Akshdeep Nath

One of the main men of India's U19 title win in 2012, Akshdeep Nath was the vice-captain of that glorious team. That moment was obviously the high point of his brief career although he had led his State Uttar Pradesh to silverware in the U19 tournament called the Vinoo Mankad trophy. Akshdeep topped the run charts and this coupled with the World Cup win made him a name to watch out for.

He has had a fairly good time in the domestic circuit across formats with the pundits splurging praises on his sound technique and temperament in batting. Apart from his batting credentials, Akshdeep can also bowl useful medium pace. He can also don the gloves if required which makes him a good resource to have in the side due to his all-round skills.

IPL through the years

Akshdeep has served stints with the Gujarat Lions (2016 and 2017) as well as Kings XI Punjab (2018), but a superlative domestic season and a late need to bolster talented Indian batting resources saw him being sold to the Royal Challengers for a whopping 3.6 crore rupees.

While the auctions involves some element of luck, it must be said that Akshdeep enjoyed the fruits of a bumper summer for Uttar Pradesh. He was third highest run-scorer with 727 runs and can be a handy part-time bowler. His tally of 258 runs in the 50-over format, coming at an average of 51.6 was impressive as well - with these numbers, it wasn't a surprise that he became one of the most sought after players, despite having been shunned the franchises in the initial round.

By Hariprasad Sadanandan