Just prior to the start of the 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League (on 17 March to be precise), the official Instagram handle of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) posted a 12-second video. In that short clip, CSK’s batting coach Michael Hussey seemed obsessed with the bowling action of Mukesh Choudhary.
While casually talking to the youngster during a practice session, the former Aussie batter tried to imitate the left-arm seamer’s wrist movements on quite a few occasions in a rather interesting manner.
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A little more than a month later, Choudhary seems to have grown his fanbase outside his team’s dressing room. Following his new-ball heroics (3/19 in the opening spell) against arch-rivals Mumbai Indians on Thursday night, the 25-year-old must have triggered quite a few google searches on his profile.
Choudhary, who originally hails from Rajasthan’s Bhilwara district and plays his cricket for Maharashtra, has been around for a while in the domestic circuit. Having started playing professionally while studying in a boarding school in Pune, the southpaw eventually graduated to the state side back in 2017 with his First-Class debut against the Railways.
However, it took two more years for him to come into the white-ball scheme of things and soon he emerged as the leading wicket-taker for Maharashtra in the Vijay Hazare Trophy (2020-21). That performance earned him a call-up at the CSK camp as a net bowler and Choudhary grabbed that opportunity with both hands.
It was his ability to move around the new ball that impressed none other than MS Dhoni and based on his inputs Chennai picked Choudhary in their main squad for a base price of INR 20 lakh at this year’s mega auction.
Had Deepak Chahar been fit, the newcomer wouldn’t have even got a game this season but, as they say, success often depends on being at the right place at the right time. And Choudhary was certainly there where his trait was in demand.
Chahar failed to recover from his injury and was eventually ruled out of the season and then Chennai lost faith in Tushar Deshpande quite early. The injury and Deshpande’s ordinary outings meant Choudhary moved up the pecking order and soon became CSK’s first-choice wicket-taking option inside the powerplay.
In the absence of Chahar, it was a quite big void to fill for Choudhary. As a new-ball bowler, his primary job is to bowl the attacking lines and take wickets. It wasn’t an easy ride early on for the inexperienced bowler as he was targeted by the opponent batters in the initial few games. In his debut against Lucknow, the left-armer leaked 39/0 in 3.3 overs in a high-scoring encounter and went for 52 off his four vs Punjab Kings.
The team management continued to back him and persisted with him in the powerplay overs.
“You have got to remember, he [Mukesh Chowdhury] is still a young guy, he is playing his first couple of games in the IPL, it is a big, big deal for a young inexperienced player,” said Hussey following couple of average outings.
“So, we just try and support him as much as we possibly can, you see his confidence growing, each game that he plays. So, I am really confident that there is a really big performance from him just around the corner, and yeah I just love watching him grow and improve with each game. So, yeah [we] really like what he is bringing to the table.”
Backing from that think-tank soon started to pay off and Choudhary improved with more games he played. He grew in confidence, the economy rate came down but the wickets column still didn’t paint an encouraging picture.
Against Mumbai, things took a different turn for Choudhary who provided CSK a dream start with the new ball.
Bowling first on that fresh DY Patil pitch, Choudhary was on the mark right from ball one — targeting Rohit’s pads with a full in-swinger. The Mumbai skipper dug it out. The second was also on the same line but this time Choudhary pushed the length slightly back. The ball stopped on Rohit and he chipped it to Mitchell Santner at mid-on for a regulation catch. On the fifth ball of the same over, his late inswinger knocked over left-handed Kishan and then returned in the next over to send Dewald Brevis back to the hut. By the end of the powerplay, Mumbai were on the mat with the top-order back in the dugout.
“I’ve been working on my wrist position every day with the coaches for my swing, it’s been about a month now. I had been trying from the first game and it finally showed,” said Choudhary about the delivery to get rid of Kishan.
After rich returns in the powerplay last night, Choudhary insisted that he doesn’t consider himself as one of those one-dimensional bowlers.
“I’m not just a powerplay bowler,” he said while taking his ‘Player of the Match’ award.
It remains to be seen how much he bowls at the death, but the show with the new ball has certainly made him one of the players to watch out for this season.
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