IPL 2018: Top 5 Contenders for the Emerging Player Award
Talent meets opportunity is the tagline of the IPL and that’s the beauty of the IPL as well. So, many talented youngsters get the opportunity to showcase their talent in front of thousands of people in India. The Emerging Player Award is just a stepping stone for many youngsters as they go on to represent their country in the future. The likes of Axar Patel, Shreyas Iyer, Rohit Sharma and Mustafizur Rahman have won the emerging player award in the previous years.
In order to be eligible for the Emerging Player Award, the player must meet all four of the following criteria:
-Born after 1 April 1992;
-Have played 5 or fewer Test matches;
-Have played in 25 or less IPL matches (as of the start of the season); and
-Have not previously won the Emerging Player Award.
So let’s have a look at the Top 5 contenders for the emerging player award this season:
#5 Nitish Rana (KKR)
Nitish Rana was with Mumbai Indians until the last year. KKR bought him for 3.4 Crore in the auction. He was brilliant for MI in the last season for the first half and then just tailed off a bit. He even lost his place to Ambati Rayudu in the playoffs. He is one of those players who will play according to the situation. If the situation demands to go from ball one then he is more than capable of doing that. He has scored 165 runs in 6 innings at an average 33 in this season.
He has won 2 Man of the Match awards for KKR this year. He is even chipping in with some crucial overs and getting some important breakthroughs. This performance from Nitish Rana is helping KKR to win matches and so he is slotted in at No.5 on this list.