All eyes will be on mystery spinner Varun Chakarvarthy as Kings XI Punjab bagged him in the auction in Jaipur for a whopping Rs 8.4 crore. Photo Twitter
IANS takes a look at five mystery spinners who are expected to make a mark this season:
Playing for Tamil Nadu, Varun bagged 22 wickets in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. He has six variations in his kitty: off-break, leg-break, flipper, top-spinner, carrom ball and the googly.
The 27-year-old shot into limelight in the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) 2018, scalping nine wickets from 10 matches, with a decent economy rate of 4.7. Looking at his record, Varun is expected to give batsmen a difficult time.
Rahman also bowls some unbelievable googlies and under the guidance of his skipper Ravichandran Ashwin, who is an experienced off-spinner himself, the Afghan bowler is expected to only get better with every outing.
The chinaman bowler, retained by the Knights, was one of their best bowlers, picking 18 wickets from 16 games. But the management would want Kuldeep to keep things a little tighter as he was slightly expensive with an economy of 8.14.
KKR skipper Dinesh Karthik will certainly expect the 24-year-old to replicate his show in this edition of the IPL, and alongwith Sunil Narine, Kuldeep is expected to forge a deadly combination.
At 19, Sundar is presumed to be one of India's next generation players. He had a good start to the league in 2017 and had scalped 8 wickets from 11 games, with a decent economy of 6.16.
The Tamil Nadu boy however, faltered in the second season as he managed just four wickets from seven games in 2018 with a poor economy. Sundar will look to leave it behind and start afresh in this year's league.
RCB have shown faith in the youngster and picked him for Rs 3.20 crore in the auctions, and Sundar will surely look to perform to the expectations of the franchise.
Little known in the cricketing world before now, Lomror gained recognition based on his performances in India's Under-19 campaign during the World Cup in 2016. In the six games, Lomror scalped seven wickets with an impressive economy of 3.74.
The 19-year-old didn't get much chance to showcase his talent in IPL after featuring in just two games for the Royals last year.
However, given his record, Lomror will definitely be a spinner to watch out for. With the players having little knowledge about Lomror, the young spinner can certainly use the surprise element to his advantage.