Meet Praful Hinge: From Nagpur dreams to fairytale debut, IPL’s true impact player

HYDERABAD: Pacer Praful Hinge turned hero overnight on his IPL debut when the 24-year-old from Vidarbha became the first bowler in IPL history to claim three wickets in the first over. In his first over for Sunrisers Hyderabad, Hinge got rid of Rajasthan Royals’ dangerous opener Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel and Lhuan-dre Pretorius to reduce them to 3/1. Royals’ captain Riyan Parag played into Abhishek Sharma’s hands at slip and RR slid to 9/5. Praful returned 4/34 to help Sunrisers record a comfortable 57-run win.

Praful’s father Prakash Hinge was over the moon with his son’s performance. “We are simply delighted. We were glued to the television. If someone is playing the first match and performing so well and helping his team win, what else can we ask for. He also created a record in the IPL with his three wickets in the very first over,” Prakash told TOI from Nagpur.

Prakash also thanked the MRF Pace Foundation for helping revive his career from injury. “MRF foundation and Varun sir (Varun Aaron, SRH bowling coach) deserves a lot of credit for his performance. He got injured a couple of years back. But they revived his career. He also thanked them for their role after the match yesterday,” said the retired employee from the Maharashtra Electricity department.

On Monday, Hinge thanked SRH bowling coach Varun Aaron. “I told people that I would bowl a bouncer to him (Sooryavanshi) and get him out. Varun helped me plan it, so thank you,” he told the broadcaster.

The 58-year-old Prakash dreams of seeing his son in Indian team jersey. “That would be a dream for any parent but not just ours, he too dreams of seeing himself in the Indian team jersey. We hope whenever he gets a chance to play for any team, he performs for them,” he added.

Praful’s childhood coach Shishir Madhavrao Sudame was delighted. “Getting a chance to play with such big bowlers in the team is a big opportunity,” he said from Nagpur, “Praful was confident that whenever he gets a chance, he’d make best use of it and he did in this match. Though he has been playing for Vidarbha, IPL is a different challenge. Hopefully, it will elevate his career now,” he added.

“When he joined our Reshimbagh Cricket Academy in Nagpur, he was around 11 or 12 years old. Though he was lean, he had good height and that helped his bowling. He has a good action and followthrough, and add to that, his good pace,” he said.

Shishir also recalled father Prakash’s contribution. “Since they come from a middle-class family, at times he would be worried about his son’s future and his education. I told him, ‘Don’t worry. We are going to make him a cricketer not a doctor or an engineer.’ Not surprisingly, Prakash wanted Praful to focus on batting as well. But since his primary focus was bowling, I told Praful to focus mainly on big hitting since he gets to bat lower down,” he said, “He’s very hardworking and performed well for Vidarbha in U-12, 14 and 16 categories that earned him a place in the state U-19 team.”

Hinge told the broadcaster: “I had written this somewhere that I will take 4-5 wickets on my debut. I thought of dominating the Powerplay. At the age of 13, I started cricket. Did not know what leather ball cricket was. Asked my father to join a club. But he said I was too young. Then he just took me there, and I kept playing after it. Want to dedicate this award to my family.”