Are these young prodigies better than current Indian batsmen?
IPL 2017 has been a tournament of young prodigies. On one hand, where Indian bigshots like Dhoni, Sharma, Rahane have failed to perform, we have seen notable performances from underdogs. Some of these batsmen have proved to be better than King Kohli in winning matches. Let us have a look at few of these batsmen who might wear the national jersey in near future.
2017 IPL's first centurion
Kerala boy Sanju Samson created buzz when he scored the first century of the 2017 Indian Premier League. His 102 runs off just 63 balls helped Delhi Daredevils register a 97-run win over Rising Pune Supergiant. The youngest player to score a half century in the IPL, he has scored 289 runs in eight matches, including one half century and a century.
Mumbai Indians' newest go to man
Playing in his second season of the Indian Premier League, Krunal Pandya has already become a match winner for Mumbai Indians. He has stepped up for the team whenever required and his cameos have helped Mumbai to clear the fence. His knocks of 37-off-30 against Bangalore and 37-off-20 against Hyderabad helped Mumbai to register crucial wins in the tournament.
Shreyas Iyer
Delhi Daredevils' top run-scorer in 2015, Shreyas Iyer has scored 157 runs this year in six matches. With his unbeaten knock of 50 against Hyderabad, he was the lone chaser for Delhi after the top order collapsed.
Top run scorer for Mumbai Indians
Nitish Rana has joined the list of the Mumbai Indians' prodigies with his batting performance in the top order. With 285 runs from nine matches, Rana is already the highest run scorer for Mumbai and has three half centuries in the tournament. The 23-year old has hit 17-sixes in the tournament and is on the the third spot behind David Warner and Robin Uthappa.
Pune's consistent performer
Playing in his debut IPL, Rahul Tripathi has impressed everyone with the bat. Back to back scores of 33, 31, 59, 45, 38 and 37 have proved important for Rising Pune Supergiant to register victories against Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai. The Ranchi born player is the second highest scorer for Pune above both Ajinkya Rahane and Ben Stokes.
Manan Vohra
Manan Vohra's 95-runs-off-50 balls against Hyderabad was a display of marvellous batting. However, Vohra's innings went in vain and Punjab lost the match by five runs. His 179 in eight matches makes him the third highest scorer for Punjab in IPL 2017.
The fearless Lion of Gujarat
In his debut IPL for Gujarat Lions last year, Ishan Kishan remained on the bench for most of the matches. However, he has returned this year with a bang. The 18-year old Jharkhand wicketkeeper-opener played a vital role in Lions' victory against Bangalore, hitting 39 off just 16 balls. He single-handedly led Gujarat's charge against Mumbai scoring 48-runs off just 35 balls.
