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At the start of the week, Kumar Kartikeya Singh was undergoing his regular routine.

The left-arm spinner, who has played nine T20 matches for Madhya Pradesh since his debut in 2019, was a support bowler for the squad. He was helping the batters at the nets when suddenly, an opportunity arose.

Our all-rounder Md. Arshad Khan unfortunately had an injury and had to withdraw from the season but that opened the door for Kartikeya to fulfill his dream.

The spinner was drafted in as a replacement for Arshad and going by his reaction, it is easy to know that he couldn't quite believe what was happening.

“It still feels like a dream. When I wore the jersey, I was looking at myself in the mirror. I will first inform my coach and then my parents. Their reaction will be priceless - they had never thought I would reach this far,” Kartikeya said in his first interview.

His father, Shyamnath Singh - who is part of the Jhansi police force - expressed his immense joy.

“I was very happy when I got that call and he sent me photos of him in the MI jersey. It was a proud moment for me that a policeman’s son would play in the Tata IPL. I will be overjoyed if he plays for India one day!,” the proud father told the media.

It was a reward for a player who had not stopped working hard and was never bogged down by circumstances.

Born in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh, Kartikeya began playing cricket there but did not get too many opportunities to play.

It was then that someone suggested he move to Delhi, where he trained under coach Sanjay Bharadwaj. However, his luck did not change and the coach advised him to move to Madhya Pradesh in search of a chance to play domestic cricket.

It is here that Kartikeya came to the limelight. He played his first domestic match in the List A format for MP, picking 1/28 in 10 overs.

He then played in the Ranji Trophy for MP, where in just his third match, he had match figures of 9/86, including 6/28 in the first innings against Himachal Pradesh, which spun his team to victory by 140 runs.

Kartikeya made his T20 debut for the state in 2019 against Sikkim. He had figures of 3/10 in four overs and it was a sign of things to come.

In nine T20 matches for his MP, Kartikeya has 10 wickets at a phenomenal economy rate of 5.29, which is invaluable in the format.

After being formally drafted into the MI squad on April 28th, there was a further surprise in store for the spinner.

On April 30th, skipper Rohit Sharma - who was celebrating his birthday - and the rest of the think-tank felt they had seen enough and decided to hand Kartikeya his Tata IPL debut against the Rajasthan Royals.

And he repaid that faith in fine fashion. Brought in to bowl in the eighth over, Kartikeya struck in just his second ball, having opposing skipper, the dangerous Sanju Samson, caught at deep point.

He may have picked just the one wicket but the most impressive part of his performance were his variations.

Kartikeya bowled the regular left-arm off-spin, released the ball with the back of his hand to get the ball to turn away and also pushed the ball through with his fingers to make it skid, which constantly kept the RR batters guessing.

He eventually ended with fantastic figures of 1/19 in four overs and won the dressing room Player of the Match, earning the praise of head coach Mahela Jayawardene.

We are sure his parents must be beaming with pride as their son announced his arrival on the big stage in quite some style!