IPL 2024: Who is Joshua Little? - Everything You Need to Know About Gujarat Titans' young pacer

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Gujarat Titans (GT) faced each other in match 52 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. In a brilliant bowling display by RCB at their home ground, Chinnaswamy Stadium, GT were bowled out for 145 after being asked to bat first. RCB came on the back of two consecutive wins and the target looked comfortable for them to chase down.

RCB openers captain Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli came out all guns blazing and showed their intent right away. The Proteas batter was the more aggressive of the two, scoring 64 off 23 balls to help the team reach 92 in just six overs. However, RCB slipped to 117/6 in the space of five overs, with Afghanistan's Joshua Little wreaking havoc with the ball.

Just before the end of the powerplay, Little made a huge breakthrough by dismissing the dangerous du Plessis. That wasn't enough for GT fans to hope for a comeback. But the left-arm pacer did not let them down as he came back in his third over and dismissed two more RCB batters - Rajat Patidar and Glenn Maxwell. Coming back in his last over, the Afghan pacer sent Cameron Green packing and claimed his fourth wicket of the night.

Afghanistan unearths a rare talent in Joshua Little

Joshua Little is a 24-year-old talented left-arm pacer from Afghanistan. He made his T20I debut against Hong Kong on 5 September 2016 at the age of 16, becoming the second youngest player to play at international level after Hong Kong's Waqas Khan. Given his potential, the selectors were keen on selecting him for the 2016 U-19 World Cup. 

Little has represented the Asian side in 36 ODIs and 66 T20Is, taking 56 and 78 wickets, respectively. He became the first Irishman to be picked in the IPL auction when Gujarat Titans signed him for Rs 4.4 crore in the 2023 mini-auction. He made his IPL debut on 31 March 2023 against Chennai Super Kings, registering figures of 1-41 from 4 overs to become the first Irish cricketer to take a wicket in the IPL.

Meanwhile, despite his heroics (4/45 in four overs), GT could not win the game against RCB. Du Plessis and Kohli's early damage brought the team closer to the finish line although they lost half of their side in the first half. Dinesh Karthik (21* off 12) and Swapnil Singh (15* off 9) remained unbeaten to take RCB over the line in 13.4 overs to record a big win.