Every year, the grand spectacle of the Indian Premier League sets the stage for young talent to step into the limelight and prove their mettle in front of a roaring crowd. Uncapped players, often overlooked, use this prestigious platform to blaze their own trail to glory.
Like all the previous IPL seasons, the 17th edition has witnessed an overwhelming rise of bright young talents. Here at Crictoday, we take a look at four uncapped stars who have lit up the IPL 2024 landscape the most.
Mayank Yadav
LSG quick Mayank Yadav made his IPL debut against Punjab Kings in 2024 and celebrated the occasion with the prized scalps of Jonny Bairstow, Prabhsimran Singh and Jitesh Sharma. Yadav's three-wicket burst ensured LSG ran out winners by 21 runs in a high-scoring thriller, earning him the Player of the Match award on his debut.
The tearaway fast bowler also bowled Shikhar Dhawan in the match with a 155.7km/h bullet.
The Delhi-based cricketer backed up his performance with another sizzling three-wicket haul, this time against RCB in Bengaluru. Mayank Yadav's match-winning spell of 3-14 included the key wickets of Glenn Maxwell and Cameron Green and a thunderbolt of 156.7km/h.
Shashank Singh
With twin batting bombardments against Gujarat Titans and SRH, Chhattisgarh's perennial underachiever Shashank Singh has catapulted himself to unprecedented stardom in this IPL 2024 season. Against the Titans, the Punjab Kings star smashed a 29-ball 61* to chase down a 200-run target.
Next, Shashank Singh scored an unbeaten 25-ball 46 against SRH to almost pull off another thrilling chase at Mullanpur. The hard-hitting radical has scored 137 runs in five IPL 2024 innings. He is averaging a staggering 137.
Abhishek Sharma
Brash young opener Abhishek Sharma smashed a 23-ball 63 against Mumbai Indians to help SRH set an IPL record of 277 runs in late March. The prodigious batting talent, nurtured by Yuvraj Singh, also struck a match-winning 12-ball 37 against CSK a week later to win the Player of the Match award.
With 177 runs from five innings in the 2024 IPL at a strike rate of over 200, 23-year-old Abhishek Sharma is already being tipped as one of Team India's stars of the future.
Riyan Parag
Rajasthan Royals' all-round menace Riyan Parag carried his rich Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy form into the IPL 2024 with unprecedented success. Unlike previous seasons, the cricketer made his presence felt for the franchise right from the start, scoring a 29-ball 43 against LSG before scoring successive unbeaten half-centuries against Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians.
While Parag struck a match-winning 45-ball 84* against the Capitals, his run-chasing masterclass against the Mumbai Indians helped Rajasthan Royals to a six-wicket win. The dashing middle-order batsman even snatched Virat Kohli's coveted orange cap at one point this season.
His 48-ball 76, which included 5 sixes and 3 fours, against Gujarat Titans took his run tally to 261 in five matches.