Who is Naman Dhir: MI discovered him from Punjab's Domestic T-20 League, scored runs at a strike rate of 200 in IPL debut

24-year-old Naman Dhir surprised everyone with his shots and batting in the IPL with Mumbai Indians on Sunday against Gujarat Titans. Naman came to bat at number three for Mumbai and scored 20 runs in 10 balls at a strike rate of 200.

After Ishan Kishan was out for a duck in the first over of MI's innings, Dheer hit three fours and a six off Azmatullah Omarzai. Along with being a batsman, Dheer is also an off-spinner. He also bowled the tenth over in the first innings, in which 13 runs were scored.

24-year-old batsman Naman, born in Ambala, Haryana, is not a regular player of T-20. He is a part of Punjab Ranji team. But, Naman became famous in Punjab's state league Sher-e-Punjab T20 League, from where he came to the notice of the scouts of Mumbai Indians.

Mumbai gave big responsibility, landed at number-3
In the last few years, Mumbai Indians have played some big T20 batsmen from Suryakumar Yadav to Rohit Sharma and Cameron Green at number-3. In this series, Mumbai has given this big responsibility to Naman Dheer this season.

Second top scorer of Pansher-e-Punjab
Naman became famous in Punjab Cricket Association's league Sher-e-Punjab T20 Cup in August last year. In 12 innings of that tournament, Dhir scored 466 runs at a strike rate of 192.56 and an average of 42.36. This was also the second top score of the league. During this period, Naman scored centuries, the first was 127 runs on 56 balls and the second was 105 runs on 44 balls. A total of 30 sixes were included in this.

Dhir also participated in the DY Patil T-20 Cup 2024 for Reliance-1. MI team's Hardik Pandya, Piyush Chawla, Tilak Verma, Nehal Vadhera and Vishnu Vinod also participated in it. Playing among the big names, Dheer scored a half-century in the match against Jain Irrigation. In this innings he hit eight fours and one six.

Sold in auction for Rs 20 lakh
Naman Dheer was sold for Rs 20 lakh in the IPL auction held last year. Mumbai's scouting team (talent search team) discovered him from Punjab. Naman has played only 6 professional T20 matches in his career. In this, one match is of IPL and the other match is of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT). He also won SMAT with Punjab.

Naman, who plays first class cricket for Punjab, has scored 574 runs in 20 innings for the team, with the highest score of 134 against Gujarat, followed by 131 runs against Saurashtra. Both of them came in the 2023 season of Ranji Trophy. Naman scored a crucial 86 against Chandigarh in the 2024 season of the tournament.

Naman played brilliant shots on the pitch- Pollard
Mumbai batting coach Kieron Pollard said after the match, Naman played excellent shots on the pitch. I think Naman has a lot more to offer, even when we lost the first wicket he didn't look under pressure. His intention to attack was better.

Pollard further said, IPL is a big opportunity for players like Naman. As a franchise we will continue to bring forward new talent. We can move forward with continuity in the future also.