IPL 2016: 5 Indian players who have to do well this season to retain their place in the national side

The IPL is a microcosm of the Indian cricketing setup, besides being a glitzy, glamorous event. For the fringe players, it is the single greatest opportunity to hog the spotlight and wrest the opportunity that knocks every year. That is why players in the Indian squad and the hopefuls give the IPL everything they have. This year is no different and we have quite a few players who are going to stake their claim for the playing XI.

There are quite a few players in the Indian XI that played the World Cup who held on to their spot by the skin of their teeth. These players need to prove their worth by performing for their franchise in the IPL as all eyes are on them. Here we take a look at 5 players of the Indian squad who are in a precarious situation as far as selection for future T20 tournaments are concerned.

#1 Harbhajan Singh

Harbhajan Singh warmed the bench most of the time for the Indian team. However, he was lucky to have brushed aside some serious competition from young spinners like Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Karn Sharma and a bunch of other new talent scouted by the IPL teams. Harbhajan started the season really well for Mumbai Indians against the KKR picking up the important wicket of Manish Pandey and applying the brakes on the high-flying Knight Riders.

He must continue to do more of the same. It doesn’t help that his home ground is the Wankhede, a batting paradise where bowling at an economy rate of 7 or even 8 is a wonderful accomplishment. That will skew Harbhajan’s numbers drastically, which means he should go all out for wickets.