Lakshmipathy Balaji names two youngsters who are sure to bag an IPL deal this year

From the elite first-class competition, the Ranji Trophy, through the premier T20I extravaganza, the Indian Premier League (IPL), to finally the Indian Cricket Team – this is how the journey of most India internationals pans out. Each year, a couple of new faces steal the show in the Ranji Trophy and are subsequently selected for the IPL the next year. Case in point is Tamil Nadu all-rounder Washington Sundar, who made his first-class debut in 2016, and IPL and India debut in 2017.

Similarly, during this year’s Ranji Trophy, two new names are creating a lot of buzz, that of Navdeep Saini and Rajneesh Gurbani, both of whom are currently playing the finals of the historical tournament between Delhi vs Vidarbha. While Navdeep, who plays for Delhi, has taken 29 wickets from seven matches this season, his Vidarbha counterpart Gurbani, who became only the second player to claim a hat-trick in a Ranji Trophy final this year, has 31 wickets from 5 games.

IPL an ideal platform

Speaking on the bright future both the bowlers have created for themselves, former India pacer Lakahmipathy Balaji told Times of India, “Over the years, IPL has been an ideal platform for young Indian pacers to flourish. The likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Jaydev Unadkat, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Siraj have all benefitted from the IPL. I believe upcoming pacers like Saini and Gurbani would definitely be on the radar of IPL franchises.”

Saini made his first-class debut on December 14, 2013, at the age of 21, during the 2013-14 Ranji season. The right-arm bowler bowled impressively on debut, taking two wickets and getting good bounce from the surface as well.

Gurbani, on the other hand, made his first-class debut only last year, at the age of 23. He has an astounding 44 wickets from 9 first-class games so far.

Both the youngsters are surely going to go big this IPL auction, just like pacers like Mohammed Siraj and Aniket Choudhary did in the 2017 auctions.