5 Debutants who have been the most impressive in IPL 2018

The annual Indian Premier League (IPL) makes as well as unmakes players. While expectations from some remain sky-high due to their past performances and their heavyweights get reflected in the auctions, others produce magic during the tournament the set up the tone for the following year.

The 2018 edition of the IPL has been no different either as some players, who were expected to make it big, failed to fire while others, who were little known till the beginning of the tournament, turned into household names by playing consistently well. There are also those who lived up to the expectations of their respective franchises.

Here, we look at five top players who have impressed with their batting, bowling and all-round skills in this IPL:

1. Mayank Markande (Mumbai Indians):

Mayank Markande was not known much before his debut IPL this year but the MI youngster impressed in his very first game, taking three wickets against Chennai Super Kings (one of his scalps included Mahendra Singh Dhoni) even though the defenders lost the game closely.

Markande is currently placed second in the list of best bowlers of IPL 11 with 11 wickets (topper Siddharth Kaul of Sunrisers Hyderabad also has 11 wickets but has a better average). The 20-year-old Punjab leg-spinner has impressed with his consistency and showed little fear against even the biggest of opponents in his debut season. Markande took four wickets in his second game against the Sunrisers to become the Purple Cap holder.

Markande’s wicket-taking run took a dip after 7 wickets in two games (he got 4 in next 6) which made Sunil Gavaskar believe that he lost his initial spark. But the lad is far too young to lose out and will definitely learn a lot more on how to keep up the momentum. Markande might not go down to the closing stages since MI have put up a pathetic show this year but he is certainly one of the finds of this year’s IPL.