Young India - the rising stars of Indian Cricket :

Young India - the rising stars of Indian Cricket :

The players who are making waves at the International level.

1.   Introduction 

Which Young Indian players are making global headlines? The Senior Indian team under Shubman Gill and the Under-19 team under the Captainship of Ayush Mahtre have demonstrated their mettle and the talent they have, in all the games played in the last few months.

Cricket India has a tradition of presenting Cricket stars in the Global arena, and in this journey, the steps taken by the BCCI are commendable. All eyes are now on the Young Indian team, making waves in the tournaments they are participating in.

The test series in England paved the way for the new Indian team without Virat and Rohit, who have retired from Test and T20 formats. The fighting spirit and the team unity came to the forefront. The players have also shown their skills in the domestic tournament.

The Under-19 Indian team, having finished the Youth series in England and Australia, showcased that Indian Cricket is "on the right track". The talented young lot in the Youth series have surprised their opponents with their skills, temperament, and the hunger to win.

We need to discover how young Indian players like Shubman Gill, Jaiswal, Pant, and a new wave of Under-19 talents are shaping India’s Test and ODI future.

The upcoming ODI series in Australia is a test for the rich blend of players, where we have both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma battling along with the young and experienced lot of Cricketers.

The fans all over will wait to see whether the Senior team performs the same way as the Young India, who won the series 3-0 against Australia in the recently concluded Youth ODI series.

The legacy of Indian Cricket and its continuous dominance over the last two decades is the testimony of the Young India and its rising Cricket stars.

 

 2.            Legacy in International Cricket-the players in reckoning.

The era from Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Vishwanath, to Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly to Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and now Subhman Gill, KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal; Indian Cricket has never looked back. Right from the inception of Test Cricket in India till today, the journey continues with the rising new Young cricket stars.

The Under-19 Indian Cricket team has always been the launching pad of stars who dominate in World Cricket, as we have seen from the days of Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Virendra Sehwag, Md Kaif, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, and Suresh Raina.

The new stars in Indian Cricket, Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Rishabh Pant, have already proved themselves. Other players who are already in the limelight are Washington Sundar, Nitish Reddy, Dhruva Jurel, and Sai Sudarshan. They all continue to prove their presence at the International level.

The players in the current Indian team in the likes of Ravindra Jadeja,  K L Rahul, Md Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Surya Kumar Yadav, Sanju Samson, Prasidh Krishna, Axar Patel, Jagadeesan, Rajat Patidar, Jiten Sharma all are in the verge of reaching 30 years or even more and there is a need to prepare their succession plan to take forward Cricket India to new heights.

Players like Md Shami, Ishan Kishan, and Akash Deep are also fit to play after their recovery from injury and will also eye the chance in the team, subject to their performances. Hardik Pandya, the other talented cricketer who is conspicuous by his absence in the Test or ODI format, is a big question in everyone’s mind.

BCCI has long-term plans for building teams at all levels and in all formats. With experienced players attaining age, the new finds, the bench strength, the Young generation representing India have shown their skills to represent their Country in the near future. 

NCA, the Cricket development arm of BCCI, is the heartbeat of Indian cricket. The transformation drive BCCI pours in through NCA is not only for upcoming junior talents but also produces world-class performers. Additionally, it is a perfect rehabilitation centre for senior players to be in their greatest form. With its upcoming state-of-the-art campus, NCA is poised to shape the subsequent generation of champions who will take Indian cricket to even higher heights.

Local cricket associations like the Mumbai Cricket Association, Karnataka Cricket Association, Cricket Association of Bengal, and others have the best indoor cricket training facilities, and junior players from the under-13 level to the senior level players can sharpen their skills.

The host of emerging players, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma,  Devdutt Paddikal, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik, Prabhsimran Singh, Mayank Yadav, Rituraj Gaikwad, Ravi Bishnoi, Sarfaraz Khan, Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh, are already knocking on the door, amongst others. A Lot has been spoken about Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh, and their performance; it needs to be seen in the upcoming games.

Similarly, upcoming names  Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Ayush Mahtre, Vedant Trivedi, Deepesh Devendran, Vihaan Malhotra, RS Ambrish, Abhigyan Kundu, Rahul Kumar,  Harvansh Singh Pangalia, Yudhajit Guha, Udhav Mohan, Henil Patel, Khilan Patel, and others are now making waves in World Cricket after performing in the domestic circuit.

 

3.    Gist of Performances :

While evaluating the performance of the current youngsters, emerging and upcoming players, we will appreciate their achievements and why they are all set to be cricket stars soon.

The statistics prove their achievements.

Shubman Gill with 10 centuries in 39 test matches, scoring 2839 runs with 269 being the highest. In ODI, he has scored 2775 runs in 55 games, with 208 runs being the highest.

Yashasvi Jaiswal, in 26 test matches, has scored 7 centuries with 214 not out as the highest. He has scored a total of 2428 runs in his test matches so far.

Rishab Pant, the wicket-keeper batsman, is the other performing player with 8 centuries in his 47 test matches and scoring 3427 runs. His highest score was 159 not out. In ODI, he has played 31 games and scored 871 runs with a highest of 125 not out.

The other players who have established themselves in the Indian team both in Test Matches and ODIs are:

Washington Sundar, the ace all-rounder he has played 15 test matches for his 761 runs and has also claimed 35 wickets. His highest score in a test match is 125 runs, and his best bowling figures of 7 for 59. In ODI, he has played 23 games and scored 329 runs. He has also claimed 24 wickets.

