The Indian Premier League (IPL) has been a huge hit for Indian cricket, with the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, and Hardik Pandya getting a kickstart from the IPL for the international stage.
The lucrative league is set to host its 16th edition in less than a month’s time, with the opening game on 31st March between defending champions–Gujarat Titans (GT) and four-time champions–Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
In the build-up for IPL 16, the official streaming partner for the tournament this year, Jio Cinema, organised a panel discussion that featured the likes of Chris Gayle, Anil Kumble, Parthiv Patel, Robin Uthappa, Scott Styris, and Aakash Chopra. In the discussion, former Indian Test skipper Kumble was asked to name his pick, among bowlers and batters.
Veteran Indian cricketer backed MI’s Tilak Varma and Ishan Kishan among batters to be next-generation stars:
Kumble among bowlers backed Punjab Kings pacer Arshdeep Singh to make a beneficial impact in the game, and in the batters’ category, he named Ishan Kishan, who recently became the fastest to hit a doubleton in ODI cricket, Gayle also agreed with former leg spinner choices and backed Arshdeep and Ishan to be a bigshot in cricket.
former Indian head coach is India’s highest wicket-taker in both Tests and one-dayers for Men in Blue. While as a player Kumble played the initial three seasons for RCB, and under his leadership Banglore-based club reached the finals of IPL 2009.
The wrist-spinner was in the Mumbai Indians (MI) squad as a chief mentor, in his first year as the mentor, MI won the IPL and the Champions League in 2013, during his tenure, Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai won the IPL once again in 2015, he left the post after the title victory in 2015.
Indian speedster and 157 km/hr fame, Umran Malik impressed everyone in the panel, with his express pace during last year’s edition and later the ‘Jammu Express’ went on to play for India in white-ball cricket as well. Among the batters, Kumble feels that MI youngster Tilak Varma has the temperament to outclass others, Uthappa also backed Tilak as someone who could be a future star.
The 20-year-old batter was purchased for INR 1.7 crore by Mumbai in the IPL 2022 auctions, in his debuts season he became the youngest player to score a half-century for the MI, at 19 years and 145 days. The left-handed batter ended the IPL 2022 with 397 runs at a strike rate of 131.
Tilak Verma Batting pic.twitter.com/tJbwdgKCSV
— Vansh Srivastava?? (@3D_PlayerFan) February 13, 2022
After the disastrous last season in IPL, where the Indians finished in the last position in the points table with 10 losses. In IPL 2023, Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai will play their first game against RCB on 2nd April at Bengaluru.