5 Indian players to look out for in Zimbabwe tour
Jun 4, 2016 at 5:33 PM
After the end of an entertaining IPL-9, India start their international action against Zimbabwe. As expected, BCCI and selectors has rested key senior players and filled the squad with future prospects for this low-profile series.
However, this provides a great chance for these young prospects to prove their mettle and claim a spot in Indian side for the future tournaments. Here, we look at the 5 young Indian talents who are expected to shine after a long T20 season.
5. Barinder Sran
The young Punjab bowler is looking to make the maximum out of his second chance. He has a paltry outing against Australia earlier this year. He is one of the young bowlers who has shown a lot of promise in IPL 2016 and has played a key role in helping his team SRH clinch their maiden title. He picked up 14 wickets and has featured in 14 games for SRH this season.
Sran has shown tremendous strides of improvement during the IPL and has shown enough maturity to contain batsmen even when he was not picking up the wickets. Under the guidance of Bhuvi and Nehra, now he is looking like a new bowler all together with lot of calm and composure with his lengths and pace.
4. Yuzvendra Chahal
One of the main reasons why RCB bowling turned tables in the second half of the season is Yuzvendra Chahal. The young leg spinner has been in scintillating form during the business end of the tournament and helped RCB reach finals. He has taken 21 wickets in just 13 games he played.
This will be the first time he would be representing the nation and would love to make the most of the chance he has at his hand. With Indian spin department not looking so strong, as both Jadeja and Ashwin are looking a bit out of touch, Chahal might be the right one to be thrown into the mix.
3. KL Rahul
Probably, the best emerged Indian batsman this IPL season would be KL Rahul. He has opened the innings when Gayle is out of form, drifted down the order when the top 3 were in rollicking form. No matter where he played, he delivered for RCB and added a new dimension to RCB batting which has been traditionally dependent on the big 3.
He has amassed 397 runs in 14 innings and has adapted to various batting positions which will help the team to have extra options when they take on the home side. He has a great chance to break into Indian middle order which is unreliable during the last few months.
2. Dhawal Kulkarni
If there is one bowling spell that has impressed everyone this IPl, that would be Kulkarni’s against RCB in Qualifier 1 at Bengaluru. The promising 27-year old has stunned everyone att Chinnaswamy with his magic and he has been a cornerstone for Gujarat Lions in their campaign to Play-offs.
Kulkarni would like to cement his place in Team India after being in and out of Team India for several times. He has finished his IPL season with 18 wickets from 14 fixtures and would like to make a statement in the upcoming series.
1. Manish Pandey
If there is one player who has the chance to break into Team India for future tours then that would be Manish Pandey. The 26- year old has shown great intent and technique while playing for India and had a reasonable IPL with KKR despite being plagued by injury.
He showed his attitude to adapt to a crisis situation whenever KKR top order failed alongside Yusuf Pathan. If he can make a key contribution for the middle order in this series. He would very well cement his place in Team India squad.