Dhruv Jurel has played 7 games and scored 430 runs with a highest of 125 runs. Whereas Nitish Reddy has played 9 test matches, scored 386 runs, with the highest being 114 runs. He has also claimed 8 wickets in test matches.

A few emerging players have also performed creditably

Here, we elaborate on recent statistics of emerging players who will play a big role in the near future.

Sarfaraz Khan has played 6 test matches, scored 371 runs with a highest being 150 runs.

Abhishek Sharma till now has represented in 24 nos of  T20 games and scored 849 runs, with 135 being the highest. Tilak Varma has played 4 ODIs and 32 nos of T20 games. His performance in 32 nos of T20 games is,  scoring 962 runs with 120 being the highest.

Arshdeep Singh, the left-arm fast bowler, has played 9 ODIs and has taken 14 wickets, with his best being 5 wkts for 37 runs. In T20 matches, he has taken 101 wickets in 65 games, with the best being 4 wickets for 9 runs.

Ravi Bishnoi, the other right-arm leg break bowler, has also proved himself in T20 games, claiming 61 wickets in 42 games, with 4 wickets for 13 runs being the best performance.

Rituraj Gaikwad has played 6 ODIs with 71 runs being the highest score and has also played 23 nos of T20 games, scoring 633 runs with 123 being the highest score.

 

Performance of Under-19 team:

The Youths who are representing Young India and have just returned after playing in England and Australia in Youth Test and Youth ODI. The performance of the team had been appreciated by overseas media and also the Cricket fans all over. While in England the two test series was a draw, however Youth Indian team came back winners in ODI with a clean sweep of 5-0.

In Australia, the Youth team performed commendably, winning both the Youth Test series (2-0) and the Youth ODI series (3-0). The performance of players who were in the limelight in different games and formats is given below:

 

Player Name	Youth Test/ Total nos/ Total runs / total wickets	Youth Test/ Highest Score/ Best Wickets	Youth ODI/Total nos/ Total runs / total wickets	Youth ODI/Highest Score/ Best Wickets
Ayush Mhatre	4 test/378 runs	126 runs
Vaibhav Suryavanshi	6 test/331 runs	113 runs	11 ODIs/556 runs	143 runs
Vihan Malhotra	6 tests/412 runs	120 runs	8 ODIs/362 runs	129 runs
Vedant Trivedi	2 tests/ 198 runs	140 runs	3 ODIs/173 runs	86 runs
RS Ambrish (all-rounder)	3 tests/145 runs/6 wickets	70 runs/ 2 wickets for 48 runs	8 ODIs/ 125 runs/10 wickets	66 runs/ 4 wickets for 80 runs.
Abhigyan Kundu (WK Batsman)	4 tests/247 runs	90 runs	8 ODIs/ 337 runs	87 runs
Deepesh Devendran(Right arm medium)	3 tests/ 12 wickets	5 wickets for 48 runs	4 ODIs/ 3 wickets	1 wicket for 34 runs
Yudhajit Guha(Right arm fast)			9 ODIs/9 wickets	2 wickets for 29 runs
Henil Patel(Right arm fast)	3 tests/ 10 wickets	3 wickets for 31 runs	5 ODIs/ 5 wickets	3 wickets for 31 runs
Khilan Patel(Batsman/Slow left arm)	2 tests/ 75 runs/ 8 wickets	49 runs/3 wickets for 19 runs	2 ODIs/ 5 wickets	4 wickets for 26 runs
Udhav Mohan(Right arm fast)	1 test/4 wickets	2 wickets for 17 runs	1 ODI/ 3 wickets	3 wickets for 26 runs
Harvansh Singh Pangalia (WK/ Batsman)	3 tests/ 175 runs	117 runs	8 ODIs/ 136 runs	46 runs

There are other promising players as well in the Youth India team who have performed in few games they have played and do have a bright future.

4. Benefits for the Indian Team

• The promising stars of Under-19 teams have the talent and the composure to carry the weight of Indian Cricket on their shoulders. Each Individual has demonstrated their talent and technique to overthrow their opponent in the recently concluded Youth series. They have the temperament to represent the Senior Indian team in the future. BCCI’s program to strengthen domestic Cricket will further boost these players'  confidence, thereby benefiting Indian Cricket.
• Their maturity level to handle both red ball and white ball Cricket will be the key to their success through their adaptability
• The genuine mix of Test and ODI specialists will ensure the desired depth in batting, bowling across all formats.
• The bench strength in Indian Cricket will take care of rotation to give these young players the desired experience and will also ensure injury management in a big way.
• The new generation players have created a great media buzz, particularly after the recently concluded England and Australia series. The global media and the Cricket fans have praised the achievement of the Youth team.

5. Conclusion

• The emerging players and the upcoming group led by Ayush Mahtre, Vedant Trivedi, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Vihaan Malhotra, Abhigyan Kundu, and others represent the future of Indian Cricket.
• There is an urgent need for all the upcoming players and the emerging players to perform at the domestic level to maintain their consistency. The formats are different, and the mindset required also should gel with the on-field requirements.

The leadership baton has passed from Rohit Sharma to Shubman Gill. Responsibilities Virat Kohli took over the years are to be shared by other players who are in the fray to represent the Country or already are successfully proving themselves.

Indian Cricket is now at an important and interesting junction from where it is never looking back but to carry forward the legacy of great players who have served the Nation for decades.

As the charged-up Young India takes the field, Cricket lovers all over the globe can expect thrilling new chapters in the nation’s ever-evolving cricketing story, which is built on passion, skill, and fearless youth.”

---