IPL 2016: Five debutants to look out for

The Indian Premier League has something for everyone: youngsters get a chance to experience the highest-level of cricket, established players get an opportunity to develop their game on Indian pitches, and retired cricketers find a way to stay connected to the game.

All of this is accompanied by the added benefit of lucrative deals, deeming the cash-rich league one of the most sought-after events of the game, even in its ninth year. This edition might take time to take off, especially with the recently concluded World T20 being a taxing affair for both players and fans.

The addition of two new franchises and a fresh auction gives the event enough gas to run another season. Here's a look at five players who'll be playing the league for the first time:

Carlos Braithwate

Braithwate etched his name in West Indian cricketing folklore last week, slamming four fours in the last over to give his team an improbable win over England in the finals of the World T20. The ride to the top, however, has been a long one.

Making his debut for the T&T team in 2011, he had figures of 7-90 in the second innings of his debut first-class test match. He ended the season with 26 wickets in 8 matches. The reward for the efforts was a place in the national side against Bangladesh the same year. Yet, he couldn't hold on for long, and it took him four years to make a comeback to the side.

The Barbadian, who was classmates with singer Rihanna in school, considers Rahul Dravid and Kevin Pietersen as his idols. The opportunity of getting to play under the mentorship of Dravid for the Daredevils is something the all-rounder would be looking forward to, after being purchased by the franchise for a whopping 4.2 crores, way higher than his base price of 30 lacs.

Murugan Ashwin

The IPL has a tendency of making millonaires out of unknowns overnight. The latest beneficiary to this trend has been Murugan Ashwin, an obscure talent from Chennai. He took the second most number of wickets for Tamil Nadu in last year's Syed Mushtaq Trophy.

The Rising Pune Supergiants, one of the two franchises debuting this season, bought him for an astounding 4.5 crores in the auctions this February.

Before being picked for the IPL side, Murugan had featured in just three first-class matches and two List A matches for Tamil Nadu. The 25-year old is from the same college as his more established namesake, Ravichandran Ashwin.

He made his mark in his first match this IPL, giving away just 16 runs from his four-over quota, picking up the wicket of Shreyas Gopal in the process. Sourav Ganguly believes that batsmen will take time to pick Ashwin, and he might turn out to be a mystery bowler for the Pune team.

Mustafizur Rahman

All of 20, Mustafizur has tasted success and stardom pretty early in his career. Hailing from the Satkhira district in Bangladesh, Mustafizur debuted for the national side last year.

He became the second bowler after Brian Vitori to take a five-wicket haul on debut, when he bamboozled the Indian batsmen on his way to 50-5 in his first ODI at Dhaka last year.

Known for his clever variations, especially the off-cutter which he bowls at an unsettlingly slow pace, Mustafizur has been one of the stars of Bangladesh's rise in international cricket in the past one year. In the three World T20 matches that he played, he picked up nine wickets, with a best of 5/22 versus New Zealand.

He was amply rewarded with a contract for the Sunrisers Hyderabad, after the franchise let go of Dale Steyn and Ishant Sharma from their squad. He impressed everyone on his IPL debut, finishing with impressive figures of 4-0-26-2, at a time when the opposition scored 227 in 20 overs.

With Ashish Nehra sidelined with injury for at least two matches, the young Mustafizur will get a greater role in the team's bowling attack.

Rishabh Pant

The ICC U-19 World Cup, a biennial event, provides a great launch-pad for young cricketers to show their skills and acquire the experience of playing at the top most level.

Rishabh Pant, one of India's budding cricketers who featured in this year's U-19 World Cup, is known for his big-hitting, as well as his competent keeping. He is the record holder for the fastest fifty (18 balls) in Under-19 internationals.

He was also the second highest run getter for India in the recently-concluded Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh, compiling 267 runs at an average of 44.5, including a century and two fifties.

Known for his wide range of strokes and aggressive gameplay, he regularly practices six-hitting, even in the nets. His efforts were amply rewarded, as the southpaw was acquired by the Delhi Daredevils for 1.9 crores. The franchise aims at making a new, young squad this season, and the brazen Pant falls in their scheme of things.

Jos Buttler

For the first time, the ECB has allowed two active players to be part of the cash-rich IPL, thus burying the hatchet on the previous differences with the Indian board. Buttler, the hard-hitting wicketkeeper from Somerset and one of the two players, has been an impactful part of England's new look side, combining aggressive strokeplay with a level head, a trait which saw him receive the Captain's cap for a T20 series against Pakistan last year.

Buttler came under the IPL radar with a whirlwind 46-ball hundred against Pakistan, the fastest ODI hundred by an Englishman, breaking his own record which he had set against Sri Lanka in 2014. His four ODI hundreds have come in 41, 61, 66 and 73 balls.

He was the subject of a bidding war between KKR and MI at the auctions this February, where he was purchased by the latter for 3.8 crores.