So far, in the 16th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), there have been 18 games. And it’s great to see that after these 18 games, young cricketers from their own country have shocked cricket fans with how well they’ve played.
While everyone was looking at the big guns that sold for a lot of money, their results were nothing special. The outsiders have done a pretty good job on the field.
After trials, many of these cricketers were picked up by their franchises from their different academies.
Here are five of those cricket players.
1. Tilak Varma (MI)
Thanks to the Mumbai Indians, the Hyderabad scout is a new IPL find. The left-handed hitter showed off his skills in the first game of the 2023 IPL when he hit 84 runs off 46 balls from the RCB bowlers.
Even though Varma debuted with Mumbai last year, he only scored 36.09 runs in 14 games and had a strike rate of 131. It was a good show.
But Varma has stepped up his game in the last year and improved his finishing skills. This year, his strikeout rate is above 140, and Varma has been hitting the ball well, coming in at number three.
In the last game that Mumbai Indians won against Delhi Capitals, Varma scored 41 runs quickly in 29 balls, hitting four sixes and one boundary.
Rohit Sharma will keep Varma at the third spot to bat for the next few games. This means that Varma will show off his skills even more.
2. Yashasvi Jaiswal (RR)
Since the start of the IPL in 2020, Jaiswal has been with the Rajasthan Royals. Jaiswal’s average score in the 10 games he played before last year was 25, and his hit rate was 138.
But Jaiswal looks different this year. Jaiswal knows what his team needs from him in the first six overs because he is the opener and is playing the game that way. In the last match against Delhi Capitals (DC), he played a superb inning of 60 runs in 31 balls, which got the team off to a great start.
This year, he has a strikeout rate of 164.47, which is good for the Rajasthan Royals because the team now has two strong batters. This could be why the club raised its price at the auctions this year from Rs 2.40 to Rs 4 crore.
3. Suyash Sharma (KKR)
The best spin bowlers in Indian cricket have come from the Kolkata Knight Riders team. After putting Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy on the world stage, the team has found another great player in Suyash Sharma.
The leg spinner, who was 21 years old, had never played before April 6, 2023, when he made his start against the RCB. Suyash’s goolies surprised everyone; he got three wickets while giving up only 30 runs.
It was a dream start for any player to take 3 wickets, including the prized wicket of Dinesh Karthik, the RCB finisher.
Sharma is from the Delhi neighborhood of Bhajanpura. Surprisingly, he has never played in a First Class, List A, or T20 match for his state team. The KKR management saw him, and before the auctions, he was asked to try out at the KKR school in Mumbai. And so, at the sale, he was bought for Rs 20 lakh.
4. B Sai Sudarshan (GT)
The all-rounder is from Chennai and has only played 8 games in the league, with 5 being his debut with the Gujarat Titans last year. But Sai Sudarshan has got 282 runs in these 8 matches, for an average of 47.
This year, his batting strike rate is over 133, and he has scored 133 runs in three games for an average of 68.50. Sudarshan, who bats third, has hit two half-centuries in the last two games he has played.
The all-rounder still has a long way to go in this event, as shown by his last two scores of 53 (38 runs) against KKR and 62 (48 runs) against Delhi.
On the other hand, Sudarshan was bought by GT at his base price of Rs 20 lakh, and if his success keeps going up like this, he might go into the crores next year.
5. Prabhsimran Singh (PBKS)
The 23-year-old wicketkeeper and batter debuted with Punjab Kings (PBKS) in 2019, but he has only played 9 games in the last four years, which is shocking.
Singh has been a big surprise for the Punjab Kings this season because he has been hitting the ball so well as an opener. On April 5, 2023, he scored 60 runs against the Rajasthan Royals in just 34 balls at the Barsapara stadium. It was quite a show. Singh is good at lofting the ball and often comes down the wicket. This year, Punjab hired him for Rs 60 lakh.
