Mumbai Indians’ Vignesh Puthur, File
| Photo Credit: PTI

New Delhi, May 1 (PTI) Five-time IPL champions Mumbai Indians on Thursday roped in leg-spinner Raghu Sharma as a replacement for injured Vignesh Puthur for the remainder of the ongoing IPL season.

Kerala left-arm spinner Puthur has been ruled out due to bone stress reactions in both shins, the franchise stated.

The 31-year-old Sharma, who was part of the MI’s support bowling unit, now joins the main squad.

A right-arm leg-break bowler, Sharma has represented Punjab and Puducherry in domestic cricket.

In 11 first-class matches, he has taken 57 wickets at an average of 19.59, including best figures of 7/56. He has also claimed 14 wickets in 9 List A games, and 3 wickets in 3 T20s.

Puthur, who impressed with six wickets in his maiden IPL season, including three on debut against Chennai Super Kings, will remain with the team to continue his recovery and rehabilitation under the guidance of Mumbai Indians’ medical and strength & conditioning staff.

The term “gedi” is colloquial Punjabi term for “chakkar” (round/trip). In March earlier this year, when Punjab Kings called up their players to assemble at the Mullanpur Stadium, Anmolpreet Singh decided to drop his younger brother Prabhsimran Singh to the camp. While putting Prabhsimran’s kit in his SUV, he casually said: “Chal main tenu Mullanpur chhad aau (Let me drop you to Mullanpur stadium).” The distance between Patiala and Punjab Cricket Association’s (PCA) new stadium is 80 kms. During that two-hour drive, Anmolpreet gave Prabhsimran a “reality check.”
“I gave him my example. The chances I have wasted and how I have fallen down in the pecking order. I reminded him that he is 24 now, and this will be his make-or-break season,” 27-year-old Anmolpreet told TimesofIndia.com from Patiala.
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Most “gedis” in Punjab are known for peppy numbers blaring through the after-market sound systems but all Prabhsimran heard during that drive to Mullanpur was words of wisdom from his brother.
“I told him to score two hundreds this season, and everything will be taken care of. I specifically told him if he wants to play for India, he must score at least two centuries this season to get noticed,” recalls Anmolpreet.
“The conversation was a bit harsh. I can’t tell you the Punjabi cuss words I used, but it was more along the lines of making the most of the starts. The 20s and 30s will not take him anywhere,” he added.
Cut to present and Prabhsimran has batted with a very mature head and scored back-to-back half-centuries for the first time in his IPL career. After a string of 30s, the belligerent right-hander struggled but then scored one of his finest knocks against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens.
He was 34 off 32 balls at one point but turned his innings around as the next 49 runs came off just 17 balls, and 22 off those came in a single Sunil Narine over. He followed it up with another fine knock at Chepauk against Chennai Super Kings on Wednesday.
“His hitting was never the issue. It was his cameos. He needed to play more balls, and even if he bats slowly initially, he has the ability to triple the scoring rate later. We saw that during the KKR match. He needed to put a prize on his wicket and play long innings,” said Anmolpreet.
While Prabhsimran is yet to hit a century this season, the youngster has scored three fifty-plus totals, and for the first time in six years with the Punjab outfit, he has found consistency. The swashbuckling opener has amassed 346 runs in 10 matches with a strike rate of 165.55.
The Punter effect
During IPL 2020, Sachin Tendulkar had posted a video on X, earlier Twitter, praising Prabhsimran Singh’s batting. “Prabhsimran is one to watch out for. His backlift and bat swing are free-flowing. When the ball hits his bat, the sound it creates is quite amazing,” Tendulkar had posted.
His batting has not only impressed Sachin but also the current Punjab Kings’ head coach Ricky Ponting, who wanted to bring him to the Delhi Capitals as well.
Ponting charted a plan for Prabhsimran where the youngster was specifically told to construct an approach against the bowlers and opt for match simulations in open nets instead of the regular sessions.
“I understood where Ricky was coming from. Earlier, he used to blindly hoick no matter who the bowler was. If you see his innings this season, he has a plan against all the bowlers. He smoked Sunil Narine for 22 runs. Now he knows which bowler to attack. Call it game awareness or maturity. He has improved,” said Anmolpreet.
For the open net sessions, Prabhsimran went to the Cricket Hub academy in Patiala with his elder brother and the duo trained for hours under the watchful eyes of Kamal Sandhu.
“Focus was more on match simulation. He has always been good against the pacers; Ricky’s advice was to improve his batting against spinners,” said Kamal.
“He can tear apart a world-class bowler but, at the same time, can get out to dibbly-dobbly bowlers,” he added.

