was bought for 30 Lakhs in the IPL 2025 mega auction. The left-arm pacer grabbed limelight during the Sher-e-Punjab Trophy in 2023 where he became the leading wicket-taker for his team, but made his first-class debut at the age of just 18 for Punjab  against Rajasthan in 2019.

He has not played much domestic cricket after that, with three wickets in two first-class matches while he had two wickets in four T20 matches for Punjab before the MI debut. Overall, before the IPL debut, he had 21 wickets in 21 innings in T20 cricket and is known for his death-bowling skills with plethora of variations at his sleeves.

Earlier, in the game against CSK, Mumbai Indians unleashed a new spinner, Vignesh Puthur, and are continuing their great tradition of producing future stars for Indian cricket.