IPL 2018: Five Players Who Were Rewarded for Their Exceptional Performance

The Indian Premier League (IPL) has been a tournament which has provided some forgotten stars or newcomers with the mega opportunity to make their return to the national side through such a domestic professional Twenty20 league.

Several youngsters have gone on to represent India only on the back of some exceptional performances in the cash-rich IPL. It has been the budding ground for many such players.

Even in the recently concluded tournament, there were several exceptional performances carved out by newcomers and some of the veteran cricketers.

The tournament again provided a golden opportunity for some of the players to make a return to the Team India. The respective performances in the tournament provided quite a few players who were rewarded with a national recall courtesy their impressive showing in the IPL.

Without wasting any time let us have a look at five such players who were rewarded for their consistent performances in this edition of the IPL:

Siddarth Kaul:

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) fast bowler was rewarded for his impressive performances in the tournament with a national call-up for the very first time in his career. He has been picked in the national side for both One-day International and Twenty20 International series against England.

The much-awaited series is slated to start later in the month. Kaul was one of the most standout performers for Hyderabad who bagged 21 wickets in the tournament alongside Rashid Khan.

Siddarth was the leader of the Hyderabad’s bowling pack and made more impact than Rashid in the earlier part of the tournament.

However, his performances dipped considerably at the fag end of the tournament. Though he bagged back-to-back wickets of Suresh Raina and Ambati Rayudu with scorching deliveries in the Qualifier first.

Well, it wasn’t enough. Shane Watson took the charge in spectacular fashion – to take Kaul to the cleaners.

Furthermore, Kaul will definitely look to make an impact if he does manage to make his national debut in England.

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Umesh Yadav:

The speedster was quite brilliant in the tournament and was the most impressive bowler for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). Umesh Yadav bagged 20 wickets all through the tournament and provided impressive starts to Bangalore on several occasions.

In one of the group matches against Mumbai Indians (MI), he dismissed Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan in the first two deliveries of the match with scorching deliveries.

Despite his impressive showing, Bangalore failed to make it through to the playoffs. He has been rewarded for his performances in the IPL. The fast bowler has been named in both ODI and T20I squad for the tour of England.

Despite being a regular in Test and ODI squads for India, Umesh has just played a solitary T20I for the Men in Blue.

KL Rahul:

Before the start of the IPL, KL Rahul’s place in the T20I side was in some serious doubt. He had performed quite poorly coming into the tournament and also lost his ODI spot.

However, after his stellar performances in the IPL, he has been rewarded with a national recall in both ODI and T20I squad. Rahul was magnificent at the top of the order for the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP).

The Karnataka-based batsman made batting look ridiculously easy and displayed sensational display of batsmanship against most of the bowlers in the tournament.

Rahul scored 659 runs in the tournament in 14 matches at a staggering average of 55. He also smashed the fastest fifty in the history of IPL in just 14 balls against Delhi Daredevils (DD) in their first group game.

Despite his stupendous performances, Punjab faltered towards the business end of the tournament preventing them from qualifying through to the playoffs.

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Ambati Rayudu:

It was a make or break season for Ambati Rayudu. After being given an opportunity at the top of the order by the Super Kings, Rayudu time and again proved about his credentials. He has a wide range of shots and it was quite evident from his performances in the 2018 IPL.

Rayudu was just sensational. He opened the batting with Watson on most of the occasion during the tournament. But he also batted in the middle order.

It is sometimes baffling to find the reason why Rayudu hasn’t been a permanent feature in the Indian limited-overs side. He has a been bit of an IPL legend and has left an impression in almost all the editions.

The 32-year-old Rayudu has an impressive ODI record to boast about. the prominent cricketer who has been around for a long time has scored more than 1000 ODI runs in 30 odd matches at an impressive average of a shade over 50.

The selectors have backed him again. He got selected in both the ODI and T20I squad for the tour of England. Ergo, Rayudu has the experience of playing in England earlier which will come in handy.

Rayudu ended up scoring 602 runs in 16 matches at a brilliant strike rate of 150. It included a brilliant century in one of the group matches against the Sunrisers.

Jos Buttler:

One of the most free-flowing batsmen of the modern generation, Jos Buttler was quite a revelation for the Rajasthan Royals (R) in the tournament.

Being elevated as the opener, Buttler brought stability in Royals’ camp. It was his exceptional batting at the top of the order which eventually helped Rajasthan to qualify for the playoffs.

Buttler came into the tournament on the back of some poor performances for Lancashire. It was almost certain that he won’t make it to the England Test squad for the test series against Pakistan.

However, after his magical showing in IPL, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) rewarded Buttler with a place in the Test side. He smashed 548 runs in the tournament at a sensational strike rate of 155 in 13 innings.

Buttler carried on his rich vein of form even in the longest format. His innings of 80 in the second Test against Pakistan earned him the Player of the Match Award. It also helped England to level the two-match series 1-1 after losing the opening Test at Lord’s.

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