IPL 2019: Best Uncapped XI this season
IPL 2019 was a thoroughly entertaining one but failed in its basic goal, the promotion of young players. The league saw very few uncapped players take part and when compared to previous editions, this one was not even close to making an impact.
Teams like Chennai Super Kings, Sunrisers Hyderabad and even the Delhi Capitals who are a very young side didn't promote uncapped players. Even the Capitals and the Sunrisers can be pardoned but CSK have made it a habit of neglecting their youngsters and barring one forced appearance from Dhruv Shorey, no uncapped player was fielded by CSK.
If it weren't for the efforts of the Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Mumbai Indians who fielded the maximum number of uncapped players, the whole purpose of the league would have been defeated.
With that said, picking an uncapped XI is going to be very tough with very less players given an opportunity to shine.
Now, let's take a look at the best uncapped XI this season, which is sadly not even close to the team which we had last year.
Note: The best performances with respect to wickets taken or runs scored is the basic criterion for selection. The team balance has also been taken into consideration.
Players in this XI were uncapped during the time of playing in the league and may have earned their cap now.
Openers- Suryakumar Yadav (Captain) and Nitish Rana
Most teams didn't support the idea of uncapped players keeping wickets as well as opening the batting and that's the reason why two middle-order batsmen are the openers of our sides.
Nitish Rana replaced Sunil Narine to open the innings for KKR in the first game against SRH and played a fine knock of 68 but never returned to that position. However, the batting all-rounder had a fine season as he scored 344 runs in 11 innings averaging 34.40 at a strike-rate of 146.38 and was a key part of the KKR middle order. He also picked up 3 wickets with the ball bowling his off-spin at an economy rate of 9.00.
Suryakumar Yadav did a brilliant job despite being pushed down to No.3 after a great outing at the top last season. He was instrumental especially in chases or on tough wickets where he batted the team out of trouble with great determination and skill. The Mumbaikar made 424 runs in 15 innings averaging a solid 32.61 and a strike-rate of 130.86 including a tremendous knock in Qualifier 1 to lead the side to the finals.