The IPL 2023 will begin on March 31 with defending champions Gujarat Titans hosting Chennai Super Kings in Ahmedabad at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
The IPL has always been the breeding ground for uncapped players, whether Indian or overseas. Talent meet opportunity – the tagline of the tournament, proving to be apt all these past 15 seasons. And it’s going to continue this year as well.
There are a number of uncapped players that could steal the show in this year’s IPL. We picked up 3 local ones to watch out for specifically.
3 uncapped Indians who could take the IPL 2023 by storm:
Rajat Patidar
Rajat Patidar had a sensational IPL 2022 season with RCB. And to think he had gone unsold in the IPL 2022 mega-auction before being called up by RCB as an injury replacement of the injured Luvnith Sisodia after RCB had played 2 matches.
He was benched on initially but when given the opportunity in toward the mid-season, Patidar became a force to be reckoned with in the middle-order, playing the aggressor’s role while allowing the likes of Du Plessis and Kohli to play the anchor role.
In 7 innings in IPL 2022, Patidar hammered 333 runs at a terrific average of 55 and strike rate of 152- his strike rate was third-best among RCB batters, only behind Dinesh Karthik and Glenn Maxwell.
His best of 112* (54) came in the Eliminator against LSG, which RCB won by only 14 runs. His impressive performances in the IPL 2022 and domestic cricket for Madhya Pradesh got Patidar a call-up to India’s T20I squad last year, but he didn’t get to make his debut, remaining uncapped yet.
In the absence of the injured Deepak Chahar and Adam Milne, CSK struggled with the ball in the powerplay as they lacked the potency with the new ball. Looking around in the squad, MS Dhoni picked up Mukesh Choudhary, a left-arm from Bhilwara, Rajasthan, and gave him the big responsibility.
Mukesh Choudhary didn’t take the tournament by fire instantly – picking up 4 wickets in his first 5 matches as CSK sunk low.
However, one Mukesh Choudhary got into his rhythm he became lethal. He brought out his best against rivals Mumbai Indians – dismissing Rohit and Kishan for a duck and then Brevis for 4, giving the feels of Chahar, but with the left-arm angle.
Choudhary grew in confidence as the season progressed and took another 3-fer and 4-fer, eventually ending the season with 16 wickets – the second-most in the IPL 2022 by an uncapped bowler after Umran Malik‘s 22 wickets. Umran then got to play for India while Choudhary is waiting for his call-up, which is possible soon if he produces an even better tournament in IPL 2023.
He will be bowling in tandem with Chahar this season and the pair could prove to be really menacing for the opposition’s top-order to handle.
Abhishek Sharma
22-year-old batting all-rounder Abhishek Sharma had a breakthrough IPL season in 2022. The left-hander who had managed some impressive knocks in the IPL from 2018 to 2021, finally came through in what was his best IPL season and was perhaps the biggest positive for SRH in their dull tournament.
In his 3rd innings in IPL 2022, Abhishek Sharma smashed 75 runs off 50 balls against CSK. In the middle of the season, he cracked 47 (28) vs RCB and 65 (42) vs GT to hog more limelight. A couple of more 40s toward in the end of the season took Abhishek’s runs tally to 426 – finishing as the leading scorer of SRH. He adds value as a left-arm spinner as well.
The 22-year-old Punjab all-rounder had a good domestic season across the formats, and will be vying for bigger performances in IPL 2023 to knock on the Indian selectors’ doors.
