IPL 2024: Five players who could set the tournament on fire

Ahead of IPL 2024, here is a look at five cricketers – two Indian, three overseas – who are ones to watch given their rise in cricket over the past 12 months.

YASHASVI JAISWAL (RR)

Yashasvi Jaiswal’s journey from Uttar Pradesh to selling street food in Mumbai to age-level cricket for India and then 625 runs for Rajasthan Royals in last year’s IPL has been well documented. That journey having toughened him for sterner challenges, Jaiswal marked his Test debut in the West Indies last year with an innings of immense concentration and application that you marvelled at his composure in these times of T20 cricket (and Jaiswal’s achievements in IPL 2023 included a record 13-ball fifty as well as a hundred off 53 balls).

Now, with the confidence Test innings of 171, 209 and 214* to his name, as well as a T20I hundred, Jaiswal enters his fifth IPL season as a stronger and more successful opener. A place in the T20 World Cup guaranteed, Jaiswal could light up IPL 2024 with an even more dazzling array of strokes than he did last season. There is no more engaging young Indian cricketer to watch these days.

RACHIN RAVINDRA (CSK)

At 24, the New Zealand allrounder Rachin Ravindra was a breakout start at last year’s ODI World Cup where he finished as the tournament’s fourth highest run-getter with 578 at an average of over 64. A rookie at international level when he entered the World Cup, Ravindra reeled off three centuries and two half-centuries while also taking five wickets as the Blackcaps made the semi-finals, where they lost to hosts India. Ravindra’s success did not go unnoticed by IPL scouts, and after setting his base price at Rs 50 lakh before entering the player auction in December, he was bought by Chennai Super Kings for 1.8 crore. He now joins fellow New Zealanders Devon Conway, Mitchell Santner, Daryl Mitchell and former national captain Stephen Fleming at CSK.

Ravindra’s overall T20I numbers do not suggest a match-winner in the shortest format, but his skill as an allrounder has been valued immensely by defending champions CSK, and it could be that the youngster opens until Conway recovers from injury. And whenever Conway does slot back alongside Ruturaj Gaikwad, it could well be that CSK use Ravindra in the role of a floater like they did with Moeen Ali. Given his Indian roots and popularity with Indian cricket fans, Ravindra could not have asked for a better introduction to the IPL than at CSK, under the genius called MS Dhoni.

SPENCER JOHNSON (LSG)

It has been an incredible last 12 months for Australian pace sensation Spencer Johnson, who a year ago did not even have a professional cricket contract and was working as a landscape gardener. Fast forward to March 2024, and the left-arm fast bowler enters his first IPL with a 10 crore pay deal and the promise of a major impact for Gujarat Titans who paid 20 times more than his base price at the IPL player auction last December.

Back in Australia, Johnson’s potential was not in doubt but a series of injuries had threatened to derail his career. However, his life changed in 2023 when he was handed a BBL debut last January by Brisbane Heat, after which Johnson made his first-class debut for South Australia. A terrific spell of three wickets for one run in his UK Hundred debut for the Oval Invincibles made people sit up and take notice of Johnson, and it was not long before the Australian selectors added him into the ODI and T20I squads.

Having made his debut in white-ball cricket for Australia, Johnson’s rise continued when GT made him the fifth-highest paid Australian in the IPL. Less than two months later, the 27-year-old was a BBL champion with Brisbane Heat after taking nine wickets during the tournament finals, including four in the final to be Player of the Match, and 19 overall in the BBL at an average of 15. For a franchise missing Mohammed Shami, Johnson shapes as a key cog in the machinery.

CAMERON GREEN (RCB)

The big-hitting Australian allrounder Cameron Green, purchased by Mumbai Indians for a record-breaking 17.5 crore ahead of the 2023 IPL, has been traded to Royal Challengers Bangalore. Given how desperate MI were to bring back Hardik Pandya from GT, Green was the logical player to make way. How he slots in at RCB, given his capabilities, promises to be make or break for the Bengaluru-based franchise that has yet to win the title.

Following an IPL season in which he scored 452 runs at an average of 50.22, which included a 47-ball century to book MI’s spot in the playoffs, Green has gone on to win the ODI World Cup and recently scored a match-winning 174* to win a Test match. At RCB, the 24-year-old will slot into an 11 boasting overseas picks in Faf du Plessis, Glenn Maxwell and Lockie Ferguson and looks set to play every single match, fitness permitting, given his stature. Green is certain to bowl more overs than he did with MI seeing as RCB have gaping holes in their line-up, and on a small ground like the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, his hitting promises to enthrall the local fans.

SUYASH SHARMA (KKR)

Unknown to most before he made his IPL debut for Kolkata Knight Riders on April 6 last year, the mystery spinner Suyash Sharma ended IPL 2023 with 10 wickets at 23.4 apiece while holding his own alongside a T20 superstar in Sunil Narine and a far more experienced Varun Chakravarthy. Not exemplary numbers by any means, but when you understand how Suyash emerged onto the scene, getting 11 games for KKR last year says a lot.

A club cricketer from Delhi, Suyash won an IPL contract as a teenager in late 2022 and on debut for KKR versus RCB, he claimed 3/30 which are the second best figures of a spinner playing his first IPL match.
After the IPL, Suyash played the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy for Delhi and finished the competition as the second most successful bowler with 19 wickets at an average of 7.22 each. Against Tamil Nadu he claimed 4/5 and then took 3/11 versus Tripura. This earned Suyash a shot at one-day cricket too, and he finished his maiden stint in the Vijay Hazare Trophy with 10 wickets from four matches at 14.5 apiece.
If the kind of pitches seen at Eden Gardens during the ODI World Cup are any indication, Suyash looks primed for an even better IPL alongside Narine and Chakravarthy.