Cricket lovers across Jammu and Kashmir are waiting in the wings rather eagerly waiting for their five IPL stars to perform in the 17th edition of Indian Premier League which begins with the match of MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.
Five J&K players namely Umran Malik, Abdul Samad, Yudhvir Singh, Rasikh Salam and Abid Mushtaq will be playing for various IPL teams for 2024 season.
While Samad and Umran will be part of Sunrisers Hyderabad, Yudhvir, Rasikh and Abid will be part of Lucknow Super Giants, Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals respectively.
Rasikh Salam’s Delhi Capitals will be taking on Kings XI Punjab at 3:30 pm on March 23, while Samad and Umran’s SRH will lock horns with Kolkata Knight Riders at 7:30 pm on the same day and Abid Mushtaq’s Rajasthan Royals will face Yudhvir Singh’s Lucknow Super Giants on March 24, 2024.
All these five players had a reasonably good 2023-24 season, especially, Rasikh and Yudhvir were standout bowlers for J&K in the shortest format of the game. Rasikh took 11 wickets in the 7 matches of Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy with 6/31 as his best, while Yudhvir captured 10 wickets in this tournament with 3/13 as his best.
Umran took 6 wickets in Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy and took 6 wickets with 3/27 as his best, while Abid Mushtaq took just 3 wickets in the T20 format this season but was instrumental with the ball and the willow in Ranji Trophy this season.
The season 2023-24 remained good for explosive Abdul Samad who scored some good runs in all three formats.
Now, it would be interesting to see who among J&K’s five stars get the Playing XI in their first outings.
“We are hopeful that our IPL will do better this season because they got a good number of quality matches in all formats, besides their rigorous individual training,” said one of the JKCA Managers on the condition of anonymity.
