Former India player Aakash Chopra has hailed Mukul Choudhary for playing a game-changing knock in the Lucknow Super Giants’ (LSG) IPL 2026 meeting against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). He highlighted that the 21-year-old prodigy won LSG a virtually lost match.
KKR set LSG a 182-run goal in the 15th game of IPL 2026 at Kolkata on Thursday, April 9. On the final ball of the match, Choudhary’s team won by three wickets thanks to his undefeated 54 from 27 deliveries in the chase.
In a video posted to his YouTube account, “Aakash Chopra,” the former Indian batsman commended Choudhary for saving the day.
“Mukul Choudhary, brother, a star is born. He has played an incredible knock. In a game where there wasn’t even a hope for a win, this boy showed confidence there. ‘You guys are thinking it’s difficult to win this game, but I am just counting the number of sixes that I have to get.’ What a player, and what a knock,” Chopra said.
“They had no business winning this game. The Lucknow Super Giants had lost this game because no batter was left. Only Mukul Choudhary was left, and he is a kid who is playing his first IPL,” he added.
In their IPL 2026 match against the Kolkata Knight Riders, the Lucknow Super Giants were in terrible shape at 128/7 after 16 overs. After that, Mukul Choudhary and Avesh Khan put together an uninterrupted eighth-wicket partnership of 54 runs, with Khan getting just one run off the three balls he faced.
“He had started farming the strike from the 16th over” – Aakash Chopra on Mukul Choudhary’s innings in LSG’s IPL 2026 win vs KKR
In the same video, Aakash Chopra highlighted that Mukul Choudhary was obliged to farm the strike from the 16th over of the Lucknow Super Giants’ chase in their IPL 2026 battle against the Kolkata Knight Riders.
“He had started farming the strike from the 16th over because he didn’t have confidence in the batters at the other end. Actually, the Lucknow Super Giants are the team that has seven batters and five bowlers. You can play 12 players because you have an Impact Player, but the batting ends at No. 7, and they don’t have a sixth bowler. It is something that they need to address,” he said.
The Rajasthan wicketkeeper-batter hit sixes all over the park, according to the former cricket player who is now a commentator.
“They had fallen way behind, and the batting was over, but he kept hitting sixes. He hit Cameron Green and Vaibhav Arora, and he won the game single-handedly. Every time he played two dot balls, he hit a six after that, and he hit everywhere. He brought out a small helicopter as well. He pulled short balls for sixes, hit behind as well, and the six he hit over cover was the icing on the cake. Brilliant, well done,” Chopra observed.
At the beginning of the Lucknow Super Giants’ 17th over, Mukul Choudhary was on two runs off six balls. He struck at least two boundaries in each of the final four overs, smashing 52 runs off his next twenty-one balls.
