‘Bus abhi itna hype mat kar do’ – Fans react as Ravichandran Ashwin calls recent India debutant Mukesh Kumar a junior Mohammed Shami

Veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin is impressed with the bowling skills of recent Team India debutant Mukesh Kumar. He heaped praise on the 30-year-old, calling him the junior Mohammed Shami. During India’s tour of the West Indies earlier this year, Kumar became the second Indian cricketer after T Natarajan to make his international debut in all three formats on the same tour.

He made his Test debut on 20 July 2023 in the second match and took two wickets. He was gifted an ODI debut on 27 July and a T20I debut on August 3 against the same team. The right-arm medium pacer also earned a spot in India’s squad for the ongoing five-match T20I series against Australia. Kumar has so far represented India in 10 matches and has taken 9 wickets.

Although the Bihar-born cricketer hasn’t done anything remarkable in the few opportunities he’s had for India, Ashwin feels he has the potential to emerge as a key bowler like Shami. Notably, Mukesh was impressive in the first T20I against Australia in Visakhapatnam, finishing with an economical figure of 0 for 29 in four overs. He conceded just 5 runs in his 20th over with big-hitting Australians Tim David and Marcus Stoinis at the crease.

“I initially thought Mohammad Siraj would become the junior Shami, but I now feel it could be Mukesh Kumar. Shami is called ‘Lala’ and as a tribute to the actor Mohanlal who is called Lalettan, I call Shami Lalettan. Mukesh has a similar build, similar height, and outstanding wrist position – he has that great whip of the wrist and terrific backspin on the ball. He has a very nice straight and nice alignment,” Ashwin said.

Those two deliveries changed Kumar’s life: Ashwin 

The 37-year-old off-spinner then shared an interesting story about how “two deliveries” changed Kumar’s life during a talent quest camp in Kolkata under Waqar Younis, VVS Laxman and Muttiah Muralitharan.

“When Ganguly took over the Cricket Association of Bengal, he had conducted a talent hunt, he had contracted Waqar Younis, VVS Laxman nand Muttiah Muralitharan for that talent hunt program. Imagine, you are going to bowl in front of Waqar Younis, and you were at the toilet. They had called out his name but he wasn’t there! He returned, waited for 30 minutes and told them that his name wasn’t called out. It was then that Waqar Younis, who was about to leave, told him to bowl a couple of balls. Those two deliveries changed his life and he is now bowling for India,” Ashwin further said.

Here’s how fans reacted to Ravichandran Ashwin’s comment on Mukesh Kumar:

https://twitter.com/WorldHallOfFun/status/1728648952726347944