Top 5 best bowling figures on IPL debut ft. Ashwani Kumar

Ashwani Kumar announced his arrival at the grand stage of the IPL with a four-wicket haul on his debut for the Mumbai Indians. The left-arm fast bowler ran through the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium, powering MI to a comfortable eight-wicket win in their first home game of IPL 2025.

Ajinkya Rahane lost his wicket to Ashwani Kumar on the first ball that the youngster bowled in his IPL career. After that, Kumar accounted for the wickets of Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, and Manish Pandey to help ensure KKR managed only 116 in the first innings.

With this performance, Ashwani Kumar has become the first Indian bowler to take a four-wicket haul on his IPL debut but where does he rank on the overall list of debutants with the best bowling figures? Let's find out.

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#5 Kevon Cooper - 4/26 vs Punjab, 2012

A surprising name to feature on the list is of former Rajasthan Royals all-rounder Kevon Cooper. The Trinidadian made his IPL debut for RR in 2012 and scalped four wickets against the Kings XI Punjab.

Cooper dismissed danger man Paul Valthaty to get off the mark in the IPL. He followed it up with scalps of Shaun Marsh, Abhishek Nayar, and Piyush Chawla to help RR beat Punjab by 31 runs at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium.

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#4 Ashwani Kumar - 4/24 vs Kolkata, 2025

Mumbai Indians' newest star, Ashwani Kumar, has attained the fourth position on this elite list. The left-arm fast bowler bowled only three overs against the Kolkata Knight Riders, but he returned with four wickets.

Kumar became the 10th bowler in IPL history to take a wicket on the first ball of his career when he dismissed Ajinkya Rahane.

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#3 Shoaib Akhtar - 4/11 vs Delhi, 2008

Pakistani players have not played in IPL since the inaugural season in 2008. Yet, some Pakistani players etched their names in the IPL history books in that one season.

Playing for Kolkata Knight Riders against Delhi on his IPL debut in 2008, Shoaib Akhtar dismissed Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, AB de Villiers, and Manoj Tiwary to help KKR defend a 134-run target. Akhtar won the Man of the Match award for his spell of 4/11 in just three overs.

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#2 Andrew Tye - 5/17 vs Pune, 2017

Only two bowlers have taken five or more wickets on their IPL debut. One of them is former Gujarat Lions star Andrew Tye. While Tye had been a part of the Chennai Super Kings before, he made his IPL debut for GL in 2017.

Playing against Rising Pune Supergiant in Pune, Tye took five wickets, including a hat-trick. He dismissed Rahul Tripathi, Ben Stokes, Manoj Tiwary, Ankit Sharma, and Shardul Thakur to return with dream figures of 5/17 in four overs.

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#1 Alzarri Joseph - 6/12 vs Hyderabad, 2019

Like Ashwani Kumar, Alzarri Joseph had started his IPL career with a bang in the Mumbai Indians jersey. In 2019, Joseph bowled a game-changing spell of 6/12 in his debut game against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.

The Caribbean pacer dismissed David Warner on the first ball of his IPL career and followed it up with the wickets of Vijay Shankar, Deepak Hooda, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Siddarth Kaul to help MI defend a 137-run target in Hyderabad. Joseph conceded only 12 runs in 3.4 overs and even bowled a maiden over in that spell.