Vignesh Puthur Is A Product Of MI’s Scouting Programme: Suryakumar

Mumbai Indians’ (MI) worrisome record against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) continued on March 23 (Sunday), as they have now lost six out of their last seven games. Everything that could go wrong went wrong during the first innings when the five-time IPL champions could only put up 155 runs on board. 

But it wasn’t without some ray of hope when a 24-year-old Vignesh Puthur picked up three wickets on his IPL debut, finishing with figures of 3/32. In the post-match presentation, Suryakumar Yadav revealed how the franchise have been scouting the left-arm wrist spinner over the last 12 months. 

Read: Who Is Vignesh Puthur, Kerala Spinner Debuting For MI Who's Played 0 T20s?

“Amazing, MI is known for that - giving youngsters opportunities, the scouts do this for 10 months and he [Vignesh] is a product of that. I kept his one over in the pocket if the game went deep, but it was a no-brainer to give him the 18th over,” Suryakumar revealed in the post-match presentation. 

It was a rare historic day in IPL history when a combined seven wickets were taken by left-arm wrist-spinners, with Noor Ahmad earlier finishing with a four-fer and Puthur finishing with a three-wicket haul. 

Suryakumar, however, pointed out that Ruturaj Gaikwad’s knock made a huge difference during the second innings, with the CSK skipper scoring 26-ball 53, with six fours and three sixes. 

“There wasn't any dew, but it was sticky. The way Ruturaj batted in the second innings took the game away from us. It is a long way away," He said.

MI now travel to Ahmedabad, where they will face Gujarat Titans on March 29 (Saturday).