IPL 2025: Is Mumbai Indians’ New Mystery Spinner Allah Ghazanfar the Next Sunil Narine?

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IPL 2025: In the IPL 2025 mega auction, Mumbai Indians’ ₹4.8 crore acquisition of Allah Ghazanfar flew under the radar among a flurry of big-money signings.

The 18-year-old mystery spinner from Afghanistan, while far from a household name yet, certainly has the potential to be a world beater, and whispers of the “next Sunil Narine” flew once his transfer to MI was confirmed.

Sunil Narine, the West Indian off-spinner, has arguably been the best spinner that IPL has seen since its inception in 2007. Getting earmarked as his successor will certainly be a heavy burden on any teenager – think how many “next Lionel Messi”s failed in football – but does Ghazanfar have the skill set to achieve that feat?

Finally the Next Sunil Narine in IPL?

The parallels are easy to draw between Allah Ghazanfar and Sunil Narine, the league’s original mystery spinner. Both players will come in and make their IPL debuts as under-the-radar picks, hoping to provide a different arsenal to their team that they have lacked before.

Way back in 2012, Narine was signed by KKR as a fresh-faced, mohawk-sporting off-spinner with a fascinating action who had impressed in the 2011 Champions League T20. That he would go on to be a bonafide legend of the franchise could not have been predicted by anyone, including the player himself.

Allah Ghazanfar’s situation at MI ahead of the IPL 2025 season is similar. He was a part of the KKR squad last season – under the tutelage of Narine himself – but played a grand total of zero matches for the team.

His form for the national team has been quite stunning in contrast. He took an excellent six-wicket haul against Bangladesh in the recent bilateral ODI series, and also stood out in the Emerging Teams Asia Cup with six wickets.

In the shortest format of the game, he has shown a fantastic sense of maturity, with 29 wickets in 16 matches along with an economy rate of 5.71.

It’s more than just the numbers though. Anyone who has watched Ghazanfar stupifying batters with his wide array of variations will immediately draw comparisons with Narine. Despite being exactly half Narine’s age, Ghazanfar has shown remarkable skills in bowling off-spin, backspin, carrom balls, and googlies.

Even his flowing bowling action, which makes it so hard for batters to read his intentions, reminds players of Sunil Narine, who had to undergo a change in action in 2020.

Mumbai Indians Need to Manage Allah Ghazanfar Expectations With Knight Riders Rivalry Backdrop

The Allah Ghazanfar and Sunil Narine debate can also be viewed from the point of view of a larger rivalry between Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians. If fans can go back to the 2012 IPL auction where the KKR bought Narine, it was MI that they outbid, going up to $700,000 (around ₹3.44 crore at that time) for the player.

The roles have reversed this time, with KKR – despite a clear plan to go back for the ex-player – being outbid by MI for Allah Ghazanfar. If the Afghan prodigy lives up anywhere near the achievements of his West Indian counterpart, Mumbai Indians will consider this revenge well taken.

If such a transformation does take place, KKR will also rue their luck. They had Ghazanfar on their books, possibly with a look to replace the now-36-year-old Narine, but they did not give him even one outing. If the youngster does make it good at Mumbai, Venky Mysore will be left with egg on his face.

The expectations must be managed in the short term though. As mentioned, Ghazanfar has no experience in the IPL, and it is no easy fit to just come in and make an impact in what is the biggest stage of all in franchise cricket.

Mumbai Indians’ home ground will provide little help to him either. Compared to the spin-friendly nature of other stadiums such as Chepauk, Wankhede is known for its fast and bouncy tracks. While spinners may get some assistance in day-night matches as the game progresses, T20 cricket will offer no such respite to them.

Ghazanfar, as such, will have his work cut out to make a big impact in his first season, especially with other spin options such as Mitchell Santner providing more with the bat.

While the Knight Riders were successful in immediately integrating Narine to their bowling unit and building their attack based on him, Mumbai Indians will not have it so easy, considering their previous failures to utilise spinners effectively.