KNOW YOUR PLAYER
Follow UsHe bats at the top of the order. He bowls medium pace. And at the tender age of 18, he has already made his senior T20 debut for Maharashtra.
Indeed, Arshin Kulkarni is the ‘real deal’ as far as prospects in this country are concerned. Hence, there is no surprise that he got snapped up at the IPL 2024 auction today (December 19) by the Lucknow Super Giants (for his base price of 20 lakh), despite having played all of six professional matches in his career.
A part of the Maharashtra side that won the Vinoo Mankad Trophy earlier this year, Arshin, there, was Player of the Match in the final against Mumbai, smashing 105 opening the batting before also opening the bowling and removing opposition skipper Musheer Khan in the very first over of the chase.
Last month, he was part of the India ‘A’ U19 side that won the Quadrangular series, where, again, he smashed a match-winning ton in the final before removing the opposition skipper with the ball. Recently, he was with the Indian U19 side at the U19 Asia Cup and bagged the Player of the Match award against Afghanistan, taking 3/29 with the ball before smashing an unbeaten 70, opening the batting in the chase.
Arshin played for the Eagle Nashik Titans in the Maharashtra Premier League (MPL) earlier this year and was one of two centurions in the T20 tournament. Despite playing only 3 games, he hit six more sixes (19) than any other batter in a tournament which saw the likes of Ruturaj Gaikwad and Rahul Tripathi participate.
Arshin’s impressive showing in the MPL earned him a debut in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy for Maharashtra, for whom he had a promising campaign, taking 4 wickets while also averaging 24.20 with a SR of 163.51.
Next month, the 18-year-old will be India’s trump card in the U19 World Cup in South Africa.
It remains to be seen if he'll get games in IPL 2024 for LSG, but one thing is for sure: Lucknow have snapped up a real gem.
