Who is Vignesh Puthur? MI’s impact player making his IPL debut versus Chennai Super Kings

Mumbai Indians (MI) made a surprising call as they fielded 24-year-old Vignesh Puthur as their impact player. Youngster from Kerala made his way to the field for Rohit Sharma in the third game of Indian Premier League against Chennai Super Kings. The Men in Blue and Gold have already fielded yet another debutant in pacer Satyanarayan Raju. 

Young Vignesh Puthur belongs to Kerala and is a left-arm wrist spinner. Surprisingly, Puthur is yet to make his domestic debut for Kerala. The youngster impressed MI’s scouting team and was picked up for INR 30 Lakh rupees during the IPL Auction in Jeddah last year. 

The move to include Puthur as the impact player was a surprise considering MI have Karn Sharma in the ranks. Apart from Puthur, Mumbai also have Will Jacks and Mitchell Santner who can bowl spin. Earlier in the day, Ruturaj Gaikwad won the toss and chose to bowl first and restricted MI to 155 on the board. 

Noor Ahmed’s four wicket-haul jolts Mumbai Indians 

CSK pacer Khaleel Ahmed gave his team a great start with the ball as he dismissed Rohit Sharma for a duck. The left-arm seamer also dismissed Ryan Rickelton for 13 runs. Will Jacks was then dismissed by R. Ashwin for 11 runs before Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma came together. 

Both MI batters added 51 runs for the fourth wicket in just 36 balls. Noor Ahmad got the wicket of Yadav for 29 runs with MS Dhoni completing a quick stumping. The Afghanistan spinner then dismissed Robin Minz for three runs. Tilak Varma and Naman Dhir feel to Ahmad who ended with figures of 4/18 from his four overs. 

Deepak Chahar scored 28 off 15 balls with two fours and two sixes to help MI reach 155 on the board. At one stage the Men in Blue and Gold seemed like they wont reach such a target as they lost wickets at regular intervals. 

Speaking during the mid-innings break, Khaleel Ahmed said “I felt good bowling in the powerplay because I like to swing the ball and that's my strength. If I bowl three overs I think I get it on the basis of my strengths. At the start I was looking for swing, but it wasn't doing much. Then in the middle overs Noor, Jaddu, Ashwin did well. I feel this total should be chased down”