The Cricket Lounge’s Archit Athani, has prepared a list of 5 players he believe will be future stars of the game.
1. Quinton de Kock (South Africa)
From the day he has started playing international cricket, there’s no looking back for this guy. He makes batting look so easy. He has equalled the record for the fastest to reach 1000 runs. This is really the start of the next big thing in World cricket. de Kock has shown immense talent and South Africa is lucky to have him. Baby-faced de Kock has answered with his bat. However, some might say it is too early to say as he has just played 22 ODI’s, but by what we have seen so far, he’s surely going to be one of the most important members of the Proteas’ squad in the next World Cup.
2. Gary Ballance (England)
There’s a sense of calmness about his batting. He’s someone who knows his game inside-out. In the recently concluded Test series against India, he was England’s best batsman. He’s someone who likes to hang in there and score big hundreds. In the 8 Tests that he played, he has put his name on the Lord’s honour board twice. Although he hasn’t been tested on pitches other than England, but from what we have seen so far, he’s a decent technique against spin. He is surely the one to watch out for in the near future.
3. James Faulkner (Australia)
He started his career as a left arm fast medium pace bowler, but today after playing 24 ODI’s he is one of Australia’s finest all-rounders. His century at Bangalore out of nowhere proved that he can really tonk the ball and play match-winning innings with the bat. He also has 3 half centuries and looks set to become a very fine all-rounders in the future. His bowling has also improved, as he has added a lot of variety to his armoury. It’s still a long way to go for Faulkner, but he looks like a very promising and exciting prospect.
4. Paul Stirling (Ireland)
This cricket playing nation has a lot of fans and I am one of them. Paul Sterling is Ireland’s opening batsman and he’s very exciting to watch. He is an aggressive batsman who wants to hit every ball. Once he gets going, he’s very difficult to stop. His approach is Sehwag-esque. In his short ODI career of 47 matches, he has smashed 5 centuries. This exciting batsman is also the one to watch-out for.
5) Sanju Samson (India)
Sanju Samson is one of the most talented uncapped batsmen in India, at the moment. He was unlucky not to get selected in the U-19 World Cup tournament, but on the back of some brilliant, consistent batting in the Ranji Trophy, he was picked to play in the IPL by Rajasthan Royals. And, since then, he hasn’t looked back. In the recently concluded ODI series against Australia A, Samson was the highest run scorer, and this tempted the selectors to pick him in the national squad for the upcoming ODI series against England. In my opinion, he’s the one who will be Dhoni’s successor as the wicketkeeper batsman, in all the three formats.
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