IPL 2022: Who is Ayush Badoni and why is he Lucknow Super Giants' next big superstar?

Who is Ayush Badoni? Where was he all this time? These were some of the questions on the minds of cricket fans and experts after seeing the youngster help his side Lucknow Super Giants crawl out of the sinkhole in their debut IPL game vs Gujarat Titans. The 22-year-old walked into bat when the Super Giants were staring down the barrel at 29/4 against a fire-breathing Mohd Shami. The Delhi lad was nervous and rightly so as he was facing thunderbolts from perhaps the best exponents of seam bowling in the world.

But his nervousness soon turned into confidence as he rattled the big names like Rashid Khan and Lockie Ferguson and smashed sixes of their bowling. His innings not only helped Lucknow put up a decent total on the board but also restored the confidence in the team after the nightmarish start to their IPL campaign.

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Ayush Badoni's story is a quintessential story of persistence and struggling with Delhi cricket. After getting a lot of success in the under-19 days, Badoni fell through the cracks of Delhi cricket but found a mentor in the form of Gautam Gambhir who managed to keep him afloat.

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Ayush Badoni credits Gambhir for all his success, he said, "Gautam bhaiya backed me a lot. He told me to play just my natural game. He told me you won't get the one-odd match, but you will get a proper run. He also told me, 'you don't need to play according to the situation. There are senior players to do that. You show us your natural game'.

Ayush Badoni's innings on Monday night in Mumbai was like reading the tale of David vs Goliath. Sadly, in this tale, the David perished to the Goliath but not before inflicting some damage and learning a lot in the process.

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Disclaimer: Editorji is part of RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group