Five-time Indian Premier League (IPL) champions Mumbai Indians (MI) have signed Kumar Kartikeya Singh as a replacement for Md Arshad Khan, who has sustained an injury and has been ruled out for the rest of the ongoing 2022 IPL season.
Kartikeya is a slow left-arm bowler who has represented Madhya Pradesh across all three formats of the game since making his debut in 2018. He has been impressive in the nets and his learning trajectory on improving and fine-tuning his bowling skills have earned him the call up to the main squad.
The 24-year-old made his first-class debut for Madhya Pradesh against Kerala in the 2018 Ranji Trophy, picking up a wicket and giving away just two runs in two overs. Ironically, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) pacer Avesh Khan and Rajasthan Royals (RR) bowler Kuldeep Sen were also a part of the same team.
In nine First-Class matches, Kartikeya has scalped 35 wickets for his team at an average of 20.42 and an economy rate of 2.58.
His List A debut came against Saurashtra, where he picked up another one wicket for 28 runs in his stipulated 10 overs. He has gone on to pick up 18 wickets in 19 matches for Madhya Pradesh.
Meanwhile, in T20 cricket, the slow left-arm orthodox bowler has nine wickets in eight games, averaging 16.11 runs per game and notching an economy rate of 5.37 per game.
Kartikeya joins the Mumbai squad for the price of Rs 20 lakh. M Ashwin, Mayank Markande, and Fabian Allen are the other spin-bowling options Mumbai have at their disposal. The bottom-placed side in this season's IPL next take on Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday, April 30, for their next match.
