IPL 2018: Harsha Bhogle names his player of the tournament

CSK won the IPL 2018 beating SRH in the final and there were a lot of star performers from both sides right through the tournament.

Published - 28 May 2018, 12:20 IST | Updated - 28 May 2018, 12:20 IST

2 Min Read

Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 is done and dusted with the Chennai Super Kings winning the final clash against the Sunrisers Hyderabad last night in Mumbai. With that, CSK became the second team to lift the trophy thrice. Though it was Chennai who finished first a lot of players from the Sunrisers had a magnificent IPL, from skipper Kane Williamson who was the Orange Cap holder to young Rashid Khan.

A lot of awards were given away last night from the Emerging player of the tournament to the Most Valuable Player but the IPL doesn’t have a specific Player of the tournament title. However, commentator and analyst Harsha Bhogle having closely covered the league picked one player he thinks deserves that tag.

Rashid Khan‘s IPL 2018

He said that it was a wonderful IPL and that his player of the tournament is Rashid Khan. The 19-year-old from Afghanistan playing only his second season made a huge impact, so much so that the teams were more than happy to just play off his 4 overs with minimum damage. He concluded the IPL with 21 wickets in 17 matches and was second on the list of the highest wicket-takers.

The fact that none of the batsmen actually managed to read him off the hand ensured he constantly put them in trouble with the one that came back into the right-handers. He got some of the best batters out, the likes of Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and MS Dhoni with his googly. But it was not just that, he was athletic and energetic on the field, throwing himself around to save that one run, putting in the dive, that attempt to convert half chances into catches and he succeeded more often than not.

His commitment to the team was further evident with the way he batted in the Qualifier 2 against KKR. SRH were down and in dire need of runs, they had no recognized batters left and then Rashid played a thunderous cameo of 34* from 10 balls, it gave their innings the impetus they needed and with the ball he came back to pick three crucial wickets and sealed the match for his side.

He couldn’t replicate that in the final as CSK had the luxury of playing him off even if they got just 4 or 5 runs as the others leaked runs. This IPL has made Rashid a star in front of the world and he now has to live up to the expectations.