Sportskeeda Cricket Awards 2014: Emerging Players of the Year

The year 2014 saw some stellar performances in cricket by the established star players like Kumar Sangakkara, AB de Villiers, Mitchell Johnson and Dale Steyn, all of whom further enhanced their credentials with strong showings. The last 12 months also saw the emergence of some new players who put in some impressive performances for their country.We look at five emerging players who made people take note of them pretty much for the first time in 2014:

#5 Akshar Patel (India)

The youngster from Gujarat had a breakthrough year in 2014. He began the year by being named as the BCCI Under-19 cricketer for the previous season, and an impressive all-round show in IPL 7 won him the Emerging Player of the Tournament award.

The selectors showed faith in Patel’s talent and temperament at such young age by rewarding him with a call-up to the national ODI side. The player has justified his selection with some impressive performances with the ball and in the field, and also with the bat in the limited opportunities he has got.

Such has been the rapid rise in Patel’s reputation that many believe that he is a strong contender to be in India’s final squad of fifteen for the 2015 World Cup, and predict that he will give a tough challenge to the more experienced Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja for a spot in the playing XI.