Vignesh Puthur was honest enough to admit that he had never expected to play alongside international cricket’s stalwarts.
With the best bowler’s badge, which was presented to him by Mumbai Indians during an in-house post-match honours following their IPL 2025 opener against Chennai Super Kings on Sunday, the 24-year-old left-arm wrist-spinner gave a glimpse of his humility.
Coming from a humble background — his father Sunilkumar an autorickshaw driver in Malappuram, Kerala — such modest behaviour isn’t really surprising. But these qualities barely count in the tough, ruthless competition that the IPL is.
A lot of eyes will now be on the youngster following his 3/32 on IPL debut in Chennai. Going in as an Impact Player in place of Rohit Sharma, Vignesh did make an impact in the form of a spell that was key to dragging the game till its final over. Mind you, MI had only 156 to defend.
There will thus be a little more added pressure on Vignesh, and herein lies a test of his character.
However, irrespective of how he fares in the upcoming games, his accuracy and courage to keep pitching it up has certainly drawn applause. In the case of all his three wickets — Super Kings captain Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shivam Dube and Deepak Hooda — he wasn’t afraid to toss the ball up, and that induced mishits from the batsmen.
According to MI bowling coach Paras Mhambrey, even the likes of Rohit, Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma haven’t had it easy against Vignesh at nets, which pushed the left-armer’s case for Sunday’s clash. MI, in fact, have had their eyes on Vignesh since the end of last year’s Kerala Cricket League, where he played for Alleppey Ripples. “Vignesh was then called for MI trials by their scouts. He did well in the three trials and was thereafter picked at the auction (at his base price of ₹30 lakh).
“He was then taken to Cape Town during the SA20. He would be a part of the training sessions of MI Cape Town and also played some practice matches alongside a player of the level of (MI Cape Town captain) Rashid Khan.
“Vignesh spent around two months there, and it was during that period when (MI head coach) Mahela Jayawardene had told him, ‘you could be as important to us as Jasprit Bumrah is’,” Vignesh’s coach Vijayakumar C.G. told The Telegraph from Malappuram on Monday.
Since the age of 10, Vignesh, who has one more paper to appear for to complete his MA in English Literature from Calicut University, started learning cricket from Vijayakumar at the Perinthalmanna Cricket Academy in Malappuram. “I got to know from one of his neighbours, who was three years older than him then, that he was interested in cricket,” Vijayakumar, who has also worked as an assistant to Vasu Paranjape for Oman U-16, recalled.
“Since then itself, he had rubbery wrists, so I understood chinaman bowling would suit him. In another few months, I could see the flow in his bowling action and day by day, he kept on improving with whatever was taught to him.
“In eight months, he developed the wrong’ un too. Though average turn, the wrong ’un was still there. Importantly, he started training with the proper cricket ball, not with the tennis ball. He then got into the Kerala U-14 and U-16 teams before his progression to the U-19 and U-23 sides.
“Unfortunately, he couldn’t make the senior Kerala side as he couldn’t take enough wickets for the U-23 team. But at the Kerala Cricket League, he drew attention from the MI scouts.”
Consistency from hereon in this IPL should brighten Vignesh’s prospects of a List A and first-class debut this year itself. “Yesterday, he bowled like he has already played 10 IPL matches.
“He’s never afraid to toss the ball up. But on a batting-friendly track, he has to vary his speed accordingly,” the coach said.