Among the emerging players of IPL 2024, there are the prolific scorers and then there are players who throw caution to the wind. For the sheer audacity of attempting the unthinkable in your first season and pulling it off successfully – lap-sweeping Jasprit Bumrah for a six and scooping Pat Cummins over the wicket-keeper for a boundary, Punjab Kings’ (PBKS) late-order specialist Ashutosh Sharma wins the award for daredevilry with the bat, even in a season where batters have scaled new heights.
Ashutosh was just 11 years old when his family decided to move from Ratlam, a city in Madhya Pradesh, to Indore, home to some of the better cricket academies in the state. It took him some time to find his feet in Indore, but here he is, at 25, hitting the best bowlers out of the park (9 matches, 170 runs, SR 172) in the glitziest T20 league there is.
After finishing as MP’s second-highest run-scorer at a leading strike-rate of 165 in 2019 Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 trophy, he reportedly fell out with head coach Chandrakant Pandit. He returned to domestic cricket for Railways in 2023-24, delivered his maiden Ranji ton and a 11-ball fifty against Arunachal Pradesh in T20s. For his six-hitting prowess, PBKS picked him in the IPL auction at his base price of ₹ 20 lakh.
Coming out to bat at No 8, Ashutosh together with Shashank Singh – another batter making up for lost time – have given the struggling franchise quite a few uplifting moments in a frustrating season. After missing the first three matches, against Gujarat Titans, Ashutosh came to bat with 50 runs required in 25 balls. With a ramp and a scoop early in his innings, the right-hander proved to be that out-of-syllabus disruptor, whose 17-ball 31 shocked GT to submission.
In the next match against Sunrisers Hyderabad, the asking rate was even stiffer – 69 off 27, when Ashutosh arrived. Using his quick hands and unorthodox technique, Ashutosh slapped Cummins with an open bat-face past point. In the same over, he scooped the experienced pacer’s slower ball over the wicketkeeper. Then, he lap-swept T Natarajan from outside off-stump to the fine-leg boundary. Ultimately, he couldn’t get the 29 runs required to win in Jaydev Unadkat’s final over, but his partnership with Shashank gave SRH a serious scare, coming within 2 runs of the target.
A lot of Ashutosh’s ball striking is improvisation. In the following match against Rajasthan Royals, PBKS were batting first and in a spot of bother at 106/6. Ashutosh walked in as an Impact sub and played inside out shots of all kinds – with a horizontal batting blade or tennis-ball like shots with a vertical blade. His 16-ball 31 took PBKS to147 and gave them a fighting chance.
Then came his headline act against Mumbai Indians where Ashutosh was both Suryakumar Yadav and Jos Buttler in his 27-ball 67. As Bumrah took his measured steps with figures of 3/11 behind him, PBKS required 80 runs to win in 44 balls. Ashutosh took his right leg across and swept the speedster’s attempted yorker over fine leg which perhaps only Yadav would dare attempt. “I had been practicing the shot. It came off against the best bowler in the world,” Ashutosh would say.
In the following over, Ashutosh would first launch pacer Akash Madhwal over long-off. Then put him off by reverse-scooping over third man, so much like Buttler. The end-result was another narrow loss for PBKS, but it was Ashutosh again, who gave them hope.
Ashutosh has been working closely with Sanjay Bangar, PBKS, head of cricket development. “It is Sanjay (Bangar) Sir who told me, I am not a slogger. I play proper cricketing shots. That statement became big for me,” Ashutosh said. “I started thinking, I am not (just) a hard hitter. I play proper shots. That has changed my game.”
Ashutosh’s bat has been quiet in the last few matches, and it will be his real test to try and build on the gains and not succumb to second-season blues. He’s arrived no doubt but that not but the start of his journey.
