Mumbai Indians announce South Africa's Under-19 bowling sensation and Kagiso Rabada's disciple as Dilshan Madushanka's replacement

With less than 48 hours to go into IPL 2024's opening encounter, Mumbai Indians announced Kwena Maphaka as injured Sri Lankan pacer Dilshan Madushaka's replacement.

Arun Rawal

• Wed • 20 Mar 2024

South Africa's Kwena Maphaka (left); Sri Lanka's Dilshan Madushanka (File Photo: Getty Images)

Highlights:

Kwena Maphaka took the most wickets in the Under-19 World Cup 2024.

Maphaka is from the same school Kagiso Rabada studied in.

Mumbai Indians (MI) announced South Africa's Under-19 pace sensation Kwena Maphaka as a replacement for an injured Sri Lankan pacer Dilshan Madushanka. The left-arm Sri Lankan pacer Madushanka suffered a left hamstring injury during the Bangladesh series. He was expected to miss the initial stages but has been ruled out of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024.

Maphaka was the highest wicket-taker in the Under-19 World Cup 2024. He picked up 21 wickets from six games at an average of 9.71. He picked up a record-breaking three five-wicket hauls in the tournament. His tally of 21 wickets is the most by a bowler in a single edition of the Under-19 World Cup.

What Maphaka has in his armoury?

Maphaka has played in two Under-19 World Cups. Earlier this year, he helped South Africa reach the semi-finals but they lost to India in a close encounter. The left-arm pacer troubled batters with his pace and bouncers. He is capable of bowling over 140kmph. In addition to yorkers, he can deceive batters with slower balls as well.

Maphaka's Rabada connection

Maphaka was a prodigy in gymnastics, athletics, tennis and hockey but he chose to play cricket. Interestingly, he studies in the same school as the South Africa senior team's pace-bowling spearhead Kagiso Rabada, the St. Stithians. The teenager is still in the final year of high school.

Maphaka's T20 numbers

The Johannesburg-born bowler was picked by SA20 League franchise Paarl Royals. So far, he has played nine T20s (domestic) and taken 13 wickets including a four-fer at an average of 16.53. His economy rate of 6.71 is impressive as well.

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Steal deal for Mumbai Indians

The 17-year-old will join the five-time IPL champions for his base price of Rs 50 lakh. On the other hand, Madushanka was picked for Rs 4.60 crore by MI in the auction after a bidding war with Lucknow Super Giants (LSG).

The Hardik Pandya-led side will begin their IPL 2024 campaign against Gujarat Titans (GT) at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on March 20.

MI Team's IPL 2024 SQUAD

Wicketkeepers	Batters	All-rounders	Bowlers
Ishan Kishan	Rohit Sharma	Hardik Pandya (c)	Jasprit Bumrah
Vishnu Vinod	Tim David (AUS)	Romario Shepherd (WI)	Luke Wood (ENG)
	Suryakumar Yadav	Nehal Wadhera	Kumar Kartikeya
	N. Tilak Varma	Shams Mulani	Akash Madhwal
	Dewald Brevis (SA)	Gerald Coetzee (SA)	Arjun Tendulkar
		Mohammad Nabi (AFG)	Piyush Chawla
		Shivalik Sharma	Kwena Maphaka (SA)
		Naman Dhir	Nuwan Thushara (SL)
			Anshul Kamboj
			Shreyas Gopal