IPL 2018: Predicting the wild cards from each franchise
Over the years, IPL has seen some of the best players in the world play both together and against each other. Be it Brendon McCullum's breathtaking 158 in the inaugural match in 2008, Virat Kohli's quartet of centuries in the 2016 season or Bhuvneshwar Kumar's unforgettable 5-wicket haul against KXIP in 2017, it is the platform where international players play arguably their best game.
Some players, like Suresh Raina, David Warner and Rohit Sharma, perform in each and every season, but there are some other players who stay out of the limelight but set the stage on fire whenever they get the opportunity to shine. Paul Valthaty's stint with the KXIP in 2011, Murali Vijay's exceptional run in 2010 for CSK and Krunal Pandya's surprising performance in 2016 - these are just a few examples where a rather unknown or less prolific player turned out to be the game changer for their franchise.
Several players changed their teams during the 2018 IPL auction, which could impact their IPL career in a lot of ways. With only 2 weeks left for the start of the 11th edition of IPL, we take a look at players from each franchise who could turn out to be the wild card for their respective franchises.
Lungisani Ngidi (Chennai Super Kings)
The find for the South African Cricket Team in their home series against India, the 21-year-old Lungi Ngidi is, without any doubt, one of the most promising new talents in this season of IPL. Having played only 3 T20Is so far, the young pacer has taken 6 wickets at an economy of just 5.5, an average of just 7.33 and a mind-boggling strike rate of just 8.
CSK has a plethora of world-class bowlers, like Harbhajan Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Shane Watson and Dwayne Bravo. With Shardul Thakur as the only Indian Fast Bowler, Ngidi will accompany the young Indian pacer and will definitely be the game changer in the CSK fast bowling department.