Abishek Poral ( Photo source : X / Twitter )
Delhi Capitals found a new hero in the form of Abishek Porel during their opening game of IPL 2024. The 21-year-old struck 32 runs from just 10 balls with four boundaries and two sixes. Abishek Porel left the experienced Harshal Patel clueless with his assault in the final over.
Walking into bat in the 18th over as the Impact Player, the Bengal star replaced Ricky Bhui. At a time when the Delhi Capitals were struggling to post a good total on the board, Abishek Porel was the biggest difference-maker for his side.
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Social media and cricket fans have gone abuzz after the Bengal youngster’s exploits in the final over of the innings. Rishabh Pant who made his emotional return to the game was seen enjoying the display along with Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly.
Abishek Porel: A replacement player who stunned the world
IPL 2023 saw Rishabh Pant miss the action after his accident towards the end of 2022. The youngster made his debut for Delhi Capitals during the IPL 2023 season. His very first match for the Capitals was against the then-defending champions Gujarat Titans.
Abishek Porel showed no nerves as he smashed 20 runs off 11 balls with two sixes before being castled by Rashid Khan. The next three games weren’t of note from the blade of Porel who could manage only 13 runs from those matches.
It is worth noting that the youngster is the cousin brother of Bengal pacer Ishan Porel who is a former Under-19 World Cup winner. The youngster made his Ranji Trophy debut for Bengal in 2022 against Baroda.
In his just his first innings, Abishek Porel scored 21 off 19 balls as Bengal were bundled out for 88. Chasing 350 to win, Shahbaz Ahmed and Abishek Porel added an unbeaten 108 runs for the 7th wicket in 22 overs to pull off an amazing win. So far the 21-year-old has played 23 Ranji games and scored 1072 runs with a solitary ton at an average of 33. Behind the stumps, he has already pouched 85 catches along with nine stumpings.
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In the List A format, Abishek Porel has played 11 games with 275 runs with two half-centuries. It is in the T20 format that the youngster has become a raging hit as he has hit 294 runs so far from 14 games with a strike rate of 140 with two half-centuries. During the Syed Mushtaq Ali 2023 tournament, Porel played seven games and scored 239 runs with an average of 39.8 and a strike rate of 152.