Born in the mid-size town of Gopalganj in Bihar, the 30-year-old Mukesh Kumar is the only bowler selected in all three formats in India’s squads for the upcoming tour of South Africa.
Mukesh Kumar hails from the Gopalganj town in Bihar. He made his first-class debut for Bengal in 2015 and has toiled hard in domestic cricket for 7 years.
His first major moment of recognition came earlier this year when he debuted for Delhi Capitals in IPL 2023. He didn’t have a great IPL season, picking only 7 wickets in 10 matches and leaking at more than 10 runs per over.
But his domestic record was impressive and he has now made his debut for India across all three formats, and he’s the only bowler picked in all three formats for the upcoming South Africa tour.
Talking about his domestic record, Mukesh Kumar has picked 151 wickets in 40 first-class matches at an average of 21, which is brilliant for a fast bowler in Indian domestic cricket. He has 6 5-wicket hauls and 8 4-wicket hauls in first-class cricket. In white-ball cricket, he has taken 30 list-A wickets and 38 T20 wickets to show.
Mukesh Kumar spent three years preparing for Bihar Police entrance exam
However, apart from his cricket journey, what many fans don’t know is that Mukesh Kumar was interested in joining the Bihar police force. It has been reported that he had spent three years preparing for the CRPF and Bihar Police entrance exams. He cleared the written test in 2012 but he reportedly failed physical fitness tests.
He then moved to Kolkata to handle his father’s taxi service and started playing cricket again. He was first spotted during Bengal’s Vision 2020 program by the officials, who drafted him into Bengal’s domestic side, where he performed impressively, and soon made his Bengal debut in domestic cricket.
Years later, the Delhi Capitals picked him for INR 5.5 crore in the IPL 2023 auction.
Mukesh Kumar has so far played 1 Test, 3 ODIs, and 7 T20Is for India, picking a total of 9 wickets across formats. In white-ball cricket, Mukesh has mostly impressed everyone with his yorkers and wide yorkers in death-overs phase.
India Test squad vs South Africa:
Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Ishan Kishan (wk), KL Rahul (wk), Mukesh Kumar, Mohd. Shami*, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Prasidh Krishna, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Siraj, Shreyas Iyer, Ruturaj Gaikwad
India ODI squad vs South Africa:
Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sai Sudharsan, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (C)(wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Axar Patel, Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Deepak Chahar, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Tilak Varma, Rajat Patidar, Rinku Singh
India T20I squad vs South Africa:
Suryakumar Yadav (C), Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Ravindra Jadeja (VC), Washington Sundar