The brothers used to practice for three hours in the afternoon. Most days, they used to be accompanied by Sardar Satvinder Singh, father of Anmolpreet and uncle to Prabhsimran.
Satvinder Singh, a former captain of the Indian handball team, has trained two of his sons — Anmolpreet and Tejpreet — and Prabhsimran, son of his younger brother, for the past two decades.
“My father is our coach, and he is still invested in all three of us,” said Anmolpreet.

The elder brother also shares an interesting story of how Prabhsimran approached Ponting before the season and requested to let him don the gloves.
“He loves keeping. Last season, he used to crib a lot as he had to field in the outfield. He is a natural keeper, and he has been doing this consistently this season, and it has enhanced his confidence with the bat,” said Anmolpreet.
After 10 games, Punjab Kings are currently placed second on the points table. They are chasing a playoff spot for the first time in 10 years, and Prabhsimran is chasing the target the brother had set during the “gedi”.

FC Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal in action with Inter Milan’s Alessandro Bastoni.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Lamine Yamal’s curler that went in off the post after the teenager’s great dribble? Marcus Thuram’s nifty back-heeled flick? Raphinha’s missile that hit the bar and the goalkeeper before finding the net?

And don’t forget Denzel Dumfries’ bicycle kick, before he scored again with a powerful header.

You have your pick of great goals from Barcelona and Inter Milan’s thrilling 3-3 draw to start their Champions League semifinal on Wednesday, setting up a must-see sequel next week in Milan.

Opta Stats said it was joint-highest highest score for a draw in a Champions League semifinals since Bayern Munich and Dynamo Kiev finished with the same score in April 1999.

What was supposed to be a contrast of styles between the top-scoring Barcelona and the stingiest defense in the competition turned into a shootout.

Inter matched Barcelona’s firepower with two goals from corner kicks, and the hosts needed another stellar performance from 17-year-old Yamal in his 100th appearance for his club.

Except for Inter’s start and strength in set pieces, Barcelona imposed its game and had 66% possession and created 10 shots on goal to Inter’s three, according to UEFA’s stats — but had to settle for a draw.

Thuram was a doubt for the starting 11 after missing Inter’s previous three matches — all losses without a goal. But the striker used the back of his heel to turn in a cross by Dumfries to stun the hosts just seconds after kickoff.

Dumfries then put Inter into what appeared to be a comfortable lead when he scored his first of two goals with a bicycle kick after a corner kick was headed onto him in the 21st.

Yamal sparked Barcelona into action in the 24th when he dribbled past two defenders and sliced a shot in off the far post. He went close to an equalizer moments later after gliding down the endline and firing a shot with just a sliver off an angle off the crossbar.

“Yamal is a fantastic player, in the big matches you can see his quality, and he showed it today,” Barcelona coach Hansi Flick said about his forward.

“At 2-0 down,” he continued, “I knew that this was a semifinal between great clubs and I knew that the huge experience they have was being demonstrated. They are good at set plays too, but Lamine showed us the way forward. His goal to make it 2-1 was so important.”

Ferran Torres rammed in a headed pass by Raphinha to equalize for Barcelona in the 38th.

Inter suffered another blow when Lautaro Martínez had to be substituted at halftime, but Dumfries charged in to head home a corner kick to put Inter back ahead in the 63rd.

Raphinha needed two minutes to pull Barcelona level again when his blistering shot from outside the top of the box struck the crossbar, ricocheted off the back of goalkeeper Yann Sommer and found the net.

“Playing at home, we had the obligation to win,” Raphinha said. “But the result is not that bad and we will prepare for the second game so we come out on top.”

Barcelona is trying to reach its first final since 2015, when it collected its fifth title. In its first season under Flick, the Spanish club is also trying to repeat the treble of major trophies it won a decade ago.

Simone Inzaghi’s Inter is aiming for its second final in three years, after losing to Manchester City in the trophy match in 2023.

The last time three-time winner Inter lifted the European Cup it beat Barcelona at the same stage in 2010.

The winner will face either Paris Saint-Germain or Arsenal in Munich on May 31. PSG beat Arsenal 1-0 in London on Tuesday in their first match.