IPL 2026: Who is Danish Malewar? All you need to know about Mumbai Indians debutant from Vidarbha

Promising young batter Danish Malewar made his Indian Premier League (IPL) debut on Monday for Mumbai Indians (MI) in their IPL 2026 match against Gujarat Titans (GT) in Ahmedabad.

Malewar was acquired by Mumbai Indians for his base price of ₹30 lakh at the IPL 2026 mini-auction in December 2025.

He began his cricket journey at the City Gymkhana Academy under coaches Swaroopraj Shrivastava and Nitin Gawande.

He joined the academy when he was just seven years old, and he made quick and steady progress.

By the age of 12, he played for the Vidarbha Under-14 team. His work ethic was second to none—he once returned from a tour at 2 AM, and he insisted on playing an Under-14 tournament's final. He went on and scored a century, despite having very little rest between matches.

He slammed two centuries and six half-centuries, and ended up as the team's third highest run-getter. He is comfortable batting at the No.3 spot and welcomes the responsibility of building the innings. He focuses on seeing off the new ball and batting deep into the matches.

Till date, Danish Malewar has played 15 first-class matches and has scored 1285 runs at an average of 49.42.

He has registered 10 half-centuries and three centuries, and even scored 203 runs for Central Zone in his Duleep Trophy debut in August 203. He retired out after reaching the milestone.

The Mumbai Indians newbie aims to build his own batting identity, and takes inspiration from Sachin Tendulkar and KL Rahul. From drives to flicks and sweeps, he aims to master every shot in the book. Several people in the Vidarbha cricketing fraternity are of the opinion that this is just the start of Danish Malewar's cricketing journey.