R Ashwin hailed Mukul Choudhary for his match-winning performance in Kolkata Knight Riders' IPL 2026 fixture against Lucknow Super Giants, on Thursday. The 21-year-old smacked an unbeaten knock of 54* runs off 27 balls as LSG clinched a three-wicket victory.
Choudhary was in hot form and took centre stage in the death overs, as LSG reached 182/7 in 20 overs, in their run chase of 182 runs.
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'Mukul Choudhary was fabulous last night': R Ashwin
"Mukul Choudhary was fabulous last night. Guess who were in the bidding war with @LucknowIPL Surprise surprise it was @rajasthanroyals, well done LSG to secure a player who looks promising and beyond. The composure Mukul showed towards the end defines the IPL in many ways, it’s allowing India to quickly run away with the T 20 format itself. The kind of batting quality India will be able to throw into these T 20 World Cup’s is scary to say the least.#ipl2026", Ashwin wrote.
During the run-chase, Ayush Badoni also got a half-century, hammering 54 runs off 34 balls. For KKR's bowling department, Anukul Roy and Vaibhav Arora bagged two-wicket hauls.
{{/usCountry}}During the run-chase, Ayush Badoni also got a half-century, hammering 54 runs off 34 balls. For KKR's bowling department, Anukul Roy and Vaibhav Arora bagged two-wicket hauls.
{{/usCountry}}Initially, Angkrish Raghuvanshi's 33-ball 44 took KKR to 181/4 in 20 overs. Meanwhile, Digvesh Rathi, Prince Yadav, M Siddharth and Avesh Khan bagged a wicket each.
Choudhary is from a small village (Khedaro Ki Dhani) in Rajasthan's Jhunjhunu district. LSG acquired him for ₹2.60 crore at the auction, more than 13 times his base price.
Speaking after the match, he said, "My journey actually started even before I was born. My father had a dream that one day his son would play cricket. But back then, our family condition wasn’t strong, so I couldn’t start early. I began playing at around 12-13 years of age. There weren’t many academies at that time. One academy was there in Sikar at that time, SBS Cricket Academy, had just opened, and I trained there for about 5–6 years. After that, I moved to Jaipur because if you want to play at a higher level, you have to move forward. I’ve been practicing in Jaipur for the last four years."
"Then last year, I felt that T20 cricket had become much faster, especially at this level, so I needed more match experience. I stayed in Gurugram for 3-4 months and played matches in Delhi, which helped me a lot in adapting to faster-paced cricket. That’s been my journey. (when did your dad realise that he could become something big?) My father tells me about one Under-19 match against the UP - it was a low-scoring game, no-one else really performed in that game, but I scored runs", he added.