Left-arm wristspinners had all the fun in Chennai's first game of IPL 2025. The younger but rather more well-known Noor Ahmad picked up 4 for 18 from four overs but he was almost matched by a complete unknown. Vignesh Puthur is a 24-year-old from Kerala who had never played a T20 game at senior level but he was able to knock off Ruturaj Gaikwad when he was well past fifty, Shivam Dube who smashes spin for fun and Deepak Hooda. For a short time, Mumbai Indians looked like they might be able to defend 155. But it wasn't to be.
Paras Mhambrey, MI's bowling coach, explained what went behind the scenes that resulted in Puthur making his IPL debut and doing so well. "I think the idea at MI is always seeing the potential more than anything else," he said. "And when we saw him for one of our trials, we saw the potential in him rather than looking into how much cricket he has played in the past.
"He spins the ball pretty consistently. Lands the ball on pretty much what [where] we wanted. Is pretty accurate with it. I think those are the tick marks that we look into but not only that. But it's just the fact that he is different. Spins the ball, has a googly. That kind of stuff. So you know he will be able to trouble quality batters with the skills that he has."
Puthur came in as Impact Player in the second innings and began his spell outside the powerplay. By then, Chennai Super Kings had got more than one-third of the runs they needed on the night and Ruturaj was the source of almost all their acceleration. Puthur tossed one up. Ruturaj took up the challenge. He tried to clear the straight boundary but couldn't. Dube and Hooda also tried to hit Puthur out of the park in his next two overs but they weren't able to pull it off either. All of those balls were there to be hit but perhaps a lack of pace prevented the batters from getting the timing they were looking for. Puthar has been doing the same thing against Mumbai's own batters as well.
"I think when Rohit [Sharma] and Surya[kumar Yadav] and Tilak [Varma], all these guys batted against him, they felt it wasn't that easy," Mhambrey said. "So [that was] one of the reasons we felt we had the confidence of pushing him in this game.
"Never easy, first game against CSK, it's a big game. But purely the way he responded, hats off to him. I think he was able to hold his nerves and handle pressure superbly. I think really got us in the game. Very happy about his performance."
Puthur attended trials for MI ahead of the IPL auction in November. They bought him for INR 30 lakh. He was then taken to South Africa where he worked as a net bowler for MI Cape Town and that helped fast-track his development because he was around quality players and he did everything he could to learn off them.
"The need of the hour [for Puthur's growth as a player], it's more about the conversations," Mhambrey said. "Not purely on the skill work so much really. I think that he is pretty much sorted out there I felt. But more about the conversations that he had. An opportunity with MJ [Mahela Jayawardene] or [Kieron] Pollard. Or the batters especially. Surya or Rohit.
"You never get an opportunity to have that conversation. So I think it's more about him having a chat with everyone. And as I said, he's a sweet kid. Great team man, good person to have in the team. He's like a sponge, he's just listening. He has got [nervous] sometimes because you have heroes, you see them playing on the TV, and all of a sudden, you're sharing that dressing room with them, sitting next to someone like Rohit, it's a dream come true for a lot of these guys, right?
"But purely for the fact that the way he responded [in the game against CSK] never looked like he was under pressure from the very first ball. And that was good to see, I think. It's just the way he handled pressure."