He has nine wickets at an average of 19.66 and an 11 strike rate in six outings, including a four-wicket haul.
Mumbai Indians (MI) head coach Mahela Jayawardene has lavished praise on the youngster Ashwani Kumar, who has been mighty impressive in IPL 2025. Despite bowling all tough overs, Ashwani has done his job and never looked inexperienced with his plans and execution.
In the post-match press conference, Jayawardene labelled Ashwani “a great talent” and praised his ability to handle challenges in his maiden IPL season. He highlighted Ashwani’s ability to perform under pressure, which has been a feature of his bowling throughout the competition.
“Ashwani is a great talent. This season, he’s handled every challenge we’ve thrown at him really well. He hasn’t played much state cricket, but the skill was obvious when we first saw him. We’ve given him simple plans to avoid confusion, and he’s had strong support from players like Boom (Bumrah), Deepak, and Hardik. Execution under pressure is what matters, and he’s done that.”
Ashwani came as an impact player against the Gujarat Titans (GT) in the second half of the innings last night and was spot on with his lines and lengths. He bowled 3.3 overs and conceded only 28 runs at an economy rate of 8 while snaring a wicket by dismissing Shahrukh Khan.
Ashwani Kumar made his IPL debut against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) earlier in the season and impressed immediately. He snared four wickets on his debut game and was instrumental in MI’s thumping 8-wicket win at the Wankhede Stadium.
Overall, he has nine wickets at an average of 19.66 and an 11 strike rate in six outings, including a four-wicket haul. The execution of plans has been notable, for Ashwani has bowled all tough overs for the five-time champions and still remained effective.
He has bowled in the powerplay and death overs but found ways to snare wickets, even if he has been expensive in patches. For instance, he was introduced in the 12th over last night and hit the right areas instantly, even though the ball was wet due to heavy dew.
He conceded 11 runs in his first over, nine each in the next two, before coming to bowl the final three balls of the match after Richard Gleeson walked off due to an injury midway through the set. This was the case when Ashwani mostly bowled to quality batters, Sai Sudharsan, Washington Sundar, and Sherfame Rutherford, all of whom were in good nick and threatened to take the game away from MI.
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