Who is Praful Hinge? SRH pacer first to take three wickets in opening over

The Indian Premier League (IPL) has found a new star in the form of Praful Hinge, the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) bowler who picked up three wickets in the very first over of the match against the Rajasthan Royals (RR), that too on his debut.

Born in Nagpur on January 18, 2002, in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, Hinge was picked up by SRH in the mini auction for his base price of INR 30 lakh. The right-arm seamer was first named as part of the Impact Sub bench for their game against the Punjab Kings, but did not make an official appearance. 

Hinge comes from a very humble background in his hometown of Nagpur. During his early cricketing years, he struggled with control and even had an illegal bowling action. He went on to join the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) pathway, where he caught the eyeballs thanks to his pace and the ability to hit the deck hard. 

The pace bowler made his domestic debut for Vidarbha in the Ranji Trophy against Puducherry in 2024. He played four games in his maiden campaign, taking 11 wickets along the way. In his debut season, Vidarbha went on to win the First-Class tournament, beating Kerala in the final on first innings lead. 

Despite only being 24 years old, Hinge has already achieved success at the domestic level. Apart from the Ranji Trophy, the right-arm seamer has also formed part of Vidarbha’s 2025-26 Vijay Hazare Trophy-winning squad, where he took five wickets. 

It is worth mentioning that prior to making his IPL debut with SRH, Hinge only had one T20 appearance to his name, which came against Andhra Pradesh in the 2025-26 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He ended up with figures of 1 for 23, where his solitary scalp was Andhra captain Ricky Bhui. 

Cut to April 2026, where he has instantly become a household name after taking the wickets of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel and Lhuan-dre Pretorius in the first over of the game. In doing so, he became the first bowler in IPL history to take three wickets in the opening over of an innings.