The Indian cricket team led by Suryakumar Yadav will be playing the second T20I of the 5-match T20I series against Australia today at Greenfield International Stadium, Thiruvananthapuram and the good thing is that team India is already leading by 1-0.
The Indian pacer Mukesh Kumar is also a part of this squad and recently the Indian cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin talked about Mukesh’s journey and narrated an interesting incident which was an important point of his career.
R Ashwin feels that Mukesh Kumar who plays for Bengal in domestic cricket is on the path of Mohammed Shami despite the fact that he was not able to make it to the Indian squad for the recently concluded ICC ODI World Cup 2023.
The Indian spinner shared a story from Mukesh Kumar’s journey, he said that Mukesh Kumar was found in the talent hunt which was organized by the Bengal Cricket Association during the time when former Indian cricketer Sourav Ganguly was the President. Sourav Ganguly signed other former cricketers Waqar Younis, VVS Laxman and Muttiah Muralitharan for heading the talent hunt.
Ashwin further stated that Mukesh Kumar who is basically from a small village Gopalganj in Bihar came to West Bengal in search of a job, probably of ground staff or support staff of the academy but he also got himself registered for the talent hunt when he came to know about it.
The talent hunt took place in Jadhavpur University but when Mukesh’s name was announced, he was in the toilet. Ashwin said that this is certainly unimaginable that when you have to bowl in front of Waqar Younis, you were in toilet.
Later when Mukesh enquired about his chance, he was told that his name had been crossed as when the name was called, nobody came. However, luckily the panel decided to give Mukesh a chance and they made him bowl two balls and because of those two balls, Mukesh is now playing for India.
Most probably, Mukesh Kumar will be playing in the second T20I against Australia which will start in some time.