Lucknow Super Giants thought they had run out of players who could stand up and be their hero. That is until 21-year-old wicketkeeper-batter from Rajasthan Mukul Choudhary raised his hand and said, notice me.
54* off 27, seven sixes, managing to haul down 54 runs off four overs with no batting partners left in the tank. Not many people would have known what young Mukul had to offer before LSG’s win over KKR on Thursday night – but come Friday morning, his name will make the headlines all across the country.
Mukul Choudhary was one of the breakout stars of the 2025/26 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy campaign: the Rajasthan batter hammered 173 runs in the tournament at an average of 57+, while also striking at just a tick under 200.
His performances in that SMAT tournament were earned after he hammered 600+ runs with back to back centuries in an age group competition to catch his state team’s notice, which in turn saw him receive INR 2.60 crore as Mumbai Indians and LSG went back and forth for his signature.
Mukul’s idol an unsurprising figure – MS Dhoni
With LSG facing question marks over their middle order, Mukul came in towards the bottom of that unit with some sparkling words from coach Justin Langer, who said he had the potential to be one of the ‘scariest number 6 or 7 batters in India’.
Mukul grew up with MS Dhoni as his idol – which wicketkeeper-batter doesn’t? And this was the kind of knock the great man would have been proud of. But wicketkeeping was a happy accident for Mukul, who only took it up due to happenstance due to no other keeper being in his squad during some academy games in Rajasthan.
Having travelled from his home of Jhunjhunu to the state capital of Jaipur to proceed with his cricket dreams, he joined the same academy which produced two more recent IPL stars – Kartik Sharma and Ashok Sharma. Kartik in particular had a small role of his own to play in Mukul’s journey – it was his absence through injury that earned Mukul a call-up to the team for the SMAT.
Now, the question of who is Mukul Choudhary will be met with the answer – the young man who pulled off an all-time heist, one which would never betray his spectacular youth,, and one which would tell you all about the bravery being produced in every corner of the subcontinent.
