IPL 2016: 10 players who will be followed with great interest this season

This year will be no different and a few players will be closely followed by the fans and experts alike. Here’s a list of 10 such players.

After a month-long delirium surrounding the ICC World T20 2016, the focus shifts towards the ninth season of Indian Premier League (IPL) which gets underway on Saturday, April 9. The cricket carnival, which only gets bigger and better every year, will be a closely-followed affair by the fans in India and abroad for next seven weeks. The league is known for showcasing some of the best in the business as well as throwing some pleasant surprises in the form of young, exciting talents that it unearths. This year will be no different and a few players will be closely followed by the fans and experts alike. Here’s a list of 10 such players.

1.  Carlos Brathwaite (Delhi Daredevils): Brathwaite’s moment of glory came when he hit England’s Ben Stokes for four consecutive sixes when 19 were needed in the last over of the World T20 final. Surprisingly, he was not the first choice player in West Indies’ World T20 squad and had replaced an injured Kieron Pollard. Though he was a relatively new face for the fans, the pundits were aware of his big-hitting prowess. In Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2015, his strike rate of 155.69 was second only to Chris Gayle’s 160.44 among the players who had scored over 100 runs. No doubt that the IPL talent scouts had done their job well when he was signed by the Delhi Daredevils (DD) for a whopping INR 4.2 Cr. Now that he is a household name, he will certainly be followed closely in the IPL.

2.  Mustafizur Rahman (Sunrisers Hyderabad): The young Bangladeshi pace sensation, who rose to prominence last year after his successful debut against India, will make his IPL debut this year when he turns out for the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). He has come a long way since that debut series and has troubled best of the batsmen with his cutters. One of the only two Bangladeshis alongside Shakib Al Hasan to play in IPL 9, Mustafizur will enjoy his share of spotlight.

3.  Pawan Negi (Delhi Daredevils): Negi was the hottest pick at the IPL player auction when he was brought for a mind-boggling amount of INR 8.5 Cr by DD. This was immediately followed by his selection to the Indian team for Asia Cup and World T20, where he got only a single match to play against the lowly UAE side. But with the tag of being the costliest Indian buy in this year’s IPL, he will be closely watched not just by the fans, but by the selectors too.

4.  Shreyas Iyer (Delhi Daredevils): Iyer is yet to play for India, and many already wonder why he has not donned the Indian colors by now. He was the top-scorer for Mumbai with 809 runs in his maiden Ranji season in 2014-15 and was bagged by DD after an intense bid at player auctions for IPL 2015. He lived up to his reputation and scored 439 runs in 14 matches for his franchise, thus becoming the ‘Emerging Player of IPL 8’. The following Ranji season was even better, where he finished with 1,321 runs at an average of 73.39, thus proving he was not a one-season wonder. IPL 9 will bring him back in the spotlight and provide a chance to break into the Indian team in the upcoming season.

5.  Nathu Singh (Mumbai Indians): Touted as India’s next big fast-bowling hope, Nathu Singh was nervous on the auction day and was following the proceedings from a friend’s place when he learnt he was being picked by the Mumbai Indians (MI) for INR 3.2 Cr. The Rajasthan bowler bowls consistently in the range of 140-145 kph and is already on the Indian selectors’ radar. With already a significant hype surrounding him, Nathu’s performance will be closely followed this season.

6.  Deepak Hooda (Sunrisers Hyderabad): Hooda represented the India Under-19 team at the 2014 U-19 World Cup and was drafted in the Rajasthan Royals (RR) squad the following IPL season in 2015. Young Hooda emerged as a hard-hitting all-rounder who could be used effectively as a floater in the side. His six-hitting prowess saw the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and SRH bid intensely for him at the player auction where he was finally notched up by SRH for a whopping INR 4.2 Cr. He has done well for his domestic team Baroda in the current season and will be expected to do well at IPL 9.

7.  Colin Munro (Kolkata Knight Riders): New Zealand’s latest batting sensation Munro hit headlines when he scored his country’s fastest T20I fifty off just 14 balls against Sri Lanka. Before that, he had scored 366 runs at a strike rate of 175 in the 2015-16 Georgie Pie Super Smash. He started the World T20 2016 with a switch-hit for six on Ravichandran Ashwin’s bowling and announced his arrival in style. The player who plays with a lot of swagger and confidence will represent KKR this season and will be the one to watch out for.

8.  Rishabh Pant (Delhi Daredevils): Wicket-keeper batsman Pant represented India Under-19 team at the U-19 World Cup earlier this year and established a reputation of being a hard-hitting batsman. He was the ninth highest-scorer in the tournament and his knocks of 24-ball 78 (fastest U-19 international half-century) against Nepal and 96-ball 111 against Namibia gave enough account of his power-hitting. He was brought for INR 1.9 Cr (19 times his base price of INR 10 lakhs) by DD and will be closely followed this year.

9.  Sarfaraz Khan (Royal Challengers Bangalore): Child prodigy Sarfaraz Khan, who will be playing in his second IPL season this year, has been doing great things since the age of 12. Having played two successful Under-19 World Cups for India in 2014 (211 runs in six games, two fifties, average 70.33) and 2016 (355 runs in six games, five fifties, average 71), Sarfaraz is already being seen as a future India batsman.

10.  Shivil Kaushik (Gujarat Lions): IPL discovers and launches the careers of mystery spinners almost every year. From Ajantha Mendis in its early seasons, followed by Sunil Narine to KC kariappa last season, almost every year it brings forth such bowlers. IPL 9 will witness another mystery-man Shivil Kaushik represent the newly-formed Gujarat Lions franchise. Kaushik is a left-arm unorthodox bowler with a ‘Paul Adams-like’ weird bowling action.  He has done well for the Hubli Tigers team in Karnataka Premier League (KPL) and will the one to watch out for this year.

Special mention – Zaheer Khan: The wily Indian seamer who announced his retirement from international cricket days after celebrating his 37th birthday in October last year, will bow out from all forms of cricket after IPL 9. He will be leading DD in his last season and will be joined by legendary batsman and the coach of India U-19 and ‘A’ team Rahul Dravid, who will mentor the side. Zaheer has taken up the commentary assignments in past few months and is already being tipped to become India’s bowling coach by his contemporary players. It will be interesting to see whether he can end the title drought for DD in his swansong.

(A self-confessed cricket freak, Chinmay Jawalekar is a senior writer with CricLife and CricketCountry. When not writing or following cricket, he loves to read, eat and sleep. He can be followed here @CricfreakTweets)