IPL: Mukul magic! LSG's new power hitter keeps date with destiny

KOLKATA**:** Mukul Choudhary was destined to be a cricketer even before he was conceived. His father Dalip, himself a big cricket fan, had decided before his marriage that if he had a son, he would make him a cricketer. On Thursday, Mukul played the sort of knock which can propel an IPL cricketer to stardom in one night. In the process, he also fulfilled his father’s long-cherished dreams.

Chasing 182 runs to win, Lucknow Super Giants were tottering at 128/7 in the 16th over. It was then that Mukul decided to stamp his presence on the big stage. “When Ayush bhai (Badoni) got out, I knew I was the one who had to do whatever needed to be done. I wanted to take the game close and wasn’t thinking about winning or losing,” he said.

The 21-year-old hit seven sixes on a wicket which the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) skipper Ajinkya Rahane described as “not easy” to “play big shots on”. And Mukul was not used to playing under lights. “This is just my second match under lights,” he confessed after his third IPL match.

But then, Mukul has been hitting those big ones every day for years now. “My body has a bit more natural power, but I practice hitting 100 to 150 sixes daily. It develops if you keep practising regularly. For the last five-six months specifically, I’ve been working a lot on it, so it’s now developed,” Mukul said.

“I faced a similar situation in the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament, in which Rajasthan needed 25 off the last over and five off the last ball. Ayush bhai was bowling. This had happened to me before, so I had belief in myself today,” he added, taking inspiration from his unbeaten 62 against Delhi this season. He also got 54 against Mumbai, batting at a strike rate of nearly 199 in the tournament after being the top-scorer in the CK Nayudu Trophy (U-23) with 617 runs.

**‘Inspired by Dhoni’**Born in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan, the Choudhary family moved to Jaipur, where he joined the Aravalli Coaching Centre. It was here that young Mukul first wore the wicketkeeping gloves, moving away from his original ambition of being a bowler. His inspiration Mahendra Singh Dhoni, had incidentally sacrificed a goalkeeping role in school. “I bat at the same number. He inspired me early in my career,” Mukul, who was named in the Rajasthan Ranji squad at 18 and made his T20 debut a year later, said of Dhoni.

Apart from his power-hitting ability, what stood out in Mukul’s 27-ball unbeaten 54-run innings was the way he went about it in a calm and confident manner. “Rishabh Pant (LSG skipper) told me ‘why are you thinking so much.

‘I’ll do this, I’ll do that.’ Don’t think. Just follow the process you have been working on,” Mukul said. “Even if someone is playing his 15th or 50th match, this situation will create pressure. I focus on the opportunity, not the pressure,” he said.

LSG head coach Justin Langer must be smiling big. The Australian had foreseen this day after working on him daily for 10-20 minutes separately. “If he’s (Mukul) willing, in the next four months, I’m going to turn him into the scariest No. 6 or No. 7 batter in India,” he had stated before the season.

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Mukul remembers Langer’s words. “They showed faith in me, so it was on me to repay it,” he said.