Even with Punjab Kings batter Shashank Singh going all guns blazing on one end, a victory for his team looked unlikely against Gujarat Titans (GT) on Thursday in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. (Full Coverage)
The Kings needed 50 off 27 balls when the Madhya Pradesh born Ashutosh Sharma walked in at 8 as the Impact Player. When Sharma left on the first ball of the final over, the equation read 7 runs off 5 balls. In the 43-run stand that he shared with Singh, the Railways batter had smashed 31 runs off 17 balls.
The Indian record holder for the fastest T20 fifty off just 11 balls, Sharma impressed everyone on his debut IPL outing and helped his team scale down a 200-run target against the Titans.
However, around 4 years ago, Sharma found himself out of his then home team Madhya Pradesh (MP) after a fallout with head coach Chandrakant Pandit.
Talking to Hindustan Times after he broke Yuvraj Singh's record and smashed a half-century off an unthinkable 11 deliveries against Manipur in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, 2023, he opened up about his "heart-breaking" ouster from the MP team in all formats.
"In my last knock for MP I scored 84 runs against Pondicherry. But Mr Pandit had his own ways. He did not want me in the team for any format. It was heart-breaking," Sharma told the publication.
“I had a tough time coming to terms with the fact that I was not in the scheme of things for Madhya Pradesh."
He said that he was backed by his childhood coach Bhupen Chauhan after his MP exit. However, another heartbreak awaited before he joined Railways last year.
"My childhood coach Bhupen Chauhan backed me all this while. I had another heartbreak when I lost him last season before I joined Railways. He knew I would make a comeback," he was quoted as saying in the report.
After three years away, Sharma found Railways as partner in his cricketing journey and has been running on fast track since then. He had an impressive season and was the quickest scorer at the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy last year with a mind boggling strike rate of 277 in six innings. The 25-year-old hard hitter hit 19 sixes in the tournament.
Sharma was snapped by the Kings at the auction for just Rs 20 lakhs.
After turning heads in the shortest format, the MP born had a good outing in the Ranji Trophy as well. With players with more than 150 runs, Sharma's strike rate of 109 was best in the tournament after Riyan Parag's 114.
After his impactful inning he credited the captain Shikhar Dhawan and Director of Cricket at the franchise Sanjay Bangar for putting faith in him. Sharma also credited Amay Khurasiya with whom trained during his time off.
"Back home I was training with Amay Khurasiya sir. He told me when you get a chance you will become a hero."
On Thursday night, Ashutosh Sharma became that hero helping his team win their second match in the tournament.
