Mumbai: Mumbai left-arm spin all-rounder Atharva Ankolekar, who was bought by Mumbai Indians at the base price of Rs 30 lakh at the IPL 2026 auction on December 16 last year, will be forced to miss his IPL debut, TOI has learned, after undergoing knee surgery due to a recent injury.
Ankolekar was ruled out of the remainder of the Ranji Trophy season after suffering a torn meniscus during the Ranji Trophy match between Mumbai and Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad in January. The 25-year-old, who was defending at long-on, was injured while sliding to save a boundary and was eventually taken off the ground on a stretcher.
“Ankolekha’s surgery was performed by Dr Dinshaw Pardiwalla of Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Mumbai. His knee ‘locked’. It was just bad timing. He lost a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” a source tracking the developments told this newspaper on Saturday.
On May 7 last year, Ankolekar was bought by Eagle Thane Strikers at an auction for 16.25 million rupees, becoming the most expensive player in the Mumbai T20 League.
Ankolekar represented the India U-19 team in the 2020 U-19 World Cup and took 19 wickets at 30.47 in 25 T20 games while scoring 135 runs at 16.87 with a strike rate of 156.97.
He was one of the key performers in Mumbai’s bid to win the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy in 2024-25, taking 3 wickets in four matches at an economy rate of 6.33 at 19 points, in addition to a crucial 6-ball 16 not out in the final in Bengaluru, a 5-wicket win over Madhya Pradesh.
