Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene was among many who were bowled over by the talent exhibited by the debutant 20-year-old from Bathinda in Punjab who had taken 15 wickets in 10 limited over games in the Vijay Hazare (50-over) and Syed Mushtaq Ali (20-over) tournaments of BCCI coming into the IPL.
“I thought he bowled brilliantly, we backed him when we saw him first at our camp. We knew that he was special. He came for two trial games for us, both him and (Rahul) Chahar,” Jayawardene said.
“We backed our youngsters. We knew that this is the year we had to do that. The stadium was packed against CSK and he bowled well, I am pleased for him,” he said.
“And he is very confident for a guy who has not played much T20 cricket. His attitude is great and we want to back those guys, give them an opportunity and see what happens,” Jayawardene further added.