IPL 2025 | Who is Ashwani Kumar, Mumbai Indians' latest star?

Ashwani Kumar, the 23-year-old pacer, had a stellar game with Mumbai Indians last evening, as he proceeded to dismiss Kolkata Knight Riders' captain Ajinkya Rahane, besides Rinku Singh, Manish Pande, and Andre Russell.

Kumar's father reportedly was looking at a cycle leaning in a corner during this cricketing feat. Indian Express reported this was the cycle Ashwani would ride for 11 km to the IS Bindra PCA Stadium when he used to play matches from the village Jhanjheri.

Ashwani's father, Harkesh, owns a one-and-a-half acre land in the village. Kumar's mother is Meena Rani and he has an elder sibling, Shiv Rana.

"Rain or hot sun, Ashwani would never hesitate to go to PCA at Mohali or later at the new stadium at Mullanpur. Sometimes, he would cycle to PCA academy or take lifts or would go in shared autos. I remember he would take Rs 30 from me for the fare and when he was picked up for Rs 30 lakh by Mumbai Indians in the mega auction, I knew his worth was every penny. After each wicket today, I would think about those days when he would return at 10 pm after his training and again wake up the next day at 5 am to head hack," his father told the publication.

Ashwani started playing cricket at the Government Senior Secondary School ground in 2014. He played alongside Abhishek Sharma, Ramandeep Singh and Arshdeep Singh at the PCA Academy in early years before making his Ranji debut for Punjab in 2019.

"Ashwani would tell me and other youth of the village to reach early in the morning at the school ground no matter what and most of us would bat against him at the school ground," his elder brother shared with IE, adding, "Sometimes, he would go to other cricket grounds near the village to play for local teams and would again call us in the evening to play. He would bowl pace wearing normal canvas shoes and friends like Chahat Rana, who is now in Italy, and others would support him with cricket balls and spikes. His passion was to play cricket and make us proud and today he has done that for all of us."

At PCA Academy, Ashwani trained under Dinesh, Sumit Ohri and former Indian international pacer V R V Singh. He was part of the BLV Blasters team which won the Sher-E-Punjab T20 Cup in 2023.

Kumar, in two editions of this cup, raked in 13 wickets. He had also trialed for CSK, KKR, and RR, as per the publication. In 2020, he suffered from tennis elbow and was away from cricket for nearly a year.

His elder brother recalled Ashwani always wanting to be like Jasprit Bumrah and Mitchell Starc.

"His friends would pool money to get him cricket balls and when he was picked up by Mumbai Indians for Rs 30 lakh, the first thing he did was to get cricket kits and balls distributed in the academies near our village. He always used to tell me that his favourite jersey would be to wear a jersey which has his own name. and with today’s performance, he has made sure that kids will wear his name jersey," Shiv Rana said.

Ashwani's go-to food is reportedly besan ka chilla and aloo parathas, his mother shared.

Ashwani won the Man of the Match award, and went on to promise that he would make his village proud whenever he got a game.