IPL 2018: 5 exciting bowling partnerships to look out for this season
Cricket is all about partnerships be it batting or bowling. We have always given attention to the batting partnerships ignoring the bowling pairs. Over the 10 IPL seasons, we have realized how crucial it is to have quality bowling combinations to win matches. RCB bears testament to this fact of not having a good pair of bowlers to restrict run flow and it shows in their empty trophy cabinet.
More successful teams have always had such powerful bowling partnerships like Malinga - Bumrah (for Mumbai Indians), Ashwin - Jadeja (for Chennai Super Kings) and Bhuvi - Mustafizur (for Sunrisers Hyderabad). This year most of the franchises seem to have learned their lessons and have tried to assemble such potential pair of bowlers to bowl in combinations. The ability of one bowler to contain and help the other to strike with wickets will be a magnificent sight to watch in modern T20s.
Here are 5 such exciting bowling combinations to look forward to in IPL 2018:
#5 Jaydev Unadkat and Jofra Archer
Tonnes of expectations, big bids and anticipation on how they respond to the pressure will be the common theme running through both of their stories. Jofra and Unadkat were picked at a whopping sum of 7.2 crores and 11.5 crores respectively. Rajasthan Royals have spent a quarter of their budget on this bowling combination alone.
Jofra hogged the limelight while he bagged 16 wickets for Hobart Hurricanes while bowling at a consistent pace of 145kph in the Big Bash League. His ability to surprise the batsman with his speed and accuracy is fearsome.
Unadkat contrarily has a lot more of slow ball variations in his armoury. He usually bowls tantalisingly slow and outside the off stump line to get crucial wickets in the death. Unadkat needs to shake off his recent poor form and needs to replicate his heroics from last season. The speed of Jofra and the slow variations of Unadkat will be an exciting duel to watch out for. If they fire together they will definitely justify their heavy price tags.