Ashwani Kumar took a wicket of Ajinkya Rahane on his first ball on IPL debut for Mumbai Indians against Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2025. Ashwani has achieved a massive record on his IPL debut for MI with a wicket on his first ball of his IPL career.
Ashwani Kumar has registered a massive feat on his IPL debut for the Mumbai Indians in their clash against the Kolkata Knight Riders. Ashwani was among the three changes made by MI captain Hardik Pandya for their third match in IPL 2025 at Wankhede, Mumbai.
Ashwani has now become just the third Mumbai Indians player to take a wicket off the first ball on IPL debut. He achieved the rare feat by dismissing Kolkata Knight Riders captain Ajinkya Rahane on his first ball on debut.
Ashwani, the left-arm seamer, was called to bowl in the fourth over and struck on his first delivery as Rahane sliced a fuller one from the youngster to deep backward, where Tilak Varma took the catch on the second attempt.
With this, Ashwani etched his name into the history books. He is just the third MI bowler and 10th overall to take a wicket off the first ball on IPL debut. Before him, Ali Murtaza and Alzarri Joseph took wickets off their first ball on debut for the Mumbai Indians.
MI captain Hardik Pandya won the toss and opted to bowl first as his team is looking for its first win in 2025. “We’re gonna bowl first, looks like a good track. Knowing Wankhede, dew may or may not come in. There might be some early swing, it plays well so we thought chasing is a good option. We want to get into a good rhythm and kickstart. Overall, we want to play better cricket, we need to stay calm. Will Jacks comes back and we have a debutant – Ashwani Kumar,” Hardik said at the toss.
“We wanted to bowl first as well, but I was confused looking at the wicket, Generally, Wankhede is a good batting surface so I feel it’s a good toss to lose. There’s a little breeze going on, no dew factor to deal with. We will look to post a good total on the board and I have confidence in our bowlers to defend. We are playing good cricket, every games gives a good opportunity to play good cricket. Lovely ground, we are looking to play good cricket. Sunil comes in place of Mooen,” KKR captain Rahane said at the toss.
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock(w), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Spencer Johnson, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy
Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Ryan Rickelton(w), Will Jacks, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya(c), Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Ashwani Kumar, Vignesh Puthur
Kolkata Knight Riders Impact Subs: Anrich Nortje, Anukul Roy, Manish Pandey, Vaibhav Arora, Luvnith Sisodia
Mumbai Indians Impact Subs: Rohit Sharma, Corbin Bosch, Raj Bawa, Robin Minz, Satyanarayana Raju