Dream debuts: Praful Hinge achieves massive IPL-first; Sakib Hussain the latest gem out of Bihar talent factory

HYDERABAD: Skipper Ishan Kishan’s bold gamble of giving Indian Premier League (IPL) debut caps to pacers Praful Hinge and Sakib Hussain paid off as the duo rocked Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) formidable-looking top-order and got Sunrisers Hyderabad’s (SRH) campaign on track with a 57-run win at Hyderabad on Monday.

The Sanskrit words carved on a shiny, golden IPL trophy, kept at a podium in its full glory, say ‘Yatra Pratibha Avsara Prapnotihi’. This translates to ‘Where talent meets opportunity’. Domestic and India pace veterans Harshal Patel and Jaydev Unadkat were not in the playing XI despite their wealth of IPL experience after question marks over the team’s bowling performances.

Harshal and Unadkat’s loss of game time was a gain for two right-armers, Praful, hailing from Vidarbha and the 21-year-old Sakib from Bihar. The phrase written on the prestigious trophy once again flashed in the eyes of billions who have spent almost two decades associated with this tournament as players, fans or other stakeholders.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi
Dhruv Jurel
Lhuan-dre Pretorius

A dream start for Praful Hinge on his #TATAIPL debut

Updates https://t.co/xGTDdKbXpY#KhelBindaas | #SRHvRR | @SunRisers pic.twitter.com/wLOPGPCqgR

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 13, 2026

Despite the failure of ‘Travi-Shek’ which seems to have run off their steam after 2024 season, skipper Ishan Kishan (91 in 44 balls, with eight fours and six sixes) and Heinrich Klaasen (40 in 26 balls, with a four and three sixes) made up for it, putting a 88-run stand and setting the stage for some fireworks from Nitish Kumar Reddy (28 in 13 balls, with four sixes) and Salil Arora (24* in 13 balls, with two fours and two sixes). SRH was 216/6 at the end of 20 overs.

When RR opened, a pair of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi took to the field, all eyes were on the latter, who had not so long ago rattled a championship-winning Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) attack of Josh Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Krunal Pandya etc with an audacious 26-ball 78, decorated with eight fours and seven sixes.

Another debutant making his mark

Glimpses of Sakib Hussain’s 4/24 in his first outing in #TATAIPL

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— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 13, 2026

Having been displaced by Klaasen from his Orange Cap supremacy, Suryavanshi looked all set for another blazing knock. The hype of a 15-year-old Sooryavanshi met Praful, whose signing by SRH during the auction for Rs 30 lakh had largely gone unnoticed amongst all the chatter about Aussie all-rounder Cameron Green and CSK’s two big young domestic cricket signees, Prashant Veer and Kartik Sharma, both worth Rs 14.20 crores.

On his second ball, the first faced by Sooryavanshi, the latter tried to go big over cow corner, and the ball went straight into the hands of Salil. Cricket’s nature as a big leveller had finally shown Sooryavanshi the long way back to pavillion for a golden duck. While this moment itself was enough to earn Hinge plenty of eyeballs, Dhruv Jurel played the delivery into his stumps two balls later, and the wicketkeeper-batter’s name on the IPL graphic dimmed off without a run to his name. Praful ended the over in style, trapping big-hitting South African Lhuan Dre Pretorious for a second-ball duck. RR was 1/3 after the first over.

For the first time, a bowler had taken three wickets in the opening over in an IPL match. Living upto its identity as India’s talent factory, the IPL handed the opportunity to Praful to pull off the task, and destiny smiled in approval at the Vidarbha pacer, who has less than 20 professional cricket matches to his name.

Also, one run is the lowest aggregate for the top in an IPL innings, breaking the previous record made by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) against Mumbai Indians (MI) back in 2020, when Ruturaj Gaikwad 0, Faf du Plessis 1, Ambati Rayudu 2 and Narayan Jagadeesan 0) were all dismissed in the space of three runs.

