U19 tournaments hold relevance in the structure of cricket in a country. Back then, there were U23 tournaments too that were keenly followed. In 2013, there was the Asian Cricket Council Emerging Teams Cup in which the likes of KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav played for India. In the recent IPL, too, there were a few good performers aged 23 years and below. On that note, in this article, we take a look at the best Under-23 XI of IPL 2022.
Note: For constituting this XI, we have considered players aged 23 and below as of May 2022.
Openers: Prithvi Shaw and Yashasvi Jaiswal
Prithvi Shaw and Yashasvi Jaiswal will be the openers in this Under-23 XI of IPL 2022. Both Shaw and Jaiswal did not play all the games this season. While Jaiswal was dropped from the XI for a few matches, Shaw had to miss out due to medical reasons.
Nevertheless, both of them had terrific campaigns. They might not have accumulated too many runs but in terms of impact knocks, the duo helped their team win a few games. While Shaw struck at a strike rate of 152, the southpaw scored at 132. The Mumbai duo will be expected to improve in the coming years.
Middle-Order: Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan (WK), Tilak Varma
It was long-awaited but Shubman Gill finally showed promising signs of becoming an elite T20 opener. He did struggle in the middle part of the league but he finished off on a high with a top knock in the final. Ishan Kishan will play in the middle-order of this squad, a position he has played in before. For Mumbai Indians, the cricketer scored 418 runs as an opener. The franchise will expect a better strike rate from him next season.
Tilak Varma scored 397 runs at a strike rate of 130 and an average of 36 in IPL 2022. For a player in his debut season, it was a terrific display. Most importantly, he did well in the middle order, something that Mumbai Indians will be happy about.
All-Rounders: Abhishek Sharma and Rashid Khan (C)
Abhishek Sharma and Rashid Khan will be the all-rounders in this Under-23 XI of IPL 2022. Rashid Khan is only 23 years old and is already one of the best T20 players on the planet. Although you can’t count him as an all-rounder yet, his performances with the bat in IPL 2022 were good and hence, the Afghan comes in here.
Abhishek Sharma opened the batting for SRH this season. The Punjab lad scored 426 runs and was one of the big positives for his franchise in this campaign.
Bowlers: M Theekshana, Mohsin Khan, Arshdeep Singh, and Umran Malik
Sri Lanka’s Theekshana picked 12 wickets this edition and he gave away runs at just 7.45 per over. He showed promise of becoming a good T20 bowler. Theekshana will become even more dangerous on the Chepauk pitch next year.
Mohsin Khan, Arshdeep Singh, and Umran Malik ended up being three of the best pacers in IPL 2022. For India, the fact that all are still below 23 years is a big positive. They have talent and with a lot of time on their hands, they could become top cricketers. Amongst these three, Umran collected the most wickets (22) while Mohsin and Arshdeep left an impression in the powerplay and the death overs respectively. Umran and Arshdeep have been selected for the upcoming series against South Africa for their impressive display in IPL 2022.
