In the encounter against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at Wankhede Stadium, the Mumbai Indians gave Ashwani Kumar, a promising left-arm pacer from Punjab, his Indian Premier League (IPL) debut. With his first IPL wicket on the opening ball of his career, the 23-year-old made an incredible start. In the 2025 IPL mega auction, the five-time winners paid INR 30 lakh for his services. Despite being a member of the Punjab Kings team the previous season, he did not play in any games.
He played for Punjab in the 2022 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, which marked the start of his domestic career. He has only participated in four Twenty20 matches, though, and has only taken three wickets at an economy rate of 8.50. He has also represented Punjab in four List A games and two First-Class games.
Ashwani Kumar performances in the Sher-e-Punjab T20 tournament catapulted him into the spotlight. IPL scouts took notice of him when he showed off his skills when playing for the BLV Blasters, with his best numbers being 4/36.
He made an impression in his first-ever IPL delivery in his debut match against KKR, dismissing KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane. Tilak Varma made a juggling grab after the right-hander, who was attempting to drive a full and wide delivery, cut the ball towards deep backward point. Interestingly, he set up a chance to get rid of Venkatesh Iyer in the same over, but Mitchell Santner dropped the catch.
A dream debut for #AshwaniKumar! 💙
He gets the big wicket of #AjinkyaRahane on the very first delivery of his #TATAIPL career! 🔥
Watch LIVE action ➡ https://t.co/SVxDX5nnhH#IPLonJioStar 👉 #MIvKKR | LIVE NOW on Star Sports 1, Star Sports 1 Hindi, Star Sports 3 &… pic.twitter.com/Qk0cSw6IlE
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) March 31, 2025
In the same over, Ashwani Kumar dismisses Manish Pandey and Rinku Singh.
He had earlier removed Quinton de Kock from Deepak Chahar’s bowling with a spectacular catch. Ashwani leaped and snatched the ball with both hands as De Kock tried to clear mid-off. The pcer put KKR farther behind the curve by dismissing Rinku Singh and Manish Pandey in the same over after he was summoned in for his second over. In his third over, he came back to dismiss Andre Russell after the KKR all-rounder was unable to hit a length ball that shook his stumps.
Debut straight out of a storybook 📖
The perfect first chapter for Ashwani Kumar 👌👌
Updates â–¶ https://t.co/iEwchzDRNM#TATAIPL | #MIvKKR | @mipaltan pic.twitter.com/npaynbIViX
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 31, 2025
Ashwani Kumar is the most recent addition to Mumbai’s longstanding practice of supporting up-and-coming domestic athletes. They have also given Vignesh Puthur of Kerala and Satyanarayana Raju of Andhra a chance this season.
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