Every pacer dreams of scooping up a wicket in the first over they bowl. Few actually get to do it. Fewer still get to do it thrice, and that too on the biggest stage in the format - the Indian Premier League. Vidarbha quick Praful Hinge had a debut to savour with Sunrisers Hyderabad recently, removing the Rajasthan Royals top order in his opening over.
“I played a Under-23 game against Vaibhav Sooryavanshi,” Praful said during a Jiostar Press Room interaction on Thursday. “I got him out on the same bouncer. I thought that if I bowl the same ball, he would hit it, because he was hitting everyone on the first ball.”
The 15-year-old, we now know, took the bait.
Praful has an envious battalion of big hitters to train with in the nets, so Sooryavanshi was not entirely out of syllabus.
“Their style of playing is like that. They hit every ball. Their approach in the nets is like that (too). When we bowl to them, we think of it as a match.”
Funnily, the 24-year-old relies on a tried and tested red-ball approach to succeed in the fast-paced life in T20s.
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“With the new ball, we should test the batters as much as possible. We play red ball cricket with patience. We should follow that. And we did that with success.”
Praful’s ambitions were born from the hard work of his father, Prakash, who was employed by the Maharashtra State Electricity Board in Nagpur. He also credits his elder sister as his inspiration.
“My father used to leave the house at 8am, and my sister would study well into the night. I would wake up at 4am, and she was still up. I, too, wanted to achieve something and make my family feel good. They are huge sources of motivation for me.
“I trained as a 13-year-old with my father. He would get tired, but I’d still want to keep going. I was stubborn. At that time, all I knew was I wanted to play for India. I didn’t know what domestic or club cricket was.”
He eventually climbed the ladder of age-group cricket, played the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, and got SRH’s attention. That helped him link up with his idol Pat Cummins, who is currently making his way back to the XI after a long injury layoff. Praful was admiringly starstruck, he remembered.
“When I met him for the first time, I told him I am his biggest fan and that I’ve been watching all his bowling videos and following everything he does. He was warm and said he’d be there to help me out.”
Cummins had a simple funda for Praful.
“During training sessions, he would say, ‘Do whatever you’re doing with your heart. Everyone knows T20 is a batter’s game. Enjoy the game, smile and win.’”
Published on Apr 23, 2026