IPL 2022: KKR's new recruit Ramesh Kumar once smashed a 10-ball 50 in a tennis-ball match

Cricket fans were occupied in the last couple of days amid the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 mega auction. The two-day bidding event in Bengaluru saw numerous players going massive under the hammer as all 10 franchises were determined to build a potent squad. Alongside the big names, teams also went after some lesser-known stars, who are expected to do well in future.

Among those was Ramesh Kumar, who was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for his base price of INR 20 lakh. The Shahrukh Khan-owned franchise bagged Ramesh’s services during the accelerated round of the bidding on Day 2. The officials present at the KKR auction table seemed pretty pleased as no other team went after the youngster.

Ramesh Kumar – A batting start in his own rights

Now, the trending question is ‘who is Ramesh Kumar?’ as the 23-year-old is yet to play professional cricket. However, the fact is Ramesh is a batting star in his own rights as he has played some jaw-dropping knocks in tennis-ball cricket. He hails from Manasa in Punjab and is also known as ‘Narine Jalalabadiya.’

As soon as Ramesh bagged the deal from KKR, a video of him smashing a 10-ball 50 went viral on YouTube. In the clip, the southpaw can be seen slamming sixes for fun in a local tennis-ball match. Meanwhile, it has also been reported that Ramesh, who also bowls left-arm spin, gave trails to KKR and impressed the officials.

Meanwhile, KKR, who retained the likes of Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine, entered the auction with a purse of INR 48 crore. They were determined to retain their core as they reacquired services of Pat Cummins, Nitish Rana, Shivam Mavi and Sheldon Jackson. Shreyas Iyer was KKR’s most-expensive player at the event as they splashed a whooping INR 12.25 crore to get him on board. The batter is all but likely to lead the two-time winners this year.

Final Squad of Kolkata Knight Riders: Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Nitish Rana, Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Mavi, Sheldon Jackson, Ajinkya Rahane, Rinku Singh, Anukul Roy, Rasikh Dar, Baba Indrajith, Chamika Karunaratne, Abhijeet Tomar, Pratham Singh, Ashok Sharma, Sam Billings, Alex Hales, Tim Southee, Ramesh Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Mohammad Nabi, Aman Khan