Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Mukul Choudhary announced his arrival on the IPL stage with a magnificent innings, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat in front of a jam-packed Eden Gardens crowd. The 21-year-old wicketkeeper-batter’s unbeaten 54 off 27 balls, studded with seven sixes and two fours against KKR, powered Lucknow Super Giants to a thrilling three-wicket win on Thursday. The knock not only gave LSG their second win of the season but also propelled him into the spotlight.LSG head coach Justin Langer hailed Mukul, calling him a ‘great athlete’ with a ‘sharp brain’, and even compared his running between the wickets to that of Virat Kohli.“We have had some practice games, and the way he talks about the game is like he has been playing 300 matches. So, he has got some power, he is a great athlete, and he has got a sharp brain. He has a very curious mind and wants to get better. He went away and worked on the short ball. We have been doing drills with him every day, and then it came out in practice and in the game,” said Langer on JioHotstar.
He also revealed how their team analyst Shrinivas Chandrashekaran was crucial in getting Choudhary on board.“We saw him at a training camp a few months ago. There is so much talent in this country. A real big shout-out goes to Shrinivas, our data analyst, who said, ‘Coach, we have got to get this kid.’”Asked about his thought process when LSG needed 54 runs off the final 24 balls, Langer said, “I was probably thinking about what I was going to say to our players. I thought we bowled brilliantly on this wicket; we were outstanding.“I actually jotted that down, and regardless of whether we win or lose, our bowling was excellent, and our fielding was elite as well. So, I was really pleased with that, but we also talked about taking responsibility, and we saw a 22-year-old kid taking responsibility; what an effort it was.”Langer believes that pulling off such a heist early in the tournament acts as a ‘magic tonic’ for team morale. “If you win the close ones, you get that little bit of belief, don’t you? It doesn’t matter whether you do it with the ball or with the bat, these tight wins are like a magic tonic. So, hopefully, it is a bit of a confidence booster that we like at the start of the season, and we have got a lot of upside left in our game as well.”
