Mumbai Indians are always known to unearth hidden cricketing talents across the country with the most famous being Hardik Pandya who know captains the side in the Indian Premier League (IPL). In their first match of the IPL 2025 season, the unlashed Vignesh Puthur - an unorthodox left-arm spinner from Kerala who impressed on the debut.

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During their first home game of the season against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Monday (Mar 31), they unleashed left-arm pacer Ashwani Kumar. The pacer impressed right away and dismissed KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane on the very first ball of his IPL career.

Who Is Ashwani Kumar?

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Ashwani belongs to Punjab state and was first spotted by Mumbai Indians squad during the domestic Sher-e-Punjab T20 trophy. He gained the reputation as the bowler who could bowl the difficult slog overs. His performance impressed MI scouts enough to pick him in the mega auction. Ashwani was bought for INR 30 lakh ($35,000) from the uncapped players' pool.

As for Ashwani's domestic record, the bowler has played two first class games, four List A games and four T20s as well. In those matches, he has taken three wickets in FA, three wickets in List A and two wickets in T20s, respectively.

In the match against KKR, Ashwani, after dismissing Rahane, clean bowled Manish Pandey on a peach of a inswinging delivery which hit the top of batter's leg stump and dislodged the bail.

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The pacer eventually finished with 4/24 in three wickets - accounting for wickets of Rinku Singh and Andre Russell as well. Thanks to his spell, Mumbai Indians bowled out KKR for 116 inside 20 overs.

Apart from Ashwani, Deepak Chahar picked up two wickets while Trent Boult, Pandya, Puthur and Mitchell Santner picked one each.