His rise in domestic cricket has been inspiring and he could be in contention for a spot in the starting XI for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2025.
Karnataka batter Krishnan Shrijith played a key role for his side in the recent Vijay Hazare Trophy as they ended the five-year title drought, beating Vidarbha in the final. It’s been a remarkable few months for Shrijith as he had been waiting for his moment for years.
The 28-year-old was picked up by Mumbai Indians in the IPL auction in November and has had some incredible moments with the bat in domestic cricket.
Krishnan Shrijith’s whole world seemed to have collapsed when he lost his father last year. A few weeks later in November, he was given a maiden call-up to the Karnataka Ranji Trophy side and he made it count with a sublime century on a difficult Lucknow track against Uttar Pradesh. A week later, he earned his first IPL contract. While it is hard to get over a personal tragedy, these moments helped reduce the pain of it.
Shrijith continued his form in the white-ball formats, topping the batting chart for Karnataka with 213 runs from seven innings at an average of 42.60 and strike rate of 176. Mumbai Indians’ scouting system was yet again proven to be unmatched.
Krishnan Shrijith then smashed a match-winning 150 not-out off 101 balls against Mumbai as they chased down 383 – the second highest successful chase in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. He had a lean run in the competition after that but stepped up in the final when the odds were stacked against. Coming into bat with the team in a critical situation at 67/3, Shrijith scored 78 off 74 to build a good platform alongside Ravichandran Smaran.
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The wicketkeeper batter had been to multiple IPL trials in recent years before he was eventually signed by Mumbai Indians. Now could he get an opportunity in the playing XI depends entirely on the MI management’s approach.
Assuming everyone remains fit, Mumbai Indians’ strongest XI should feature South Africa’s in-form wicketkeeper batter Ryan Rickelton. In which case Shrijith’s chances don’t look promising as they already have several established Indian batters in the squad. A batting line-up of Rickelton, Rohit Sharma, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Will Jacks, Naman Dhir and Mitch Santner could be MI’s likely approach.
However, in case Mumbai Indians opts to go without Rickelton or he gets injured, Shrijith would be the first backup wicketkeeping option. Anything can happen in a two-month long IPL season and a chance could come his way anytime. Shrijith just needs to keep his head down and continue putting in the effort.
