A young player named Ashutosh Sharma who plays as the lower middle order batsman for Punjab Kings in the IPL took the internet by storm after his brilliant innings of 61 runs in 28 deliveries. Even though this inning came in a losing cause, it did serve its purpose by pulling everyone’s attention on this young lad from Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh. Let us tell you some interesting facts about Ashutosh Sharma that you might not be aware of.
Ashutosh Sharma’s Background
Ashutosh hails from Ratlam, a place many people know from its reference in Movie “Jab We Met”. While not a stranger to the domestic scene, he initially represented Madhya Pradesh before falling out of favour. However, he discovered a new home within the Railways team.
He is the same batch as Shubhman Gill
He belongs to the same batch as that of Prithvi Shaw, Shubhman Gill, Abhishek Sharma. In fact he was the 2nd highest run scorer in 2013-14 U16s Vijay Merchant trophy. (Gill was the highest run scorer). Those two years 13-14 and 14-15 Madhya Pradesh and Punjab made it to the final of Vijay Merchant trophy. In 2014 Madhya Pradesh U-16s won and 2015 Punjab U-16s won. Both these years Ashutosh and Shubhman Gill scored heavily for their teams.
Some of the scores Ashu made were:
110(77) 11 fours and 8 sixes
121(80) 19 fours and 3 sixes
He finished with 4 consecutive sixes in the final to win the under 16s national championship for Madhya Pradesh. He was way ahead of his time when it came to playing aggressive cricket aka intent.
Ashutosh has a double century on his name in a T20 match
In April 2023 he played for Western Central Railways in the intra railways national T20 championship. He is predominantly an opener who is brilliant at adapting to any batting number. He opened the innings and scored 200 in 69 balls with 13 fours and 21 sixes. This performance put him straight away into limelight within Railways and Railways selectors took note of his calibre.
He can bowl as well
Ashutosh Sharma is also a medium pace bowler who has consistently opened the bowling in red ball cricket and has also bowled economical spells in T20 cricket.
With his all-rounder skill sets, all the cricket fans hope he gets fast tracked to the Indian team. Although it is important to understand it is his first IPL and there are some other talented players knocking the door, this brilliant cricketer is definitely a match winner and a future superstar of the Indian Cricket Team.
Ashutosh Sharma’s six against Bumrah is going viral
In the match against Mumbai Indians, Punjab Kings were in a critical situation as they lost early wickets and Jaspreet Bumrah was bowling remarkably well along with Coetzee. But when Bumrah came to bowl to Ashutosh sharma, he swept him for a six on the midwicket. The shot was so innovative and difficult to execute, that too against the best bowler in the world. All the experts praised him for his innings and wished him a great future ahead.
-Rahul Dubey