Top 5 upcoming players to watch out for at the ICC Champions Trophy
The Champions Trophy is a worthy prize in itself but its history shows that the treatment doled out to it is one which is given to an illegitimate child, earning merit only in terms of the its comparison to grand trophy of the ODI World Cup. Suitably so, it comes halfway on the grand road to the World Cup, at a moment when teams can test their balance.
Almost all squads, except for Sri Lanka and New Zealand perhaps, bear a strikingly new look as compared to those teams that travelled to India in 2011. The new faces have a huge platform in front of themselves to prove their mettle and stake a claim for a place in their respective sides as they move towards the World Cup.
When one talks about upcoming talent, there are a multitude of names that come to mind and the sub-continent especially continues to produce rich and exciting new talent. India have an entirely new opening pair with Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay replacing Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag. They are not young and have played a lot of domestic cricket but their international careers are yet to take a substantial leap. Pakistan always bear some newness because of their rare appearance in international cricketing contests, given their inability to host matches at home. Their pace battery has some new names including Junaid Khan and a 7 ft 1 inch giant by the name of Md. Irfan. Sri Lanka continue to bank upon the experience of Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene but they have an exciting prospect in Kusal Perera who showed his ability in the warm-up match against India.
Outside of the sub-continent, the trend is to ease the players to the international stage. Players like Joe Root, Mitchell Starc have travelled with England and Australia Test squads and now promise to prove key components of their respective sides. South Africa too are a team in transition. Under the leadership of AB de Villiers, they have arrived without their experienced campaigners like Jacques Kallis and Graeme Smith. Here is a list of the players who promise to grab their opportunity by the scruff and put their respective teams into winning positions:
1. Nasir Jamshed
This left-handed Pakistan batsman makes the top of my list for a specific reason. Over the years, Pakistan have proved their ability to produce fast bowlers of top quality with ease. The line of Imran, Wasim, Waqar has many successors. Fast bowling and swing is in their DNA and they boast of arguably the best bowling line-up in the tournament given the top quality spin-bowlers they have in Ajmal and Hafeez. However, Pakistan have failed to add convincingly to the line of Abbas, Miandad, Anwar and Inzamam. The fate of Pakistan in this Champions Trophy will depend upon how their batting fares against targets that might be under 250 given their bowling.
Enter a batsman who has proved that he can play the long innings. He can anchor the innings from one end as well as switch gears to play aggressive cricketing shots. Nasir Jamshed is young but he has a mature head on his shoulders and if he can adapt to conditions in England and correct some of the flaws that naturally enter the batting styles of sub-continent batsmen who play on slow dry surfaces, he can take Pakistan to much sought after glory.
2. David Miller
David Miller is another exciting left-handed batsman on my list. It’s a pity that he will have to compete for his place in the side given the talent and experience that South Africa still have in their batting line-up with de Villiers, Amla and Faf Du Plessis. Miller has had a short but riveting career for South Africa so far and came in the spotlight in the IPL with a 38-ball-hundred. And yet, he is not a mindless slam-bang player but one who plays proper cricket shots and can use his technique to gather runs in the middle overs. He is the X-Factor that South Africa need to overthrow their ‘chokers’ tag.