Mukul Choudhary’s finishing act at the Eden on Thursday earned
him rich praise from many, including Sunil Gavaskar, who lauded the youngster’s temperament.
“Unbelievable innings by this fearless prodigy, Mukul Choudhary. What I love about the IPL is that every day we get to see something different. We saw David Miller of Delhi Capitals play a fantastic knock and almost help his team get over the line against Gujarat Titans in the previous match; but that knock was played by a renowned World Cup star,” Gavaskar said on JioHotstar.
“Here, it is Mukul Choudhary, who stepped up and helped his side cross the finish line. This guy is a young kid who bats at No. 5 for Rajasthan in domestic T20 cricket. He just comes into the IPL, plays an unbelievable innings and makes everyone talk about him. The confidence he showed and the way he executed his shots were simply amazing to watch.
“At the stage of the innings where he came in to bat, he showed calmness, took his time, settled down properly and began hitting the balls out of the ground. He even played the helicopter shot, which MS Dhoni would have been very nostalgic seeing. He turned down easy singles because he trusted his ability to hit big shots and finish the game,” Gavaskar said.
The Lucknow Super Giants were on the brink of defeat after they were reduced to 128/7 in their chase of 182. They needed 43 off the last three overs, which Mukul made possible with 54 not out off 27 balls, including seven sixes.
Head coach Justin Langer called the knock a “massive moment” in Mukul’s career.
“... He’s got used to finishing off games like that, so he has to think about it, and he’s only 22 (21) years old,” Langer said after their last-ball win.
“He’s so young, and he’s got that look in his eyes, he’s hungry,” Langer said. “You know when you first come in, you try so hard, and (this victory) will just be a massive moment in his life and his career… What I love about him is there are areas that we saw straight away. I mean, he can do that... what we’re seeing on the screen now. We’ve seen all that side of it.
“But he’s also gone away, he’s worked on the short ball. We’ve been doing drills every day with him, and then it came out in practice today, so he’s got a very curious mind, he wants to get better, and like I say, after you work hard at something, you take it out to the middle.”