After taking four wickets on debut with the Mumbai Indians in his very first Indian Premier League 2025 match against the Kolkata Knight Riders, Ashwani Kumar has earned the distinction of being the only Indian player to do so. During the IPL 2025 mega auction, MI acquired him for a modest 50 lakh, and he exhibited his maturing talent by becoming only the second player to ever take a wicket with his very first ball in the history of the league.
Kumar was introduced into the match during the fourth over and made an instant impact with his very first ball when he dismissed KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane for only 11 runs. He continued his brilliance within the same over by grabbing Rinku Singh and Manish Pandey’s wickets and, after the fourth, dismissed Andre Russell seeing great figures of 4 wickets for 22 runs.
On this day, Kumar’s bowling display of 4 for 22 was well supported by Deepak Chahar, who took 2 wickets for 19 runs to dismiss KKR for a mere 116 runs in just 16.2 overs. Angkrish Raghuvanshi was the top scorer for KKR with 26 runs from 16 balls.
Though, Rohit Sharma for 13 runs was a miss, however, Ryan Rickelton on his IPL debut with a bang scoring 62 not out off 41, including 4 fours and 5 sixes to help Mumbai Indians clinch the game with 7.1 overs to spare.
The night was gloomy for the Knight Riders, who lost both of their opening batsmen, Quinton de Kock (1) and Sunil Narine (0), in the first two overs. After a powerplay that was all but the pause for breath, KKR found themselves gasping at 41 for four. The game against Mumbai Indians was not something KKR was looking forward to this IPL season.
Read another historic moment: Seventeen Years Later: RCB Triumph Over CSK in Historic Victory
