Young guns - Who to look out for in the near future....

[RUDI]

International cricket continuously go through cycles where cricketing nations shine or go throw a bad patch or drought...

Some perfect examples of some legendary teams are:

ODI:

• Team: Australia

Era: 2003/2004

• South Africa

Era: 2005/2006

Tests:

• Team: Australia

Era: 1999 - 2001 and 2006/2007

• Team: West Indies

Era: 1984/1985

Will the quality of emerging young guns/cricketers determine the quality of a national team in years to come? Can we guess or determine the future success of a nation by looking at the next generation of young guns/cricketer that's to come? Ultimately time will tell ....

Let's have a look at today's emerging guns/cricketers and see how the different nations measures up against one another... For the sake of this exercise let's look at players 25 years old and younger

 

[CerealKiller]

Babar Azam - 23
Hasan Ali - 23
Shadab Khan - 19
Fahim Ashraf - 23
Mohammad Amir - 25
Sami Aslam - 21
Imam-ul-Haq - 21
Usman Khan Shinwari - 23
Mohammad Asghar - 19
Rumman Raees - 26 since a couple of weeks
Mohammad Nawaz - 23

 

[RUDI]

Let's have a look at the history of the u/19 World Cups:



And a look at the men's World Cups





Can we see a trend?

 

[RUDI]

South African young guns:

Quinton De Kock #
Aiden Markram #
Janneman Malan

Kyle Verreynne

Senuran Muthusamy
Kyle Simmonds
Andile Phehlukwayo #

Lungi Ngidi #
Kagiso Rabada #
Corné Dry

Migael Pretorius
Michael Cohen

# players has made their senior international debut already.

Babar Azam - 23
Hasan Ali - 23
Shadab Khan - 19
Fahim Ashraf - 23
Mohammad Amir - 25
Sami Aslam - 21
Imam-ul-Haq - 21
Usman Khan Shinwari - 23
Mohammad Asghar - 19
Rumman Raees - 26 since a couple of weeks
Mohammad Nawaz - 23

Some serious young guns here... Pakistani Cricket is looking pretty healthy for some time to come

 

[Chris Swift]

Young english talent

Mason crane 20
Tom curran 21
Sam curran 18
Ben foakes 23
HASEEB HAMEED 19
Joe clarke 20
Sam billings 25
Liam livingstone 22
Saqib mahmood 19
Daniel bell-drummond 22
Ben duckett 21

 

[AliB]

Corné Dry

Watched this guy play in HKW6s, looked promising with ball though, it was hitting tournament.

 

[digiosmosis]

Let's have a look at the history of the u/19 World Cups:

View attachment 198798

And a look at the men's World Cups

View attachment 198799

View attachment 198800

Can we see a trend?

Indian Cricket Team's performance have improved this decade. Specially 2015 world cup in which the team has just lost one game in semi final.

 

[El Loco]

Great idea for a thread...


Dan Lawrence
Sam Hain
Aneurin Donald

Shimron Hetmyer
Alzarri Joseph
Jofra Archer (Although he will most likely end up being snapped up for England if he comes good).
Gudakesh Motie
Chemar Holder

Rashid Khan
Zahir Khan
Ihsanullah
Mujeeb Zadran

Sahibzada Farhan
Usama Mir
Ghulam Mudassar
Saad Ali
Sameen Gul

Mustafizur Rahman
Mosaddek Hossain
Mehedi Hasan

Wiaan Mulder

Delray Rawlins

Anshuman Rath

Richard Ngarava

Andrew Umeed

Sandeep Lamichane

 

[CerealKiller]

Sahibzada Farhan
Usama Mir
Ghulam Mudassar
Saad Ali
Sameen Gul

A good list there, but all of them need more domestic matches under their belt. Except for Saad Ali perhaps.

 

[El Loco]

Ok, I think I might have slightly missed the point of this thread by scrambling to name as many prospects as I can. Let's have a look and see how West Indies might shape up in the next few years.

Kraigg Braithwaite (24)
Evin Lewis (25)
Shimron Hetmyer (20)
Jermaine Blackwood (25)
Sunil Ambris (24)

Shane Dowrich (25)
Shai Hope (23)
Nicolas Pooran (22)

Rovman Powell (24)
Roshon Primus (22)
Justin Greaves (23)

Roston Chase (25)
Rahkeem Cornwall (22)

Jason Holder (25)
Alzarri Joseph (20)
Jofra Archer (22)
Keon Joseph (25)
Marquino Mindley (22)
Oshane Thomas (20)

Gudakesh Motie (22)
Jomel Warrican (25)


A few individual performers in there, but as far as becoming major force in world cricket again, still a very long way to go.
Added to the fact that all of the uncapped players here are still only prospects and require a lot more FC/List A experience to be able to appraise their suitability to play at the highest level.

