'I even enjoyed my failures': Raghu Sharma's journey to the IPL via Galle, England and the Jagannath temple

"At 25, I was told I was too old."

That is legspinner Raghu Sharma recalling the time he was dropped from Punjab's Ranji Trophy squad. Eight years later, he is getting ready to make his IPL debut with five-time champions Mumbai Indians. It has been an unconventional route, to say the least.

Raghu was a net bowler for MI during the 2025 IPL but was signed by the franchise midway through the season as an injury replacement for left-arm wristspinner Vignesh Puthur. Despite not getting a game, Raghu was retained. Those are the least interesting bits about his journey.

Born and brought up in Jalandhar, Punjab, Raghu didn't play serious cricket growing up, taking it up only after turning 18. Since then, his career has taken him from Punjab to Puducherry in India, to Galle in Sri Lanka, and Stoke-on-Trent in England, with Shane Warne, Imran Tahir and Lord Krishna playing key roles along the way.

Raghu comes from a family of doctors and engineers and was set to follow that path when he enrolled to study electrical engineering in Jalandhar in 2011. India had just won the ODI World Cup. That piqued his interest in cricket and he started going to nearby Burlton Park for practice. However, there was one problem.

"I weighed around 102kg," Raghu says. "If you see my old photos on Facebook, two-three Raghus of today can fit into that Raghu. And since I had not played any cricket until then, the coaches' response was not very encouraging. But I was determined.

"I realised I needed to lose weight. I would go to the ground in the afternoon, in 45-46°C heat. No one else would be there, but I would keep running and running. After that, I would bowl non-stop for two hours. Within six months, I lost 30-35kg."

Raghu started as a fast bowler, but one day, after pulling a hamstring, he started bowling legcutters without a run-up. That is when Madan Lal, a coach at the Jalandhar District Cricket Association, took notice and advised him to switch to legspin.

Soon, Raghu found someone to not only inspire him but also teach him the basics of the art. It was former Australia legspinner Warne.

"I started legspin by watching his videos," Raghu says. "His 'Leg Spin Tutorial' is still there [on YouTube]. It's about 9-9.5 minutes long, where he explains everything, starting from how to grip the ball: two fingers up, two fingers down. How to bowl a legbreak, how to bowl a wrong'un from the back of the hand, how to bowl a flipper (snaps his fingers), the slider... I would watch it again and again, and try it out in the nets.

"I had a great desire to meet him because, in a way, he is my mentor - I still watch his videos before a match."

Raghu moulded himself into an old-school legspinner, relying on flight and turn to deceive batters. Over the years, former India spinners M Venkataramana and Rahul Sharma became his "guiding lights" and remain so to date.

It did not take long for Raghu to start playing at state level. Initially his family did not support his cricket, but that changed gradually. "Once I started doing well, my father told me I could pursue cricket but not at the cost of studies," he says with a smile.

Having started late, though, there was a lot of catching up to do, both in terms of acquiring skills and playing experience. Also, the cards were stacked against him in that selectors generally gravitate towards young talent coming up through age-group cricket.

"You need to be mentally very strong and focused," Raghu says. "You ought to take it as a challenge that you have to give 150-200%, because 100% won't do."

Though he was not getting picked for Punjab, his talent did not go unnoticed. In 2016, Harbhajan Singh recommended Raghu's name as a net bowler for MI. Seeing his potential, the franchise called him for trials the following season, but he flunked it.

Eventually, in 2017-18, under the captaincy of Yuvraj Singh, he made his first-class debut for Punjab. In his second outing, he took seven wickets against Goa, but he was dropped for the rest of the season. He got one game the following season, after which he was forgotten altogether.

In search of better opportunities, he moved to Puducherry and made his List A and T20 debuts for them, in 2020-21. Even there, he didn't get many chances. Raghu calls this his "struggling period", but he had something in his life to stay afloat.

In 2014, his family visited Vrindavan, a city in Uttar Pradesh where Lord Krishna is believed to have spent most of his childhood. The visit had such an impact on Raghu that he moved to the state soon after and started following the traditions of Vaishnavism, which, among other things, prohibits eating onions and garlic. To follow such a diet, he started taking cookware along and making his own meals when travelling with the team.

"I was very firm on this: no matter what, I will not eat onion and garlic," he says. "Sometimes coaches did not like this. They would say, 'Are you here to play or cook?' Gradually, I realised that it could affect my cricket. So I started asking the hotel chef to prepare one meal for me separately. Other meals I would either order from outside or manage on my own. But I never missed this discipline even one day."

That ability to stick to his principles helped him survive difficult times.

"I feel God sees everything. If you are doing your work with discipline, you will definitely get the reward. Most players give up due to mental stress, but because of the spiritual part of my life, stress never entered my life. I enjoyed even my failures."

Rewards came from unexpected places. In 2022, he landed a gig with Galle Cricket Club in Sri Lanka's premier first-class tournament, and took 46 wickets at 15.71 in six games, including five wickets in an innings five times and three ten-wicket match hauls.

It was a short-lived stint, though, as Sri Lanka Cricket changed the rules after that season. An overseas player could participate only if he had played at least five first-class games in his home country. By the time the next season came around, Raghu had played only four.

But another avenue opened up and he spent the summer of 2023 playing club cricket in England. Representing Longton 1st XI in the premier division of the North Staffs and South Cheshire League, he picked up 43 wickets in 21 limited-overs games to finish as the third-highest wicket-taker.

Former South Africa legspinner Imran Tahir was playing for Wedgwood in the third division of the league. Raghu caught up with him after a game - an interaction that "transformed" him as a bowler, he says.

"I was in Stoke-on-Trent. When I learnt Imran bhai was also playing a game there, I went to meet him. After the match, he took me to the centre wicket and gave me a good 40 minutes [of mentoring]. You know, he speaks Punjabi… he started telling me how he bowls the legbreak, how he bowls the googly.

"After that, I changed my action, which helped me with speed variation. Earlier, I would not bowl a googly, but thanks to him, I have mastered it a bit. Those things helped me straightaway. In the first half in England, I did not get too many wickets, but in the second, I took a bagful."

Back in India, things were not working out with Puducherry, so after the 2023-24 season, Raghu decided to move back to Punjab. He was looking to play in the Shere Punjab T20 Cup but he did not get a no-objection certificate in time. When it was time for the Ranji Trophy, he failed the yo-yo test and 2km run, and was not considered for selection.

"It broke my heart," Raghu says. "I left everything and went to Jagannath [temple in] Puri - whenever my mind is disturbed, I move towards God. That's where I get my mental peace back.

"I made a training schedule: one day I would run at the beach, the next day I would do strength training, and in parallel I would keep bowling. But when I did not get a call-up for T20s, I felt it was all over. I even started thinking about playing club cricket in Odisha."

Then, just before the 2024-25 Vijay Hazare Trophy, Wasim Jaffer, the Punjab coach then, called and asked him to take the fitness tests again. Raghu took a flight the same day, got to Mohali the next morning and cleared the tests.

In the Vijay Hazare Trophy, he took 14 wickets in eight games at an average of 23.71 and an economy of 5.13, helping his team reach the quarter-finals. Only Arshdeep Singh (20) took more wickets for Punjab.

Then, during the 2025 IPL, Raghu impressed the MI team management enough in the nets and the intra-squad matches that when an opportunity came, they signed him.

"I had to wait eight years but I came back to the same franchise," Raghu says, remembering his failed trial in 2017. "But this time I came as a transformed person. There was a change in my bowling. There was a change in my fitness. I did well in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. I was recognised."