ICC Champions Trophy 2017: A chance for Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Kedar Jadhav to shine on world stage

New Delhi: With the cricketing world still halucinating in IPL fever, good news is that the ICC Champions Trophy is just round the corner. India has her squad ready to defend the title, but this summer there are certain newbies who will be heading to England hoping to make the most of the opportunity to make their name known on world stage. They have been part of Indian squad before, but are yet to feature in a tournament with such reach.

Jasprit Bumrah –

MS Dhoni's long search for a death bowler came to an end with the revelation of Jasprit Bumrah in 2016 World Cup T20. India was struggling to cease Bangladesh in their group encounter at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. 17 runs was needed off 12 deliveries. India couldn't afford of another humiliation by the Bangla Tigers at a larger arena and Dhoni was looking to mend things. He turned to then 22-year-old Bumrah for the 19th over.
Six yorkers and six singles and Bangladesh needed 11 off the last over. Although the game is famously known for that final over where three wickets fell off the last three balls, but Bumrah's over was definitely the game changer.

His peculiar high-arm action, a package of myriad deliveries, is what makes him a threat to batters at the death overs. And he would majorly thank Lasith Malinga for that.
Picked up for the Mumbai Indians squad back in 2013, the young pacer spent ample time under Malinga, trying to pick up his skills as a death bowler. Fined tuned with each passing edition, Bumrah now even has the ability to bamboozle batsmen with bouncers and slow dipping yorkers, a class of which was seen when he outfoxed Aaron Finch and Brendon McCullum in his first ever Super Over earlier in the tenth season of IPL.

Towards the end, Rohit Sharma gambled on to put Bumrah with the new ball and that worked wonders for the team in both Qualifier 2 and the in the season finale. Bumrah has truly improved on his skills, and now his ability to bowl with the new ball with lethal in-swingers, has made him a captain's dream.

This summer, the Ahmedabad-based bowler will be heading to England for his first 50-over tournament. Question is whether he can emulate a similar on English pitch where conditions mostly favour the seamers. Well, his Mumbai Indians bowling coach, Shane Bond, is pretty confident about the youngster. At a press conference in Mumbai, the Kiwi international said, "He's got a skill set which is going to make him successful wherever he plays. It's his first 50-over tournament, so it'll be a little bit different for him. But the way the guy is bowling in IPL, if he carries this form through to the Champions Trophy , he will play a big role in India's success."

 

Hardik Pandya –

If Bumrah had given India, still a chance to breathe in that match against Bangladesh, it was Hardik Pandya's last over that stole the show. Two runs were needed off the last three deliveries and the younger of the Pandya brothers sent three Bangla Tigers packing off those reaming balls as India grabbed a pulsating win by just one run.

However the discovery of this all-rounder goes back to 2015, during his match winning innings against Chennai Super Kings. Since then, the Gujarat-based cricketer has featured in almost all T20I matches for India and has impressed the selectors with his performance. So much so that people started comparing him and Kapil Dev.

But soon his performance started to slump. He couldn't deliver with the same pace and his ability with the bat started dropping. But under the strong mentorship of Rahul Dravid and most importantly, Ricky Ponting, Hardik was eyeing a comeback.
He was back in the squad in the New Zealand series and impressed his critics. He soon got a call to lead India A side against Australia and then in IPL 2017 he was all rock-n-roll over the pitch.

His brilliancy in the tenth season of IPL impressed Ricky Ponting, who called him –" high-class all-rounder." And not only so, he also earned back his name in the Indian squad, this time for the ICC Champions Trophy.

 

Kedar Jadhav –

More of a surprise selection for the Indian cricket fans. The aggressive middle order batsman was drawn into Delhi Daredevils squad back in 2010, alongside David Warner and AB de Villiers. Glimpses of his firework were seen during his stay in the capital side until he returned back to the Bengaluru team in 2016.
Within this time frame, Jadhav earned his experience playing first-class cricket, which finally earned him a chance to don the blue jersey. In his first ODI match, against England, earlier this year, he stunned cricketing fans with a ravishing century to script India's chase down to massive 351 runs.

In the tenth edition of IPL, Kedar has mostly been consistent with his knocks despite Royal Challengers Bangalore dismal show in the season.

"I am in a phase where I am hitting the ball well. The experience part is also there. I have been playing first-class cricket for the past ten years. Everything is going for me. It is the management's decision to bat me higher, and I am supporting them with performances like these," he said in a interview to ESPN cricinfo.