Over the years, the Indian Premier League has turned many dreams into reality. We see a lot of new faces every year and it is going to be no different this year. It has now become a launch-pad for young players, which thrusts them on to bigger and better things. Their journey from being uncapped to becoming a capped national player has been well documented for all these years.
Jasprit Bumrah, Rishabh Pant, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav are some of the names for whom the IPL formed the base of their careers, and as the 2019 edition of the tournament begins, more players are ready to show what they are capable of.
Let us now have a look at eight uncapped players who are expected to shine this season:
1) Shivam Dube
Twenty-five-year-old Shivam Dube was the most attractive option in the auction pool of IPL 2019. He burst onto the scene last year when he hit veteran spinner Pravin Tambe for five consecutive sixes in a Mumbai T20 League fixture. He attracted further attention on the eve of the IPL auction when he hit five sixes off five deliveries once again, in a Ranji Trophy match against Baroda.
His exploits helped him to land a 5 crore INR deal with the Royal Challengers Bangalore this year, which was 25 times of his base price of 20 Lakhs.
Apart from his big hitting prowess, Dube is also a wicket-taking seamer capable of bowling in the mid-130s. He has 14 T20, 23 List-A and 28 first-class wickets to his name at excellent averages of 23.00, 26.60 and 22.57 respectively.
2) Varun Chakravarthy
He is the latest addition to IPL’s list of mystery spinners. Chakravarthy shot to fame during Siechem Madurai Panthers’ title winning TNPL 2018 campaign in which he claimed 9 wickets at a meagre overall economy rate of 4.70. He followed that up with 22 wickets in 9 matches during Tamil Nadu’s Vijay Hazare Trophy campaign and also made his Ranji Trophy debut after that. His variations, which amount to a total of seven, impressed everyone. He was finally bought by the Kings XI Punjab for a whopping price of 8.4 crore INR, which was 42 times of his base price of 20 Lakhs INR.
3) Prabh Simran Singh
The 18-year old wicket-keeper batsman from Punjab was bought by the Kings XI Punjab for 4.8 crore INR.
Prabh Simran is an explosive batsman who was part of the Indian team that ended up as runners up in the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup in Sri Lanka. He shot to fame after smashing 298 runs off 301 deliveries for Punjab in an U-23 tournament last year. He idolises Adam Gilchrist and is a wicket-Keeper batsman like him. We may well see him slotting in as KXIP’s primary wicket-keeper throughout the season this year.
4) Suryakumar Yadav
He may not belong to the young brigade but Suryakumar Yadav is one of the most underrated batsmen in the Indian domestic circuit. He shone with his batting exploits in IPL 2018 having scored 512 runs at 36.57 while opening the batting for the Mumbai Indians, thus emerging as their highest run getter for the season as well. He has continued his rich vein of form ever since.
The recently concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 saw him scoring 360 runs for Mumbai in 10 matches at a superb average of 51.42, and an equally good strike-rate of 145.16. This year, he may even outdo his last year's IPL performance considering the kind of form he is in.
5) Nitish Rana
The Delhi all-rounder played a pivotal part in Kolkata Knight Riders’ run to the semifinals last year. Batting in the middle order, he scored 304 runs at an average of 23.38, that too at a healthy strike-rate of 131.03. He picked up four wickets at an average of 11.00 as well, and thus helped Kolkata find balance in a squad which looked quite shorthanded at the end of the auction last year.
6) Ishan Kishan
Kishan mostly opened the batting for the Mumbai Indians last year, and amassed 275 runs at 22.91, which included two fifties as well. The most impressive part about his batting was his strike-rate which neared 150.
He has been in fine form since then, doing well in Ranji Trophy, on India ‘A’ tours and now in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy as well. He would like to carry the momentum forward into this IPL season.
7) Prayas Ray Barman
The 16-year old leg spinner from Bengal is one to watch out for. He shot himself to fame last year when he picked up 11 wickets at an economy rate of 4.45, and he is continuing the good work in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy as well, having picked up 4 wickets at an average of 16.00. He has a bag full of tricks and it looks like he is going to play a pivotal part in Royal Challengers Bangalore’s campaign this year.
8) Anmolpreet Singh
Prabh Simran’s cousin Anmolpreet will play for Mumbai Indians this season. In his maiden Ranji Trophy appearance in 2017/18, Anmolpreet smashed 753 runs at an average of 125.50, thus emerging as the fourth highest run getter of the tournament. His scores included two double tons and one century as well. He is now playing for Punjab as a middle-order batsman in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Mumbai Indians need to realise the potential of this young batsman and should give him an extended run to strengthen their shaky middle order throughout the season.
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