What the IPL did best was that it paved a world platform for talented newcomers. This is also where the Indian team has benefitted most from. As India’s national squad is being readied for the ICC World Twenty20 that is scheduled to begin in June, Ravi Shastri, in an article in the Hindustan Times, picks four young cricketers – he calls them comeback kids – who are all set to become the lifeblood of the Indian cricket team:

Rudra Pratap Singh’s debut in the National team against Zimbabwe in 2005 was a striking one. Two matches later he picked up his first player of the match award after picking up four wickets against Sri Lanka. He faded into oblivion for sometime after a few wicket less matches cost him his place in the team. But in this IPL, as Shastri writes, he is a bowler reborn:

“I have particularly enjoyed the manner he feeds batsmen on the off-stump: in between normal deliveries, he slips in one which bounces more than others with width to boot. “Most batsmen, in this format, want to latch on to wide deliveries but this R.P. special is a bait.

“Batsmen are tending to top edge such shots with no control on it. Him uprooting Tendulkar’s middle stump will be a sight he will never forget.”

Pragyan Ojha who also plays for the Deccan Chargers hasn’t been far behind RP Singh, and he has undoubtedly been the best spinner the second season of the IPL has seen yet: with 10 wickets from seven matches and economy rate under 6.

Writes Shastri: “The left-arm spinner hasn’t been collared by anyone in this competition. Most of his wickets are top-order bats and he has picked them when Chargers have needed it most: be it of Matthew Hayden or Tendulkar.”

Among batsmen, Shastri believes that Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina have been India’s best pick since Gautam Gambhir. Sharma didn’t have a very smooth run all of last year. But the IPL this year has really set the flame going.

As for Raina, writes Shastri: “he is not a comeback kid in the strictest of sense. He had batting returns of 124 runs from five ODIs in New Zealand but has set this IPL on fire with his powerful hitting. He had a break during the Tests in New Zealand and this has rejuvenated him. It’s a race between Hayden and him to be the top scorer of this IPL.”

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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