On Wednesday, there was one player who wreaked havoc and came into the spotlight for Mumbai Indians, was Uttarakhand-based speedster, Akash Madhwal. He registered five wickets to help Mumbai Indians win the eliminator game against Lucknow Super Giants of the IPL 2023 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Akash ended the eliminator game with the figures of 5/5 in 3.3 overs which was sufficient to put him on a high-profile list consisting of huge names like former India spinner Anil Kumble, and Jasprit Bumrah.
For a guy who has not played with the red ball till the age of 24, has now put in a sensational bowling performance for the Mumbai Indians in the ongoing IPL 2023. He also became the first player from Uttarakhand who featured in the IPL as he was roped in by MI in 2022 in place of injured Suryakumar Yadav. Back in 2019, Madhwal who studied engineering, grabbed the attention of the then coach of his state team, Wasim Jaffer, and current Uttarakhand coach Manish Jha and as a result, the seamer took up leather ball cricket.
After a string of good performances, ahead of the 2023 domestic season, Madhwal was named the white-ball skipper of the Uttarakhand team. The Mumbai Indians speedster also shares an interesting connection with India’s batter Rishabh Pant as both belong to the same area in Uttarakhand. Also, Madhwal got trained under Avtar Singh, who once trained Pant until he shifted his base to Delhi.
MI skipper Rohit Sharma also lauded the youngster and spoke about him during the post-match presentation, “He was the part of the team last year as a support bowler, and once Jofra was gone and I knew he had skills and the character to do the job for us. Over the years we have seen many guys coming in from Mumbai Indians and playing for India”.