Ayush Badoni: Couldn't sleep the whole night before IPL debut, got hit for the first four, then boosted confidence again
Ayush Badoni had scored half-centuries in two warm-up matches for Lucknow. After this he got a chance to play in the match against Gujarat. He could not sleep the whole night before the debut match.
In IPL 2022, Lucknow Supergiants had to face defeat in their first match. Gujarat team won this match by four wickets. Deepak Hooda performed brilliantly for Lucknow, but a wrong decision by captain Rahul took the match away from the Lucknow team in Deepak’s over. Despite this close defeat, there were many positive aspects in this match for Lucknow. The superhit pair of Deepak Hooda and Krunal Pandya was one of them.
Apart from this pair, Ayush Badoni caught everyone’s attention by scoring a fine half-century. In his first IPL match, Badoni hit a fine half-century and took his team out with difficulty. He played an excellent innings of 54 runs in 41 balls. During this, his bat hit four fours and three sixes. Badoni plays for Delhi in domestic cricket.
Couldn’t sleep all night and then scored a half century
Badoni played two warm-up matches for Punjab this season and scored more than 50 runs in both. Because of this, he got a chance to play in the first match. After playing half-century, he told that when he came to know that he would be part of the team in the first match, he could not sleep through the night. In the very first match, when Badoni came to bat, his team’s score was struggling after losing four wickets at the score of 29 runs.
Badoni was under a lot of pressure at this time. However, when the first boundary came off his bat, he was convinced that he deserved to play at this level. After this, he thrashed the opposition captain Hardik Pandya fiercely. When Badoni returned to the pavilion, Lucknow’s team had scored 156 runs.
Who is Ayush Badoni
22 year old Ayush Badoni plays for Delhi in domestic cricket. He is an all-rounder who bowls off-spin and has a knack for playing useful innings down the order. While playing for India’s Under-19 team, Badoni made headlines for his brilliant performance against Sri Lanka. He took four wickets for 24 runs in the bowling of 9.3 overs in the four-day match. During this he also did two maiden overs. After this, he did wonders with the bat as well and scored 185 runs in 202 balls while batting at number seven.
Badoni had performed brilliantly in the 2018 Under 19 Asia Cup as well. He played an innings of 52 runs in 28 balls against Sri Lanka. Aayush, who made his T20 debut in January 2021, has played five home matches for Delhi. Badoni was bought by the Lucknow team in the IPL 2022 Mega Auction for a base price of 20 lakhs.
Rahul said baby AB
Lucknow captain Lokesh Rahul compared Ayush Badoni to Dewald Brevis, saying that like him, Badoni too has been doing wonders from day one. Gautam Gambhir has a big hand in bringing him to this level. Gambhir boosted his confidence from the very beginning and also gave him a chance in the Lucknow team. The result of this was that now Badoni is doing wonders for Lucknow Super Giants.
