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IPL 2020: 5 Players Who Knocked the Door for a India Call-Up/Comeback

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IPL 2020: 5 Players Who Knocked the Door for a India Call-Up/Comeback | Indian Premier League 2020: Players who can get selected for India

Every season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) concludes with a bunch of cricketers knocking on the door for a selection to the Indian national team. Some of these individuals are uncapped players, striving to debut for the Blues and fulfill their lifelong aspirations. Others are seasoned internationals, unfortunately out of the current scheme of things due to multiple factors.

Anyways, this edition of the tournament saw some individuals make a strong case for themselves and prove their mettle in arguably the most competitive T20 tournament in the world. In this article, we have avoided the names of obvious contenders like Varun Chakravarthy, T Natarajan and Suryakumar Yadav, as a lot of calls have already been made for their induction in the national team setup.

Including them would have made this a rather mundane piece, where the reader would know the names comprised in the list even before reading it. So, without further ado, let us have a look at the five individuals who have knocked the door for a call-up or comeback to the Indian team.

Ishan Kishan

IPL 2020: 5 Players Who Knocked the Door for a India Call-Up/Comeback | Indian Premier League 2020: Players who can get selected for India
IPL 2020: 5 Players Who Knocked the Door for a India Call-Up/Comeback: Ishan Kishan

Ishan Kishan was pivotal to Mumbai Indians’ success this year as the southpaw seemed to have delivered performances at the optimum potential that he holds in the T20 format. Kishan was dynamic, attacking and displayed a fearless attitude even against the most remarkable pacers. His most startling quality was to clear the ropes even in the hard-length deliveries, which is sort of a mandatory skill to succeed in the current limited-overs game.

More importantly, Kishan played brilliantly both at the top and in the middle overs too, even taking the game until the concluding stages on occasions. Kishan scored 516 runs at an average of 57.33 and a strike rate of 145.76. With Rishabh Pant looking out of touch and Sanju Samon falling behind in bringing consistency in his performances, it might be time to test Ishan Kishan in the white-ball formats at least.

Also read: Was Ishan Kishan the best uncapped Indian player in IPL 2020?

Sandeep Sharma

IPL 2020: 5 Players Who Knocked the Door for a India Call-Up/Comeback | Indian Premier League 2020: Players who can get selected for India
IPL 2020: 5 Players Who Knocked the Door for a India Call-Up/Comeback: Sandeep Sharma

Sandeep Sharma might not come across as the most fearsome of pacers, but he has shown an innate knack of getting the job done at a laudable consistency too. He can swing the ball either way, which provides him with an edge in the initial couple of overs.

However, Sharma turns out to be even more efficient as the ball turns old. He utilizes his knuckle deliveries and variations quite well, cramping the batsmen for room and bowling according to the field setting that plugs the flow of runs. Sharma can bowl the occasional yorker too and he does so on appropriate occasions, thus adding further fuel to his armory.

The pacer took 14 wickets in 13 matches at an economy rate of 7.19, which is no mean feat considering that he is the sort of  bowler that the opposition players might try and take on for plenty for runs. However, the 27-year-old has prevented that from happening and made a pretty good case for him to be tried out at higher levels at some point in the future.

Axar Patel

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Axar Patel has slowly slipped into the sidelines in terms of a spot in the national team. However, the left-arm spinner seems to have reinvigorated his abilities and puts forward a solid package that should be exploited effectively in the T20 format.

Axar Patel has developed an incredible consistency in his bowling. He carries an additional height advantage over his peers and that allows Patel to hit the back of the length spot or a slightly fuller one where it is difficult for any batsman to get under the ball. Patel took only nine wickets in 15 matches, but he did so at an economy rate of 6.41 despite bowling in the powerplay on majority of occasions. Furthermore, Patel looks like a much better batsman now; someone who is further confident in his abilities and can smack a few deliveries out of the park when needed.

Hardik Pandya will probably play only as a batsman for the near future. The team keeps oscillating between either Krunal Pandya or Ravindra Jadeja for T20Is and Axar Patel can very well make a backdoor entry to stake a claim for that spot in the team. 

Also read: IPL 2020 Team of the Tournament

Ravichandran Ashwin

IPL 2020: 5 Players Who Knocked the Door for a India Call-Up/Comeback | Indian Premier League 2020: Players who can get selected for India
IPL 2020: 5 Players Who Knocked the Door for a India Call-Up/Comeback: R Ashwin

Ravichandran Ashwin hasn’t even been considered to play white-ball cricket for India since the Champions Trophy defeat in 2017. However, the off-spinner looks to have spent a considerable period of time in reinventing himself and become more effective in the shorter formats of the game. Ashwin is prone to experimenting with variations often, but on some occasions he seemed to have gone overboard with it too. The off-spinner tried many leg-spinning deliveries in the previous IPL, something that arguably took the sheen away from his bowling.

However, Ashwin was much cleverer this time around. He used his conventional off-spinning deliveries regularly and mixed them up with other variations that always kept the batsmen on their toes. The veteran cricketer astutely managed his lengths too and used his carom balls to good effect as well. He took 13 wickets in 15 matches at an economy rate of 7.66 and dot-ball efficiency of 33%. Given his understanding of Indian wickets/pitches and Kuldeep Yadav’s lack of form, Ashwin can be a valuable addition to the team for next year’s World T20.

Murugan Ashwin

IPL 2020: 5 Players Who Knocked the Door for a India Call-Up/Comeback | Indian Premier League 2020: Players who can get selected for India
IPL 2020: 5 Players Who Knocked the Door for a India Call-Up/Comeback: Murugan Ashwin

Even if the Indian team management is apprehensive of trying out the senior Ashwin, they can provide an opportunity to his state-mate Murugan Ashwin too. Playing for Kings XI Punjab, Murugan Ashwin took 10 wickets in nine matches at an economy rate of 7.46.

The leg-spinner bowls the stock delivery exceptionally well, and he is more than capable of using the googly well. He tends to bowl almost all the variations that a leg-spinner possesses and is extremely wily in terms of altering his pace too. Discipline is perhaps one of his remarkable traits, as Murugan Ashwin hardly gives away any loose deliveries to the batsman. He maintains a line that is hard to get away with, compelling the batsmen to improvise and thus put their wicket at risk. He has become increasingly impressive over the past few seasons, and can arguably be in the queue of spinners aspiring to make it to the Indian T20I side.

Written by Tarkesh Jha. Follow Tarkesh on Twitter today.

Tarkesh Jha
Tarkesh Jhahttps://twitter.com/jha_tarkesh
Tarkesh is a passionate cricket fan from India. He specialises in reporting on news from around the cricketing world as well as putting together opinion pieces. You can connect with Tarkesh on Twitter (X) at: https://twitter.com/jha_tarkesh

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