With the senior India players away on a well-deserved break after a bittersweet ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 campaign, the young guns are shining in the T20 internationals against Australia. Top-order batters Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ishan Kishan and Ruturaj Gaikwad produced a telling display of their talent with sparkling half-centuries, which catalysed India’s 44-run victory in the second T20I in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday and gave them a 2-0 lead in the five-match series. (Scorecard | As It Happened | IPL Trade Highlights)
But while the batters set things up with a humongous total of 235 on the board in the first innings, the bowlers finished the job clinically at the back end led by leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi (3/32) and pacer Prasidh Krishna (3/41), as Australia were restricted to 191 for nine.
Happy with Team India's performance, ace off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin hailed medium-pacer Mukesh Kumar, calling him "Junior Shami". Speaking on his YouTube channel, Ashwin said that when he first met frontline India seamer Mohammed Siraj, he believed that the 29-year-old would go on to become the junior of fellow pacer Mohammed Shami.
But Ashwin changed his mind after he saw Mukesh, and now thinks that the 30-year-old can become the younger version of Shami, who was the highest wicket-taker in the 2023 ODI World Cup. Ashwin added that Mukesh has a similar height, build and wrist position as the 33-year-old. Both bowlers have their roots in the hinterland. While Shami belongs to Sahaspur Alinagar village in Uttar Pradesh, Mukesh is a native of Gopalganj, Bihar.
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Ashwin went on to praise Mukesh further, saying he has a similar whip of the wrist and terrific backspin on the ball.
"I initially thought Mohammed Siraj would become the junior Shami, but I now feel it could be Mukesh Kumar. Shami is called 'Lala' and as a tribute to the actor Mohanlal who is called Lalettan, I call Shami Lalettan. Mukesh has a similar build, similar height, and outstanding wrist position - he has that great whip of the wrist and terrific backspin on the ball. He has a very nice straight and nice alignment," Ashwin said.
Ashwin, who is the world's number Test bowler as per the latest ICC rankings, also remembered the time when Pakistan great Waqar Younis changed Mukesh's career just by seeing his two deliveries.
"Imagine, you are going to bowl in front of Waqar Younis, and you were at the toilet. They had called out his name but he wasn't there! He returned, waited for 30 minutes and told them that his name wasn't called out. It was then that Waqar Younis, who was about to leave, told him to bowl a couple of balls. Those two deliveries changed his life and he is now bowling for India," Ashwin added.
Mukesh has played 11 matches for India across formats (one Test, three ODIs and seven T20Is) and bagged 10 wickets so far. He made his international debut on July 20, 2023.
