Who is Akash Madhwal? The Mumbai Indians pacer with best bowling figures in IPL playoff history!

Soham Mukherjee

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Who is Akash Madhwal? The Mumbai Indians pacer with best bowling figures in IPL playoff history! image

Rishabh Pant's neighbour. This was Akash Madhwal's ounce of fame until Wednesday evening. However, his scintillating fifer for Mumbai Indians (MI) against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) eliminator at the MA Chidambaram Stadium has helped me carve out an identity of his own.

In fact, even in the previous game against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), Madhwal weaved magic to pick four wickets on a flat batting paradise at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. And those four wickets were all of specialised batsmen in Vivrant Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Heinrich Klassen, and Harry Brook. Similarly, in the make-or-break match against LSG, he picked the crucial wicket of Nicholas Pooran at a crucial juncture which was the death knell for Krunal Pandya & Co. 

In the absence of Jasprit Bumrah & Jofra Archer, Madhwal has been Rohit Sharma's go-to bowler with new ball, in the death overs or sometimes even in the middle if a partnership needs to be broken. 

TSN takes a look at some of the interesting facts about Madhwal. 

Five interesting facts about Mumbai Indians bowler Akash Madhwal

  1. Madhwal, hails from Dhandera in Roorkee, and is an engineer by profession. It was only after completing his engineering degree he decided to pursue his passion in cricket and started playing tennis ball cricket in Uttarakhand as the state was not playing in the Ranji Trophy. 
     
  2. At the age of 24, he first played red-ball cricket and is the first cricketer from the Uttarakhand state cricket team to play in the IPL. He was spotted by former Uttarakhand coach Wasim Jaffer and present coach Manish Jha during one of the trials. When he came for the trials in 2019. We all were very impressed. He is skiddy and quick with a smooth action. There was an X-factor in him. Wasim bhai roped him in straight away and gave him a match against Karnataka in Syed Mushtaq Ali. He was wayward and looked underprepared. Next year, during the Covid, when the Ranji Trophy got cancelled and I took up the job of head coach, I told him that he will play all three formats, no matter if he went for runs. I assured him that he would get to play all the matches,” Jha, head coach of Uttarakhand, told The Indian Express.
     
  3. Madhwal joined MI in 2022 as an injury replacement for Suryakumar Yadav.  Although he was drafted into the team he did not play a single match and made his debut on May 3, 2023, against the Punjab Kings in this edition of IPL.
     
  4. Madhwal lost his father, who was in the Indian Army, in a tragedy back in 2013 and hails from a family which struggled to meet both ends. "He doesn't have his father and his family wasn't financially stable. Akash always listened to what was told to him and was driven to succeed," Jha told TOI. 
     
  5. Pant & Madhwal trained under the same coach, Avtar Singh, during their blooming days. 

What did Rohit Sharma about Akash Madhwal after his fifer against LSG?

"He (Akash) was the part of the team last year as a support bowler, and once Jofra was gone and I knew he had skills and the character to do the job for us," stated Sharma about Madhwal after his five-wicket haul against LSG. 

What did Akash Madhwal say about his performance against LSG?

"I have been practicing a lot and waiting for my opportunity. I have done engineering, cricket is my passion and I have been waiting for this since 2018. When we practice in the nets, the management gives us the target and we try to execute our best. Hoping to do well in the coming games and want to end up as champions. The wicket of Nicholas Pooran was most pleasing for me," he said. 

How did Twitter react to Akash Madhwal's performance against LSG?

 

Soham Mukherjee

Soham Mukherjee Photo

Soham Mukherjee is a content producer for The Sporting News' India edition.