Follow UsMumbai Indians (MI) have been dealt a slight blow towards the latter half of IPL 2025, with wrist-spinner Vignesh Puthur ruled out of the remainder of the competition with injury. With Puthur gone, IPL announced that MI have roped in Punjab spinner Raghu Sharma as a replacement.
A 32-year-old leg-spinner who hails from Jalandhar, Punjab, Raghu Sharma has only played 3 professional T20s in his career — all for Puducherry in the 2021 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, where he took 3 wickets at an economy of 8.00.
However, Raghu has since moved to Punjab, and he put up quite an impressive showing in the 2024/25 Vijay Hazare Trophy, where he took 14 wickets in 8 matches. Those are exceptional returns as among spinners, only Shreyas Gopal and Varun Chakaravarthy (18 each) took more wickets than the 32-year-old leggie.
The move from MI to rope in Raghu is interesting as the leggie has almost completely moved away from T20s in the last three years. Since the start of 2023, the 32-year-old has played only one T20 at any level — and that came in the Pondicherry Premier League in 2024, where he bowled 3 overs for Villianur Mohit Kings against Yanam Royals.
It will certainly be interesting to see if MI hand the veteran a surprise debut some time in the competition. We can’t rule it out, given the likes of Puthur, Ashwani Kumar and Venkata Satyanarayana Penmetsa have all played in IPL 2025.