The IPL 2023 will begin on March 31st with MS Dhoni‘s Chennai Super Kings taking on the defending champions – Hardik Pandya‘s Gujarat Titans at their home ground, the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad.
The 16th edition of the tournament will see most of the best T20 players in the world, making the campaign even grander with their presence and now, playing in front of the home crowds as the 10-team tournament will be played across 12 venues in the traditional home-and-away format for the first time since 2019.
While the IPL 2023 will be without a couple of renowned fast bowlers – Jasprit Bumrah and Kyle Jamieson have been ruled out due to injuries – there are several speedsters to watch out for, who could wreack havoc on their day.
Here are the most exciting, deadly pacers to watch out for in the IPL 2023:
Jofra Archer
Last year Mumbai Indians missed Jofra Archer due to injury and this year they will be without the services of Jasprit Bumrah. Nonetheless, Archer, now fully fit and firing all cylinders, made his comeback to professional cricket this year with the SA20 and then for England in ODIs and T20Is and has been bowling with high pace and great accuracy.
In the SA20, bowling for MI Cape Town, Archer picked 10 wickets in 6 matches while maintaining a brilliant economy of 7.7. He then featured in 7 white-ball matches for England, against South Africa and Bangladesh, which included a 6-wicket ODI haul vs SA and two 3-wicket hauls in Bangladesh.
At the Wankhede, which has known to assist fast bowlers in the powerplay, Archer will be raring to go and spearhead the pace attack in the absence of Bumrah.
Umesh Yadav
While the spotlight will be one some of the big names in the KKR squad – Russell, Narine, Ferguson, Southee, and Shakib are all T20 stars – perhaps their best bowler of the season could be Umesh Yadav.
The reason for this assertion is that KKR will be playing their home matches at the Eden Gardens, the spicy, fast-bowling-friendly ground that Eden has become after the pitch was relaid here, has made it a spectacle to see fast bowlers run in and bowl and rattle even the best of the batters.
Last season, when KKR played a few of their games at the Wankhede, Umesh Yadav was sensational in making use of the green grass and assist from the surface: he picked up 10 wickets in 4 matches at the Wankhede last season. Imagine what a deadly threat he will post in the 7 home matches at the Eden Gardens.
His high speeds and accuracy to bowl on the stumps is going to make him a difficult bowler to face, certainly in the Eden matches.
Umran Malik
India’s fastest bowler in the IPL, Umran Malik had his breakthrough career year in 2022. In the IPL, the SRH speedster stood out with 22 wickets – the most in IPL 2022 among Indian pacers – along with a surreal five-wicket haul against Gujarat.
He has since made his debut for India in both ODIs and T20I, snapping up 24 wickets in 16 internationals, and is being played in the role of a middle-overs enforcer, told to bang the deck hard and generate seam movement. And at his extreme pace, any deviation from the original line would cause a world of trouble for the batter.
Umran Malik will be eyeing the IPL 2023 to expedite his success and get himself more in the Team India plans, not just for next year’s T20 WC but for even this year’s ODI World Cup at home.