2. Mandeep Singh

A couple of weeks ago, I had written about this batting sensation from Punjab and had also stated that this (the Zimbabwe tour) was the best opportunity for Mandeep to vindicate the selectors’ confidence reposed on him. The youngster did just that.

Getting opportunites to play in the T20I series, he made best use of them. Featuring in 3 games, remaining unbeaten once, Mandeep had accumulated 87 runs with 52* as his personal best.

Opening the innings alongwth KL Rahul, he gave good starts to India and helped them win two out of the three games and also the series.

He now has 3,970 runs in First Class at an average of 44.21 and 235 as his individual best. In the limited over format (50 overs) he has an accumulation of 2,176 runs at an average of 39.56 with 119 as his personal high and in the T20 format he has a tally of 1,837 runs at an average of 25.16 with 77* as his individual best.

Being in the company of stalwarts like AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh etc in the RCB dugout during the IPL 2015, had given a lot of confidence to this Punjab youngster and the same was clearly visible during his outings in Ranji Trophy 2015-16, Vijay Hazare Trophy 2015 and the Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2016.

Definitely Mandeep Singh would remain in the selectors’ radar, to be inducted into the national team at the appropriate time.