Uncapped Indian bowlers finally make presence felt

In previous IPLs, we have seen uncapped Indian bowlers show flashes of brilliance. A Karn Sharma here, a Mohit Sharma there... In IPL 2014, though, the uncapped bowlers have made more than the occasional contribution; their performances have been consistent enough to give the impression India's bowling stocks are not as thin as it had seemed to be.

Of the nine Man-of-the-Match awards that have gone to bowlers, five have been won by uncapped Indians. Kings XI Punjab's Sandeep Sharma and Rajasthan Royals' Pravin Tambe have won two apiece. Royal Challengers Bangalore's Yuzvendra Chahal has won the other. But it has not been only about these handful of performances. Almost every team has such a bowler consistently making useful contributions to their cause. Kings XI has three of them - apart from Sandeep, Rishi Dhawan and Akshar Patel have also done well; both have economies that are well below seven runs an over. Ishwar Pandey started well for Chennai Super Kings and Jasprit Bumrah hasn't done too badly in the few opportunities he has got for Mumbai Indians. The wily Rajat Bhatia has also been as consistent as ever with his performances for Royals.

Last year, at a similar stage (after 28 games), uncapped Indians had taken 43 wickets at an economy of 6.8, which is marginally better than their economy this year (68 wickets at 7.0). However, last year, the tournament had a lot of low totals in the first half of the tournament. There were fewer match-winning performances too: Sidharth Trivedi was the only uncapped Indian bowler to win the Man-of-the-Match award in the first 28 matches of last season.

The more significant difference this year has been the number of overs these bowlers have sent down. While in 2013 they sent down only 154 overs in the first 28 matches, this year they have bowled almost a hundred more overs in the first half of the league phase. Their inexperience in terms of bowling at international batsmen hasn't deterred teams from giving them their full quota of four overs. Of the 71 instances when uncapped bowlers have bowled at least an over in a match, they have gone on to complete their quota on 44 occasions (55%). In 2013, this percentage was significantly lower at 32% (18 out of 56). Remarkably, of these 44 instances, bowlers finished the match with an economy of six runs or less 23 times. Last year, there were only ten such instances.

Some of India's international bowlers have had a good season so far but they, collectively, have not been able to match the performance of their domestic counterparts. They have taken 49 more wickets, but have bowled 185 more overs. Their strike rate, economy and average have been inferior. India's capped bowlers have gone on to finish their quota of four overs on 75 occasions. Of these, they have ended up giving six runs or less an over on only 21 occasions.

Pravin Tambe is the leading wicket-taker among India's uncapped players, and at half-way stage of the tournament he was the joint-leading wicket-taker overall, with Sunil Narine. He has won two Man-of-the-Match awards, including one for his hat-trick against Kolkata Knight Riders. Yuzvendra Chahal tops the list of the most economical uncapped India bowlers and is the only spinner to have an economy of less than six half way into the league stage.