A pat on the shoulders and a few words of appreciation from legendary Mahendra Singh Dhoni would go a long way for the unheralded Mumbai Indians' 24-year-old spinner Vignesh Puthur, who announced himself on the big stage of IPL with a three-wicket haul on debut.
It wasn't just his skills that made the world take notice of the left arm wrist bowler from Kerala, his doggedness and self-belief were equally compelling.
Puthur's three-wicket burst included prized scalps of Ruturaj Gaikwad (53), Shivam Dube (9) and Deepak Hooda (3), who all failed to clear the ropes off the wily 24-year-old.
“(It is) never easy -- (the) first game against CSK -- it's a big game. But purely the way he responded, hats off to him,” former India and current MI bowling coach Paras Mhambrey told the media after the match on Sunday night.
“He was able to hold his nerves and handle pressure superbly, (he) really got us in the game. Very happy about his performance,” he added.
MI have unearthed talent like Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya from the far-reaches in the past and Puthur only serves a reminder of their robust scouting system.
"Amazing, MI is known for that -- giving youngsters opportunities, the scouts do this for 10 months and he (Vignesh) is a product of that,” said MI's stand-in skipper and India T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav after the match.
He hasn't yet played First-Class cricket but Puthur's talent was enough for MI to bring him on board.
The nurturing began immediately after Puthur joined the camp. From interacting with the coaches to accessing the training facilities as well as working with analytics and data, his cricket journey took flight and Puthur soaked it all in.
“We never expected him to play in the first match itself. We are so happy. We never even thought he will get an IPL contract. Now, a lot of people are calling us to congratulate, and hopefully he will live up to everybody's expectations,” said Sunil Kumar, his father.
Puthur's mother Bindu was equally delighted.
“He had called up last evening saying there was a chance for me to play tonight. We were watching every ball last night, and this was his performance. He called us around 12.30 am last night after the match and then again he called after an hour.
"He was so happy. I have never seen him so happy. We also could not sleep because of happiness."
Puthur's childhood coach Vijayan, who has worked with renowned Mumbai coach Vasu Paranjpe said, “He's got a lot of time ahead of him. Hopefully he will climb a lot more heights. A very disciplined kid, and he worked hard on his a tough craft like left-arm wrist spin.”
When asked about the potential that MI saw in the left-arm spinner, Mhambrey said. "The idea at MI is always seeing the potential more than anything else, and when we saw him for one of our trials, we saw the potential in him rather than looking into how much cricket he has played in the past."
Puthur attended MI's selection trials in November ahead of the mega auction and after he was picked for a base price of Rs 30 lakh, he was sent to be around the MI Cape Town team which won the SA20 tournament.
He spent around a month bowling in the nets alongside MI Cape Town skipper Rashid Khan, while bowling coach Lasith Malinga also kept an eye on the young spinner and the two developed a bond.
Back from a successful stint, it was now time to impress the big names and Puthur did exactly that.
"When Rohit (Sharma) and Surya and Tilak (Varma), all these guys batted against him, they felt it wasn't that easy, so (that was) one of the reasons we felt we had the confidence of pushing him in this game,” Mhambrey said.
“Yes, he spins the ball, (he is) pretty consistent, lands the ball on pretty much what (areas) we wanted, he is pretty accurate with it. Those are the tick marks that we look into,” the former India pacer added.
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