From Tennis-ball cricket to MI's match-winner in Eliminator, know more about Akash Madhwal

Akash Madhwal (Source: Twitter)

A day before Mumbai Indians' (MI) crucial encounter against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), skipper Rohit Sharma described their two young players, Tilak Varma and Nehal Wadhera, as the franchise's and Team India's future superstars. Now after MI's massive 81-run win in the eliminator, it looks like Rohit will have to add another non-youngster to that list - Akash Madhwal.

MI started their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 campaign without the services of their key bowler Jasprit Bumrah and to further weaken the bowling line-up, they lost Jofra Archer, in the halfway mark. However, the bowlers rose to the occasion as the tournament progressed and paved the way for the five-time champions to reach Qualifier 2 in style, with 29-year-old Madhwal leading the charge.

Madhwal, an engineer by qualification, was named the Player of the Match award after a spectacular 5-wicket haul, conceding just five runs in 3.3 overs in a must-win game. Batting first, MI posted a total of 182 on the back of Cameron Green's 23-ball 41 and a collective effort from rest of the batters. Madhwal drew first blood by dismissing Perak Mankad in the second over, after which LSG continued to lose wickets, eventually bowling them out for 101 runs.

Madhwal is not new to the cash league

Right-arm medium fast bowler Madhwal has become the talk of the town after his spectacular spell, but most of them don't know that he has entered the league in 2021 as a net bowler for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). He went unsold in the 2022 auction, but his destiny was found when MI picked him up as a replacement for the injured Suryakumar Yadav and retained him for the 2023 season.

What's more surprising is that Madhwal, who was born and brought up in Uttarakhand’s Roorkee, is relatively new to first-class cricket. The match-winning pacer only played tennis ball cricket till he was 24 years old. He made his T20 debut on 8 November 2019 for Uttarakhand in the 2019–20 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and his first-class debut on 25 December 2019 in the 2019–20 Ranji Trophy.

Moreover, Madhwal was a neighbour of Indian wicketkeeper batter Rishabh Pant. They even had the same coach, Avtar Singh. Another find of the season of MI, Madhwal completed his schooling from Roorkee Public Senior Secondary School and went on to become a civil engineer.