The Indian Premier League (IPL) carnival is set to return as the Chennai Super Kings take on the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 2024 edition. The season opener will take place on Friday, March 22 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. The hosts will be heading into the season as the defending champions.
The tournament’s auction witnessed some talented signings by the franchises for the upcoming 2024 edition. While the Australian pacers emerged as the costliest signings, some of the uncapped players also enforced a bidding war for themselves. It will be interesting to see how these uncapped players perform in the tournament.
Let’s take a look at the three debutants to watch out for in the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) season:
Sameer Rizvi (Chennai Super Kings)
The Chennai Super Kings splurged an INR 8.40 crores to sign Sameer Rizvi for the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) season. The uncapped 20-year-old is nicknamed as “Right-handed Suresh Raina”. He is likely to play in the middle order as Ambati Rayudu’s replacement, as the latter took retirement from the sport.
In the 2023 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Rizvi scored 277 runs in seven matches at an average of 69.25. This includes an unbeaten 46-ball 75 against Tamil Nadu. Recently, he slammed a triple-century for Uttar Pradesh in the Under-23 CK Nayudu Trophy. Talking about his T20 record, he has smashed 295 runs at an average of 49.16, with two fifties.
Kumar Kushagra (Delhi Capitals)
Kumar Kushagra, a hard-hitter from Jharkhand, saw a fierce bidding war for himself between the Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Capitals and the Gujarat Titans at the auctions. Finally, the Delhi Capitals managed to sign him for INR 7.20 crore. He had impressed their Director of Cricket, Sourav Ganguly during the trials.
The youngster slammed 67 off 37 balls for Jharkhand against Maharashtra in Jaipur in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, batting at No. 6. With Rishabh Pant unlikely to keep wickets in the upcoming season, Kumar Kushagra will be making his debut.
Gerald Coetzee (Mumbai Indians)
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