The 24-year-old Sri Lankan right-arm fast bowler Eshan Malinga made his IPL debut on Saturday evening (April 12), when his team SunRisers Hyderabad were hosting in-form Punjab Kings. Eshan impressed on his first outing in the IPL, while his team was struggling heavily. 

While SRH bowlers were thrashed in the powerplay, Eshan Malinga controlled the game impressively on his IPL debut. He started to bowl in the first over after the powerplay, while Punjab Kings were batting at 89/1. In his first over, Eshan conceded only three runs and took the wicket of dangerous-looking opener Prabhsimran Singh, who scored 42 off 23 balls with seven fours and one six. 

In his second over, despite conceding two sixes, Eshan wasn’t very bad. The Sri Lankan pacer started his new spell in the 14th over of the innings, where he luckily got a wicket of Nehal Wadhera (27 runs in 22 balls) after conceding a four. In his final over, which was the 17th over of the innings, Eshan conceded four fours, including in the last three deliveries. He ended with the bowling figures of 4-0-45-2.

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Who is Eshan Malinga?

Eshan Malinga is a Sri Lankan right-arm fast-medium bowler who was born on February 4, 2001. He has already made his international debut, as he has played five ODIs for Sri Lanka. While he has taken four ODI wickets, he picked up three wickets (3/35) against New Zealand in the Auckland ODI last January. It was his third ODI, and Sri Lanka won that match by 140 runs after bundling out New Zealand for only 150 runs. 

Eshan has played 16 first-class matches, 17 List A games, and 16 T20s, where he picked up 39, 24, and 17 wickets, respectively.

Eshan Malinga already experienced SA20

Eshan serves for the Ragama Cricket Club in his domestic career. He played one match in the Lanka Premier League 2024 for Jaffna Kings. In the SA20 2024-25, he played for Paarl Royals, where he took four wickets in three matches. 

IPL 2025 auction: Eshan Malinga's winning bid price

In the IPL 2025 mega auction, SunRisers Hyderabad won Eshan’s bid for INR 1.20 crore, while his base price was INR 30 lakh.