IPL 2019: 3 Uttar Pradesh players to watch out for this season

Uttar Pradesh has given some world-class players to the Indian cricket team in the last two decades. Many players coming from modest backgrounds in UP have gone on to represent the country.

Players like Suresh Raina, Mohammad Kaif, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Kuldeep Yadav, to name a few, got the honor of representing the country at the elite level of the sport. From Kaif, who was a Test cricket pioneer in UP to Kuldeep, who is the newest entrant in the Indian team from the state, Uttar Pradesh cricket has come a long way.

UP were crowned the champions of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in the 2015-16 season and have delivered good performances in other domestic tournaments in the last five years. As a result of such performances in domestic cricket, UP cricketers have regularly drawn high bids in the IPL auctions.

Here, we take a look at three young players from UP who can set IPL 2019 alight with their performances:

#1 Rinku Singh (Kolkata Knight Riders)

Rinku Singh was the standout performer for UP this season. He amassed 953 runs in 10 matches at a solid average of 105.08 in the 2018-19 season of the Ranji Trophy.

He was equally good in the recently concluded season of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, where he scored 208 in 11 matches at an average of 29.11. He scored these runs at a high strike of 180, with a top score of 56 against Services.

Though Rinku had a dismal debut season in IPL last year, KKR decided to retain him for the 2019 season. In 4 games that he played last year, he could only manage to score 29 runs.

However, Rinku has been in sublime form this season and could prove to be the perfect supporting player to Dinesh Karthik and Andre Russell in the middle-order. He would definitely like to forget the last year and prove his mettle this season.