Mumbai Indians (MI) bowler Raghu Sharma celebrated his maiden IPL wicket with an emotional note in his team’s ongoing IPL 2026 game against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on May 4, 2026, in Mumbai.
Mumbai Indians stand-in captain Suryakumar Yadav won the toss and chose to bowl first. Mitchell Marsh made 44, and Nicholas Pooran finally found his form, hitting 8 sixes in his 21-ball 63 runs. LSG tripped a bit in the middle overs, but Aiden Markram’s 31* and Himmat Singh’s 40* gave them a strong finish as they finished on 228/5 in 20 overs.
Corbin Bosch picked 2/20, but the focus was on Jasprit Bumrah, who went for 45 runs in 4 overs.
Raghu Sharma picked 1/36 in 4 overs for MI, and his maiden IPL wicket came in the form of Akshat Raghuvanshi. The 33-year-old got Raghuvanshi with a smart flighted delivery that caused a mistimed push, followed by a pad-and-bat deflection flung back for an easy caught-and-bowled.
Raghu then took a note from his pocket and proudly displayed it in front of his teammates. It thanked God and the MI franchise for allowing him to play after 15 painful years of waiting. It ended with ‘Jai Shri Ram.'
“A very painful 15 years. By the divine mercy of Gurudev, it ended today. Thanks, Mumbai Indians (Blue and Gold), for giving me this opportunity. Ever grateful. Jai Shri Ram,"—the note from Raghu Sharma read.
Mumbai Indians picked Raghu Sharma for Rs 30 lakh in the IPL 2025 mega auction and retained him in the squad for the 2026 IPL season.
Leg-spinner Raghu Sharma was born in Jalandhar and has played First-Class and domestic cricket for Punjab and Puducherry. He has played 30 games across first-class, List A, and T20 cricket since making his debut in 2017. He impressed in red-ball cricket, picking up 57 wickets in 12 matches, including multiple five-wicket and ten-wicket hauls.
In limited-overs formats, he gained attention during the 2024–25 Vijay Hazare Trophy, claiming 14 wickets in eight matches.
