“Where talent meets opportunity.” The motto of the IPL aptly suits the kind of opportunities and the variety of talented cricketers that feature in the biggest T20 league in the world, now even bigger in IPL 2023 with 10 teams and gazillions of money coming into the tournament with the highest salary cap of all cricket leagues, and competing with some of the biggest sporting tournaments on the planet.
Ever since its inception, the IPL has been the breeding ground of several young Indian players per season. The Indian Premier League 2023 is no different. In fact, it feels like the amount of Indian uncapped players performing well this season in Indian Premier League 2023 has never been greater ever.
Here are 5 young Indian uncapped players who are showcasing excellent skillset and could be soon called up for India’s T20I team:
Yashasvi Jaiswal
Yashasvi Jaiswal has been in phenomenal form in the Indian Premier League 2023. Not only he has upped his game in the powerplay, but he’s also improved his batting after the field restrictions are lifted. Preferred over Padikkal as the opening partner of Jos Buttler, Jaiswal has even outshined the dominant England opener.
The left-handed Rajasthan Royals opener is currently the second-leading run-scorer in the Indian Premier League 2023 with 428 runs in 9 innings at an average of 47 and strike rate of 159 with 3 fifties and a century to his name.
Tilak Varma
Perhaps no Indian youngster in the 21st century has got a shoutout like Tilak Varma when at the end of the IPL 2022 season, MI and India captain Rohit Sharma said that the left-hander will soon play all three formats for India owing to his brilliant technique and temperament.
In his debut season, Varma was doing the rescue acts for MI and did that too at the start of Indian Premier League 2023 before the other batters stepped up. Perhaps the sad part is he’s been pushed into the role of a finisher in 2023 IPL owing to Cameron Green being promoted to number 3. After 9 matches, he still has the best average of all MI batters – 45 – with 274 runs coming at a strike rate of 158. The 20-year-old has a strike rate of 218 in the slog overs this season.
Both Jaiswal and Tilak Varma could make it to the Indian T20I team this year.
Tushar Deshpande
From being mocked and trolled by his own franchise fans to holding the Purple Cap, Deshpande has grown leaps and bounds under MS Dhoni and CSK. His rise to the top of the wickets column has been nothing short of astonishing, and quite unbelievable given he hadn’t done anything of note until the start of the tournament and got belted in the first couple of games.
He leaked 51 runs and 45 runs in his first two matches, but then he started picking wickets while bowling the difficult overs – in the powerplay with the field restrictions and in the death overs. With 17 wickets, he’s currently the joint-highest wicket-taker, but his economy of 10.77 needs improvement.
Jitesh Sharma
With Rishabh Pant injured, KL Rahul too picking up an injury and both Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson being inconsistent, Jitesh Sharma has made a strong case for himself to get a maiden India call-up when India next play a T20I series.
Jitesh is excelling in the most difficult batting role of a finisher in T20 cricket. The Punjab Kings keeper-batsman has cracked 239 runs so far in IPL 2023 at a strike rate of 165; he has smashed at a strike rate of 206 in the death overs. Jitesh has shown great intent right from the onset of his innings, something required in a proper finisher.
Rinku Singh
Ahead of the start of the season, not many would have that that approaching the playoffs, Rinku Singh would be the biggest hope for KKR. The left-hander played a stunning knock against GT, making the most memorable finish with 5 sixes in 5 balls, and has been on a terrific run-scoring spree.
Rinku is currently the leading run-scorer for KKR. Rinku has the best average (52) among the KKR batters; he’s scored 316 runs – the highest in his team – at a strike rate of 148, regularly performing rescue acts.
