Five-time champion Mumbai Indians has a knack of unearthing promising young Indian talent in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Tilak Varma, the steady left-handed middle-order batter, emerged as the silver lining in Mumbai’s otherwise forgettable IPL 2022 campaign. Now, Mumbai seems to have found another brilliant southpaw in Nehal Wadhera in 2023.
Coming into bat at No. 6, after Suryakumar Yadav’s dismissal left Mumbai Indians reeling at 48 for four against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Sunday, Wadhera smashed a four off the first ball he faced, a gentle steer past the slips with an open face of the bat off Michael Bracewell.
After steadying the ship with Tilak at the other end, Wadhera layed into Karn Sharma with consecutive sixes. He first rocked back and pulled one over deep midwicket and when Karn pitched it up fuller next ball, Wadhera tonked him for a 101-metre monstrous maximum over long-on. However, the 35-year-old leg-spinner had the last laugh as Wadhera went for a big shot again but was caught by Virat Kohli at long-on.
Wadhera walked back for a 13-ball 21 after having stitched a 50-run partnership off 30 balls with Tilak and restored some stability to Mumbai’s innings.
The 22-year-old Wadhera has a sense of occasion. After being bought for his base price of Rs. 20 lakh at the IPL 2023 auction in December, he smashed 123 runs on his Ranji Trophy debut against Gujarat earlier this year in January. He then followed it up with a sensational 214 against defending champion Madhya Pradesh. Similarly, on his debut for the Indian U-19 team, Wadhera had scored 81 against Sri Lanka.
The way in which the Punjab batter soaked in the pressure of losing early wickets before unleashing his shots belied the fact that he was playing his first white-ball match at the senior level.
Often referred to as ‘new-age Yuvraj Singh’, Wadhera will hope for a breakthrough debut season in the IPL and make his talent count.
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