Important season for me: Mukesh after impressing in Duleep Trophy
Mukesh Kumar has boosted his India comeback efforts, taking 11 wickets so far in the ongoing Duleep Trophy and the pacer said the upcoming domestic season carries a lot of “importance” for him.
The Bengal pacer’s last appearance in India colours was in 2024, quietly getting pushed behind in the rush of some new-gen pacers like Prasidh Krishna and Gurnoor Brar.
“This is a very important season for me because the Duleep Trophy is the first tournament of the season, and we are currently playing the final. To prepare for this, I arrived at the BCCI CoE some four days ahead of the Duleep Trophy,” East Zone’s Mukesh said after the third day of the Duleep Trophy final against South Zone here.
“I was focusing on how I wanted to bowl, training with the red ball, and working on fitness. Hopefully, the upcoming Ranji Trophy season goes well too,” he said.
That red-ball preparation did not go in vain as Mukesh played a big role in East’s victory over Central Zone in the semifinal at the Centre of Excellence grounds, taking seven wickets. He carried that form onto the title clash here as well, already plucking the important wickets of in-form Devdutt Padikkal and Narayan Jagadeesan.
“Yes, the plan against Devdutt was to bowl stump-to-stump because if I bowled outside off, we knew he was coming off two centuries in Sri Lanka. On wickets like this, if you offer width to batters, runs will leak. “Our plan as fast bowlers was to stay as consistent as possible and bowl dot balls, letting them take the risks. They would try to force the pace and get out because they need to score runs,” he said. The South Zone pacers were trying to purchase wickets through short-pitched deliveries but that strategy did not yield any results as East piled up 708 runs in their first innings.
