IPL 2024: Who is Ashutosh Sharma? Everything you need to know about Punjab Kings' big-hitting sensation

The Punjab Kings versus Gujarat Titans game made history as two unknown names won the game for Punjab. Shashank Singh, the 32-year-old batter scored his first fifty to end up on 61* as PBKS won with three wickets in hand. 

Lending him good support was none other than 25-year-old Ashutosh Sharma. The Railways batter stunned the packed Ahmedabad crowd to help his side get close to the target.

It was a huge stage and Ashutosh Sharma made it his own with his starry knock. Interestingly, this was the debut game for Ashutosh Sharma and he didn’t look out of place. Nothing seemed to faze the youngster as he took a special liking to Mohit Sharma the best death overs bowler of IPL 2024.

Ashutosh Sharma: The history maker in domestic cricket

Indian cricket fans were in a frenzy as a young unknown batter had scripted history. It was during the Syed Mushtaq Ali 2023 trophy that the name of Ashutosh Sharma first came to light. The right-handed batter while playing for Railways hit the fastest half-century by an Indian batter. His fifty came off a mere 11 deliveries against Arunachal Pradesh. 

The youngster had gone past the previous record held by Yuvraj Singh who got to the mark in a dozen deliveries in 2007. Soon social media lauded the youngster and there was a certain intrigue about him.

Just like his partner in crime on Thursday, Ashutosh Sharma was picked by PBKS for INR 20 lakh. In his first game in IPL, his debut took place in front of the noisy Gujarat fans against the home side Gujarat Titans. 

The wicket of Jitesh Sharma got the youngster to the crease with his side in huge pressure. In the 18^th over, Ashutosh hit Azmatullah Omarzai for three boundaries before hitting Mohit Sharma for two sixes.

Darshan Nalkande ended his knock for 31 runs off 17 balls but that little innings had given his team a huge hope. Once PBKS won the game, the youngster thanked the team and also specially thanked Sanjay Bangar for his patience.

Ashutosh Sharma has so far played four first-class matches for Railways and scored 268 runs which includes a ton and a fifty. T20 cricket is his forte as he has played 15 matches so far and scored 419 runs with a best of 84. It is his strike rate which catches the eye as it reads a whopping 197.64. 

With two unlikely stars winning PBKS the game, the future for the team is indeed bright. One must also laud the scouting network of Punjab to pull out such a diamond who is plying his trade in the domestic circuit. With this knock, Ashutosh Sharma has arrived and it is to be seen if he can show consistency and become a household name.