The Indian Premier League (IPL) has always been known for providing a platform to the youngsters of Indian cricket to shine and make a name for themselves in international cricket. There have been quite a few occasions when some players being bought in the auction of the league and getting a handful of chances and shining in them. Many of them also managed to play for India colors and some have had stellar careers.
The recent IPL auction for the 2020 edition saw quite a few youngsters being bought by the eight franchises, mostly for their base prices in order to fulfill the numbers in their squads and it may not be even sure that many of the players will get a chance in the middle to play, but being in the same dressing room as some of the biggest cricketing superstars may prove to be a learning experience.
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One such player who might get valuable time with international stars is Maharashtra’s Digvijay Deshmukh, who is 21 years old and has played one first-class match and 7 T20 matches for the domestic team. A right-hand batsman and a right-arm fast-medium bowler, Digvijay has made 104 runs and taken 15 wickets to boot for in those matches.
Digvijaywas bought by Mumbai Indians for his base price of ₹20 lakhs. However, there is something more interesting than that about Deshmukh and that is that he is already a Bollywood starlet.
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Deshmukh a relatively unknown name in Indian cricket, is already a Bollywood actor and has appeared in the much-acclaimed 2013 flick Kai Po Che, featuring Sushant Singh Rajput, Amit Sadh, Rajkumar Rao, Manav Kaul, and others. The movie is based on the three characters of Sushant, Amith, and Rajkummar trying to make a big cricket star of a child prodigy Ali Hashmi, which was played by Deshmukh.
Digvijay Deshmukh has acted in a film called " Kai Po Che " when he was 14 year old. 7 years later, @mipaltan has picked him in the IPL auction ahead of the 13th season. #IPL2020 #IPLAuctionhttps://t.co/OqttobtBjw
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) December 20, 2019
Deshmukh made his FC debut in 2019-20 Ranji Trophy and had made his T20 debut on 12 November 2019, for Maharashtra in the 2019–20 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians, who bought him, also made a huge buy-in Chris Lynn, who was sold at his base price of ₹2 crores, a big fall from more than ₹9 cr on which KKR finally got his services. The franchise also bought other big names like Nathan Coulter-Nile and Saurabh Tiwary in the auction.