 

[Aislabie]

Okay, here's an XI of players who are eighteen or younger to keep an eye out for.

1. Prithvi Shaw (17) - He's had the "next Sachin" mantle on his shoulders for years, but consistently rises to it.
2. Matthew Breetzke (18) - He's not done much in provincial cricket, but has played impressive innings against the touring Bangladeshis.
   
3. Afif Hossain (17) - He burst onto the scene as an off-spinner, but is also a proper top-order batsman. And he's only 17.
4. Paddy Rowe (16) - I had the pleasure of watching this lad hit a faultless 150-odd over the summer. He was in England to play cricket and hit something like a dozen centuries in a month I think?
5. Baheer Shah (18) - I've not seen him play. I don't know anything about him, other than he hit 256* on first-class debut the other day. Even if that's not very good first-class cricket, that's still absolutely mad.
   
6. Darwish Rasooli (17) - Wherever he goes, he hits a very long ball indeed.
7. Will Sutherland (18) - His eighteenth birthday was only a few days ago, but in his A-list appearances so far he's been impressive. He also bats.
8. Luke Charlesworth (14) - Early days, but he's a fourteen-year-old who opened the bowling against Oxford MCCU this year and was the best bowler on view. Is involved in England age groups.
9. Shaheen Afridi (17) - Quick, swings the ball both ways, comfortable working the angles on the crease. Pakistan have found another one.
10. Josh Little (17) - He's not 18 until tomorrow, and has already played a lot of cricket for his country at various levels; we can only hope he stays fit really.
11. Zahir Khan (18) - With Rashid Khan being all world-class it's difficult for him to get into the Afghan team, but when he does he has FC bowling average of under 10.

Bonus mention for the following nineteen-year-olds: Saif Hassan, TJ Schadendorf, Sam Curran, Rashid Khan, Kamindu Mendis, Michael Cohen and others I'm sure

 

[Aislabie]

Baheer Shah (18) - I've not seen him play. I don't know anything about him, other than he hit 256* on first-class debut the other day. Even if that's not very good first-class cricket, that's still absolutely mad.

Baheer Shah update: his first six first-class innings read as follows: 256*, 34, 11, 111, 116, 303*. I don't care what the bowling's like, I think this kid might be a genius.

 

[Aislabie]

Another young Afghan talent is Mujeeb Zadran. He's apparently only sixteen years old (debatable) and achieved total bowling figures of 40.1-7-111-20 in the recent U19 Asia Cup that was won by Afghanistan. The rest of his team combined for figures of 92-5-396-21, so it would not be unfair to say that he won that competition almost single-handedly.

It will be exciting to see how he does for Comilla Victorians in the BPL, and also how Afghanistan plan to juggle spin bowling resources that include Rashid Khan, Zahir Khan and Mujeeb Zadran, all apparently under the age of 20.

I keep saying apparently because age-fudging is a thing, and it's entirely possible they're like 25 or something.

 

[Aislabie]

Mujeeb Zadran update: He's on his ODI debut, and he's already taken two wickets in his first three overs. Footage of his bowling is scarce, but have a scroll through this video of the Afghan fielding effort in the U19 Asia Cup final. I'm not sure what it is about Mujeeb that makes him so dangerous exactly, but he certainly varies his pace and turn quite cleverly. He also doesn't look quite as young as he is supposed to be, but that's not unusual - Raees Ahmadzai was supposed to be in his twenties when he retired after all.

 

[Bigby Wolf]

Mujeeb Zadran update: He's on his ODI debut, and he's already taken two wickets in his first three overs. Footage of his bowling is scarce, but have a scroll through this video of the Afghan fielding effort in the U19 Asia Cup final. I'm not sure what it is about Mujeeb that makes him so dangerous exactly, but he certainly varies his pace and turn quite cleverly. He also doesn't look quite as young as he is supposed to be, but that's not unusual - Raees Ahmadzai was supposed to be in his twenties when he retired after all.

Live streaming of the above match.