Raghu Sharma has played FC, List-A and T20 cricket for Punjab and Puducherry.
Raghu Sharma dismissed Akshat Raghuvanshi, caught and bowled,d and then celebrated by showing an emotional note encapsulating his 15-year struggle and thanked God and the MI franchise for the opportunity.
The note read, "Radhe Radhe. A very painful 15 years, by the divine mercy of Gurudeva, ended today. Thanks, Mumbai Indians (Blue and Gold), for giving me this opportunity. Ever grateful. Jai Shri Ram.”
After the Mumbai Indians won the match by six wickets, Raghu expressed his emotions.
"It’s a dream come true for me that I got a maiden IPL wicket. First of all, I just want to thank my Gurudev, my spiritual guru. He is Shri Shyam Das. And my mother and father for supporting me. I was like, "If I take a wicket, I will definitely put that (note) out." I just want to thank the Mumbai Indians because it has been a painful 15 years for me—how I started cricket, and a lot of things happened in my life as well," Raghu said on the IPL website.
"But today, just by the grace of God, I came here, and by MI’s grace, you can say that I am very grateful to this franchise. They have supported me and believed in me. They have backed me as well. They retained me. And now I am just giving them the confidence that yes, I can do that for them as well," he added.
Raghu comes from a family of engineers and doctors. He was brought into the MI system last season to replace young Vignesh Puthur due to injury, and he was kept this season. Raghu, a graduate of electrical engineering, was motivated to play cricket by MS Dhoni's famous World Cup-winning six against Sri Lanka in the 2011 final.
"I will just speak about how I was in 2011. We have a family background where everyone is an engineer or a doctor. I am also an electrical engineer. But I was not that fit. I was around 102 kg. Still, I worked hard. When Dhoni sir hit that six, it gave me the determination that I can also do this. But my father said, "You can’t do this because you are overweight." You have to run and do a lot of hard work. Cricket is not for you.
I started at 21, so all age-group cricket was finished for me. But I was so determined and focused on my target that I would definitely do everything. I slowly, steadily did it, and I learned a lot through experience. I played in Sri Lanka; I played county cricket in England. So, there I got a lot of experience," Raghu said.
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Raghu Sharma has played 12 FC matches, 12 List-A games, and 6 T20s for Punjab and Puducherry since making his India domestic debut in 2017.
"I just want to say that age is just a number. If you are preparing yourself, especially for this kind of platform, you need to think, and you need to be hardworking, but at the same time, you have to be mentally very strong and stable because it needs maturity rather than just skills. Skills also matter, but I think maturity is the main thing that will definitely make you a good bowler, especially on this platform. Bhagwan Jagannath has supported me a lot. I went to Puri—I remember I was training on the beach and taking Mahaprasad. When I was there, at that moment I felt that when Bhagwan is there, everything is possible for me," he added.
"For these 15 years and even now, I have practiced leg spin six days a week, and even now, I bowl around 10 overs regularly. If you are a bowler, you have to keep bowling. Then automatically your wrist will work. So that’s what kept me going, and even now I always have a plan before a match—how I am going to bowl and what aspects I want to work on. These things have helped me for over 15 years. Now you can see the results," Raghu said.
MI will next face RCB in Raipur on May 10.