Uncapped but unhinged

Young Indian batters and bowlers have stood with their stellar shows this season

Sunil Gavaskar may not be impressed with the quality of uncapped players this season, but irrespective of the Indian legend's rationale behind that conclusion, statistically at least no Indian Premier League season to date has seen as many uncapped players produce impressive shows so consistently.

From the likes of Mumbai Indians' Tilak Varma to Chennai Super Kings' Tushar Deshpande, uncapped Indian players have put some of their seniors to shade in their respective franchises.

While some may not be as successful as others, it's evident that the new crop of players is a confident lot, so much so that teams have begun to prefer them over foreign players to play the role of a 'finisher' or a 'death-over specialist'.

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Take Varma, for instance. While he had a brilliant coming-out season with 397 in 14 games, this season he has already scored 246 runs from eight games at an average of 41.33. More significantly, he has scored these runs at a strike rate 152.15, quite the spike from last season.

In fact, that high-strike-rate trend remains a common thread when looking at the likes of Kolkata Knight Riders' Rinku Singh, Gujarat Titans' Sai Sudarshan, and of course, Rajasthan Royals' Yashasvi Jaiswal.

Jaiswal, as of Tuesday, had scored 428 runs (including an individual uncapped-player high of 124), from 9 ties at an average of 47.56 and a strike rate of 159.70.

Note: All the aforementioned names are all left-handers. But that, former India all-rounder Vijay Bharadwaj, reckons is a coincidence.

"This has been a spectacular season for uncapped players," says the former Karnataka stalwart. "I think a lot of it has to do with these players rubbing shoulders with the giants of the game and realising that they can belong at the same level. Also, a lot of them play a lot of T20 tournaments year-round, they play a lot of private and corporate tournaments to ensure their skillsets are on point by the time the IPL comes around."

Bharadwaj insists that the young crop of players, besides most of them having Under-19 experience with the Indian World Cup side, is also mentally tougher, technically better equipped and also has a 'tremendous' work ethic.

Then, expectedly, Bharadwaj trains his experienced lens toward bowlers.

Deshpande is the leading wicket-taker so far with 17 wickets from nine games. The 27-year-old is quite expensive, going at over 11.07 runs an over this season, but he has managed to earn skipper MS Dhoni's trust at the death.

Just as Delhi Capitals' Mukesh Kumar, KKR's Suyash Sharma, Sunrisers Hyderabad's Mayank Markhande and others have donned similar roles for their respective franchises.

"What's happening is all these young players are becoming finishers or death-overs specialists. This is something teams used to trust foreign players with in the past, and now young Indian players are confident enough to take it on. It's a great sign of things to come," says Bharadwaj.

Case in point, Rinku's five sixes in the final over to win KKR a cliffhanger against the Titans. Besides that humdinger, the 25-year-old from Uttar Pradesh has also racked up 270 runs from nine games at an average of 54 and a strike rate of 151.69. He also has remained unbeaten four times so far.

Punjab Kings' Jitesh Sharma, Royals' Dhruv Jurel, Titans' Abhinav Manohar and more have all looked far more evolved than their unfamiliar names would suggest. More impressively, all of them have looked as confident as they have been consistent.

Perhaps it's the 'Impact Player' rule that's bringing it on or the nature of the pitches used this season. Either way, it's a good sign for Indian cricket.

"From this season, I see at least three-four players making it to the Indian side and making it big. Take it from me," Bharadwaj exclaims.