Mukul Choudhary’s breathtaking, match-winning 54 not out off 27 balls against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens on Thursday can be looked at in two ways.
First of all, a young cricketer who’s a newcomer in the IPL and is yet to spend enough time in domestic cricket is usually under the pressure of expectations. Mukul wasn’t. At the same time, some mediocre bowling from the Knight Riders perhaps made the task of the Lucknow Super Giants batter easy.
Having said so, what stands out is the 21-year-old Mukul’s composure. A difficult equation could well have overwhelmed him. But Mukul remained unfazed. “He’s a special talent,” assessed Lance Klusener, Giants’ assistant coach.
From his early days at the SBS Cricket Academy in Sikar (Rajasthan), then moving to the Aravali Cricket Club at Hathod (near Jaipur), and thereafter graduating to the Rajasthan U-23 and senior team and also earning a maiden IPL contract, Mukul, so far, has certainly done well to ensure his father Dalip’s dream came true and sacrifices bore fruit.
To get his son enrolled in a cricket academy, Dalip, despite the far-from-ideal financial condition of his family, risked giving up his Rajasthan Administrative Service preparation. And when his son turned 12, he got him enrolled in the SBS Cricket Academy in 2015. “Ever since Mukul started playing cricket, I knew I had taken the right decision,” Dalip told The Telegraph from Jaipur on Friday.
“It’s not that I had to wait for his innings yesterday (Thursday) to get validation for the decision I had taken years ago. I never had any regrets because I knew what my son was capable of. By nature, Mukul is on the calmer and quieter side,
but when it comes to cricket, his aggression stands out,” senior Choudhary emphasised.
At the news conference on Thursday night, Mukul, who idolises Mahendra Singh Dhoni, spoke about looking at pressure as an opportunity to do something special. But when he made his senior-level debut, in January 2023, in a Ranji Trophy clash against Chhattisgarh in Jodhpur, the story was different.
“Initially, he used to panic a little when he first came into the senior side,” recalled Anshu Jain, Rajasthan’s head coach. “But over the last one or two years, he has changed and become a lot calmer.”
Return to senior level
He had lost his place in the Rajasthan senior team for some time, but rich form and consistency in the BCCI U-23 one-day competition last year took him atop the list of the highest run-getters in the tournament, eventually helping him get his place back at the senior level.
Mukul’s numbers in the few appearances he has had so far in first-class (four) and List A (five) cricket aren’t great. But in the last Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy, where he featured in five games, his average and strike rate read 57.66 and 198.85, respectively.
“In one of those matches in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, we needed 26 off the final over against Delhi. Ayush Badoni came on to bowl that final over, and Mukul hit
him for four maximums to take us to victory. Once he gets going, it’s not easy to stop him,” Jain said.
That’s not the only way Mukul plays, though. “If needed, he can alter his game according to the situation,” said Vikas Yadav, his mentor at the Aravali Cricket Club. “In the Ranji game against Chhattisgarh (last October), he scored 45 off 179 balls, playing according to the situation.”
Mukul’s focus is entirely on cricket. His social media account is operated by his uncle.
“He had his Instagram handle created after this year’s IPL began. His uncle handles it as he’s not too keen on these social media platforms,” Dalip stated.
