Ashutosh Sharma

Ashutosh Sharma is an Indian domestic cricketer who plays for Railways. He is a right-handed batter.

Born in Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh, Ashutosh saw himself rising through the ranks, coming from hardships. His father, Ram Babu Sharma, was a compounder in a government hospital. He supported his son to pursue the sport and made him join the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association’s residential academy after Ashutosh shifted to Indore at the age of eight.

He trained under former India cricketer Amay Khurasiya, who used to run the academy then. Subsequently, Ashutosh did well in the age-group cricket, eventually making his T20 debut for Madhya Pradesh in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) 2017-18.

Ashutosh played in a List-A match for the first time in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2019-20. He scored three fifties in the SMAT 2019-20. However, as Chandrakant Pandit became the head coach of Madhya Pradesh in 2020, Ashutosh found himself out of the team’s plans.

Seeing no future at Madhya Pradesh, he joined Railways as a junior clerk in 2023. After impressing in the Colonel CK Nayudu Trophy, his moment of fame for Railways came in the T20 format, when he broke Yuvraj Singh’s record of the fastest fifty by an Indian in the shortest format.

In the SMAT 2023, Ashutosh blasted a half-century in just 11 balls against Arunachal Pradesh, hogging the headlines at a time when India were playing in the ODI World Cup 2023.

His blitzkrieg was not an aberration, as he continued to fire quick runs, scoring 45 (14) and 43 (14) against Saurashtra and Andhra Pradesh, respectively, later in the tournament.

The swashbuckler received the attention from Punjab Kings as the franchise snapped him up for INR 20 lakh in the IPL 2024 auction.

(As of March 2024)