Follow UsWanindu Hasaranga, who played for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) for two seasons, was back at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru to play his first game against his former team and struck in the first over.
The Sri Lankan got Phil Salt caught in the deep by Shimron Hetmyer and celebrated the wicket in Pushpa style, where he took his right arm to the chin and shaped it in the character of actor Allu Arjun from the Telugu movie Pushpa.
That specific move, when the movie was dubbed in Hindi, was called “Jhukega Nhi…”, which means I will never bow down.
Hasaranga, who played for RCB in the 2022 and 2023 seasons, was brought by Sunrisers Hyderabad for the 2024 season, but did not turn up for them because of injury.
Thus, after being bought by RR for INR 5.5 Cr, he is playing his first game against his former team. For RCB, Hasaranga took 35 wickets in 26 matches. Today, the leggie could have had two wickets, with the second being Virat Kohli, if Tushar Deshpande had not dropped the catch in his fourth over.