In his second over, Praful came back to remove RR skipper Riyan Parag, just moments after fellow debutant Sakib had got Jaiswal for one run, reducing RR to 9/5 in three overs. Praful had a four-wicket haul within the powerplay itself, marking the eighth instance of such a feat and attaching his name to the company of legends like Ishant Sharma, Shoaib Akhtar, Pat Cummins and Mohammed Shami, among others.

For the net-run-rate’s sake, Donovan Ferreira (69 in 44 balls, with seven fours and three sixes) and Ravindra Jadeja (45 in 32 balls, with five fours) put on a 118-run stand, the second largest for sixth-wicket or lower in the IPL, but a late assault from Sakib ended RR’s bid to play out full 20 overs. RR was bundled out for 159 in 19 overs, with Praful (4/34) and Sakib (4/24) becoming the seventh and eighth persons respectively with four-fers on IPL debut, joining stars like Alzarri Joseph of West Indies, Australia’s Andrew Tye, Pakistan’s Shoaib Akhtar, South Africa and Namibia all-rounder David Wiese, among others.

This was Praful’s only second T20 appearance. The bowler made his debut for Vidarbha back in 2024 and was a regular during the last Ranji Trophy for his state, picking 16 wickets at an average of 26.37 in 11 innings, as per ESPNCricinfo. His previous T20 appearance was during the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy back in December 2025, going for 1/23 against Andhra Pradesh. His T20 exploits in Vidarbha Pro T20 League last year, where he fetched eight wickets in six matches at an average of over 25, played a crucial role in Neco Master Blasters’ title charge and played a hand in his IPL deal.

The pacer idolises Cummins, SRH’s regular captain, who is yet to join the team and his state senior and one of India’s most important pacers of the past decade across all formats, Umesh Yadav, who was by his side during his T20 debut.

Hinge has picked 27 wickets in 10 first-class matches and has five wickets in six List-A matches. Sakib also has less than 20 professional games under his belt, with 14 wickets in 13 T20s at an average of over 26 and 16 wickets in six first-class matches at an average of above 30.

Speaking about his debut in the post-match presentation, Praful, just like many young cricketers of this generation, shed light on the power of manifestation, revealing that he had been thinking of making such an impact on his debut.

“I did think about it. Last year, I had written somewhere that whenever I play my first match, I will definitely take four or five wickets. And I wanted to dominate as much as possible in the power play. (power of manifestation) I believe in it. I do not know about others, but I do believe,” he said.

He started playing cricket at the age of 13 and did not have an idea what leather ball cricket was. His father initially refused to enrol him in a club because of him being “too young”, but things worked out, and he kept playing. He dedicated the ‘Player of the Match’ award to his family for the sacrifices they made for him.

Speaking of his best wicket, Praful wasted no time in choosing Sooryavanshi, whom he wanted to dismiss on the first ball, preferably with a bouncer. “The best one was the first wicket of Sooryavanshi, because he was in form. I had already told a couple of people that I would get him out on the very first ball, either with a bouncer or in some way. I just wanted his wicket on the first ball. That was the plan,” he said.

He thanked the MRF Pace Foundation for taking the right care of him and supporting him, especially when he faced injuries. “Everything is fine now. I want to thank MRF for taking really good care of me. When I was there, Naveen sir, the physio, looked after me very well. Since I’ve reached this stage today, I want to thank them too,” he added.

On the other hand, Sakib also reflected on how players dream of debuts like this and revealed he was told by bowling coach and Indian pace veteran Varun Aaron a day before the match he was playing, and from then on, he started to prepare himself.

“Every player hopes for a debut like this, so it feels really good. I am very happy. The bowling coach, Varun bhai, informed me a day before the game that I would be playing. From then on, my focus was simply on performing well. Mentally, I prepared myself to give my best,” he said.

He also went on to reveal that Varun, who also represented India in 29 matches, had been working with him for the past four matches. “Whatever improvement you see in my bowling is because of him. I give him full credit. (taking wickets on debut) It felt amazing, sir. To have such a performance in my debut match is very special,” he signed off. (ANI)