This season’s IPL has showcased how the league turns unknowns into instant stars, with uncapped players seizing the spotlight. From Mukul Choudhary’s seven-sixes blitz and Urvil Patel’s 13-ball fifty to Priyansh Arya’s Powerplay carnage and Prince Yadav’s searing swing, these rookies prove the tournament is now the fastest route to cricketing fame and fortune.
Back in the days when IPL was said to be killing cricket… we didn’t agree.
You see, apart from the argument that a game can only die if you stop playing it, and the obvious reasoning that things change, there was something inevitable and uniquely just about the league: it made stardom accessible to so many young—and older—hopefuls.
You didn’t need to play for country or at the “highest” level. If you wanted to be a cricketer and be absolutely adored, making loads of money and justifying hours of whiling time away playing tennis-ball leagues around town to the world that wrote you off, the IPL opens up at least five times the number of opportunities available to you.
And nowhere is that transformation more visible than in the rise of players who suddenly look like stars in waiting.
Esquire India spotlights the uncapped names quickly becoming ones to watch.
Earlier this season, Mukul Choudhary, a little-known wicketkeeper-batter from Rajasthan smashed seven fierce sixes versus the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), handing his franchise, the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), an early victory in the competition. The comparisons—mostly with a certain other, illustrious, hard-hitting gloveman from Jharkhand who captained India—began instantly. LSG coach Justin Langer’s oddly specific earlier promise—to turn him into the “scariest” number six or seven batter in India—began getting quoted by news outlets.
Another moment that vindicated so many state league fanbases’ undying faith in him was Chennai Super Kings’ Urvil Patel scoring a 13-ball half-century in a raging blinder. En route to his fifty, he went six, six, six, six, six, four and six off seven consecutive balls. The Gujarat batter is another example of a new generation of hard-hitters not afraid to go after the opposition from ball one.
Priyansh Arya, Punjab King’s answer to Abhishek Sharma and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, has brought his Powerplay demolition skill set from the Delhi Premier League to the IPL. If one thought his 39-ball hundred was a one-season aberration, his consistent performances this season have shown what incentives can do for athletes.
Patiala boy Prabhsimran Singh, Arya’s sedate-r partner in flattening opposition bowlers up top, has finally fulfilled his domestic promise. No surprises if Singh is named in an India squad soon.
Prince Yadav’s in-swinging jaffa to Virat Kohli wouldn’t be forgotten in a jiffy. The LSG recruit has bowled like a dream this season, using raw pace and excellent length control to keep quiet the dominant class of batters in a league tilted completely in favour of the willow. The uncapped seamer is a frontrunner in the purple cap race, with comments under his Instagram posts predicting that he could be a Test bowler soon.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)’s Sakib Hussain, a pace sensation from Bihar, a state that continues to produce lethal fast bowlers, was once a tennis-ball cricketer before representing his state in the 2022-23 season. In his IPL debut for SRH, Hussain rattled the Rajasthan Royals’ dangerous batting line-up and has continued to rush batters with pace and a knack for hitting hard lengths. From earning a few hundred rupees per match to bowling memorable spells on a major stage, Hussain has overshadowed ‘rated’ domestic talents such as Anshul Kamboj and Auqib Nabi.
A name one would have loved to see in contention for the orange cap or the boundaries tally is Sameer Rizvi. Popular on the domestic circuit as a right-handed Suresh Raina—an IPL legend—Rizvi single-handedly won two games for the Delhi Capitals at the start of the season. But then the franchise fell into a familiar rut, with the Meerut batter getting starts but failing to find his touch. We expect the stylish Rizvi to make it big in the league hereafter.