MATCH STORIES
Follow Us“Ashu, Ashu, Ashu,” the crowd shouted in Mullanpur.
Ashutosh Sharma was less than 10 years old when the Indian Premier League (IPL) began on April 18, 2008. We can’t say with certainty what his emotions were then but growing up, like every other kid in India aspiring to be a cricketer, he must have, at least once, dreamt about a full stadium screaming his name.
On IPL’s 17th birthday, he brought that to reality, when the Mullanpur crowd encouraged him to go for another big shot in Punjab Kings’ run chase.
He was 59 off 24 balls in the 16th over, having just hit back-to-back sixes. The second six was an act of savagery, scooping a full ball outside the leg stump over the third man for six.
Not too long ago, Punjab looked done and dusted in the contest. They were 14/4 in a run chase of 193. Ashutosh walked out at 77/6 with the asking rate moving towards 12.
Each of Punjab’s last four games has been decided in the final over. Three of them have been run chases. There has been a trend around these games. Punjab would start on the most sombre note, losing wickets upfront in heaps, needing the lower order to bail them out.
Against Gujarat Titans (GT), Ashutosh and Shashank Singh added 43 off 22 balls for the seventh wicket in a successful sprint towards the target. It was Ashutosh’s debut. Playing as the Impact Player, he contributed 31 off 17 balls.
In the next game, against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), when Ashutosh found himself in the middle, Punjab were 69 runs adrift from the finish line with only 27 balls left. Ashutosh and Shashank belted 66 runs as Punjab fell short by just two runs.
This time around, the mountain felt too big to climb for Ashutosh. 116 were required from 64 balls at his entry point. Shashank left soon, being outfoxed by Jasprit Bumrah, making the equation stiffer.
Yet again, at this point, walking in at eight, Ashutosh was the only specialist batter left.
82 needed from 47 balls with three wickets left.
Jos Buttler had scored 40 off the remaining 46 runs in Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) win over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) only a couple of nights ago. But 82 was close to double. Definitely, Punjab were not getting close this time, especially with Mumbai’s bowling attack.
And that was when Ashutosh made a statement.
He swept Bumrah for a six over square leg, outsmarting the smartest pacer of the season moments after he had taken Shashank’s wicket, almost in total disdain.
"It was always my dream,” Ashutosh said in the post-match press conference. “I have always practiced this shot in the nets, and fortunately, it came out against the best bowler in the world when it mattered the most."
Ashutosh found support in Harpreet Brar who made his batting credentials clear with a pristine drive over the covers for four soon on his fifth ball. Ashutosh forged a 57-run stand with Brar, contributing 32 runs to it.
In the blink of an eye, 82 off 47 became 28 off 24 balls. The pressure was on Mumbai. It was the time for the strategic timeout but Hardik Pandya, the Mumbai skipper, needed a break from the carnage anyway.
In 25 balls, Ashutosh had hammered seven sixes already. Ninth on the points table, a defeat would have further sunk Hardik leading Mumbai for the first time as full-time captain.
As expected, Mumbai pinned their hopes on Bumrah’s last over. Ashutosh’s carnage had forced Hardik to bring him two overs earlier than planned. Instead of the 19th, he had to bowl the 17th.
Mind over matter, the 25-year-old blocked Bumrah out. However, he was caught off the first ball off the next over for 61 off 28 deliveries. He left the job undone. Punjab lost by nine runs but they had no business coming so close (again).
In a near single-handed effort, Ashutosh almost snatched the victory out of the jaws of defeat.
But he has already created a legacy for himself, becoming the best number eight to play in this season. If you were wondering what made him special: Ashutosh Sharma is now the only batter in IPL history to score over 100 runs in a season batting at eight.
He has nine fours and 13 sixes for his 156 runs in IPL while mostly facing opposition's best seamers.
No.8 has always been reserved for bowling all-rounders. The Impact Player has its drawbacks but it has allowed a lower-order hitter like Ashutosh to blossom in the IPL ecosystem.
The right-hander began his career as a 19-year-old for Madhya Pradesh (MP). Complications with the head coach brought his career to a halt before a resumption for Railways in the 2023/24 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He made the biggest mark in his Railways career with an 11-ball fifty, breaking Yuvraj Singh’s record for the fastest T20 fifty by an Indian.
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Ashutosh bashed 183 runs in that season at a strike rate of 277.3. His strike rate in IPL 2024 stands at 205.3. It is the second-highest this season among batters with more than 150 runs, after Dinesh Karthik’s 205.4.
In its 17-year history, the IPL has seen many youngsters make a name for themselves. But Ashutosh is part of an exclusive club—a young specialist batter consistently churning out boundaries from ball one while batting in the lower end of the middle order.
Rahul Tewatia is the only other name that comes to mind. And probably, the only thing Ashutosh missed today (April 18) was to finish the game like him.
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