It is said that the best players in the world start early and today, PIONEER SPORT takes a look at the possible stars of tomorrow. Mumbai’s Shreyas Iyer proved himself in the IPl and is knocking on the national team door while youngsters Rabada and Hazlewood continue to shine. Gopichand’s daughter Gayatri has been performing on the junior circuit and golfer Shubham Jaglan has been dubbed as the ‘next Tiger Woods’
Shreyas Iyer: next big thing for India
The dashing 21 year old batsman has, till now, shown all the traits of becoming a batting great.
Even though he made his First Class debut in 2014 with the Mumbai Ranji team, Shreyas Iyer earned himself fame while playing for the Delhi Daredevils during the 2015 edition of the Indian Premier league (IPl) where he smacked world-class bowlers to every nook and corner of the ground.
The right hander has a similar playing style as recently retired Indian legend Virender Sehwag. like Viru, Iyer is also a great follower of fearless brand of cricket. His consistent performances in his first Ranji season helped him earn a place in the Delhi Daredevils side who bought him for `2.6 crores, the highest for an uncapped player.
Even though Delhi had a miserable season, Iyer didn’t let his management down by scoring 439 runs in 14 matches at a strike rate just over 128.
In 2015, playing for Mumbai, Shreyas has scored 930 runs at a whopping average of 71.53, the proof of his consistency, and even mind boggling strike rate of nearly 96.
He is showing the world that he has got fire in him and is knocking the doors of the Indian cricket team as well — an opinion shared by Dilip Vengsakar and JP Duminy.
Josh Hazlewood
International Cricket Council’s (ICC) emerging player of the year award winner, Josh Hazlewood had a career defining year in 2015. Although he made his debut at the age of 19 in 2010, Hazlewood and the Australian population had to wait until five years later to see him latch on to the promise.
In the 12 international matches in the calendar year, Hazlewood took 51 wickets at an impressive average of 22.56 taking two five wicket hauls on the way.
In the recently concluded series against neighbours, New Zealand, the right handed bowler recorded his career best figures of six wickets for 70 runs. In the series, on a whole, he took 13 wickets which included that five wicket haul.
During the Ashes, Hazlewood claimed 16 wickets in four matches. He also played a pivotal role in Australia’s World Cup winning campaign where he accounted for seven wickets in five matches.
Mahrez ‘new star winger’
His name is all that you can hear in the English Premier league these days.
From threat to most promising player, partnering with striker Jamie Vardy, elite clubs are all vying to get his signature for the next season.
Mahrez is all on the news for right reasons. The Algerian at 24 has showed the footballing world what he is capable of with a splendid scoring run with leicester City and that he can be a future star in coming years. Playing in the midfield (right wing), he has made 19 appearances this Premier league season, and has 13 goals to his name alongwith seven assists and 48 shots on target.
Mahrez made his international debut for Algeria in 2014 and represented them at the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations. Mahrez made his Premier league debut on 16th August 2014, and scored his first goal in the division on October 2014 in a 2-2 draw with Burnley. He was part of the leicester team that won seven of its final nine matches of the season to avoid relegation to the Football league.
He scored both goals in a 2-0 defeat of Southampton and ended the season with four goals and three assists from 30 appearances.
When Mahrez was at le Harve (former club), his then coach used to show him videos of Barcelona and told him how good he can be in future. Well now we can say that those videos had a huge impact on the player and the coach’s technique hit the bulls eye.
Verstappen nears top seat
Coming from a strong lineage of motorsport drivers, Max Verstappen is touted to be part of bigger and better things at the highest level of racing (Formula 1). His father, mother and uncle all have had prior experience with motorsport.
Verstappen made his debut this past season with Red Bull’s junior team at Toro Rosso. last season, he was their testing driver and took part in the free practice at 2014 Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver to take part in the weekend’s proceedings in Formula 1.
The Belgian-Dutch driver finished the season with 49 points (12th in championship) to rightfully bag FIA’s Rookie of the Year Award alongside Personality of the Year and Action of the Year awards for his overtaking manoeuvre to get past Felipe Nasr at the Belgian Grand Prix through the Blanchimont corner.
Casemiro the new Makelele
Carlos Henrique Jose Francisco Venancio Casimiro known as Casemiro is a Brazilian footballer who plays for Real Madrid as a defensive midfielder. He made his Brazilian Serie A debut in 2010 in an away loss against Santos FC. He scored his first goal as a professional helping to a 2-2 draw with Cruzeiro Esporte Club. In late January 2013 Casemiro was loaned to Real Madrid, but to the B-team (Castilla) in second division.
His first game in the competition was a 1-3 defeat at CE Sabadell FC. The Brazilian made his la liga debut on 20th April 2013, playing the full 90 minutes in a 3-1 home win over Real Betis.
On 10th June the move was made permanent for the Brazilian to join los Blancos for four years for a fee of $18.7 million.
Casemiro was loaned to FC Porto in July 2014, in a season-long loan. In June the following year, he returned to Real Madrid who exercised their buyback clause and two months later his contract was extended until 2021.
He made his U-17 debut for the Brazil team in 2009 when he was just 17 years old. Add to that, he made his U-20 debut two years later and his first appearance to don of the famous yellow shirt came in the same year in a 0-0 draw against Argentina where he played the full 90 minutes.
Rabada Another Protea ‘gun’IJ
The 20-year-old Kagiso Rabada made a dream of a start to his international career in 2015.
Playing against the unbeatable Bangladesh away from home, the left handed pacer rattled the Bangladeshi batsmen on his debut itself.
The fast bowling prodigy became only the second player in the history of the game to take a hat-trick on his debut. Rabada finished the match at Mirpur with figures of six-for-16.
After an immensely successful start in Bangladesh, all eyes were on him when the African side travelled to India.
With the level of his peer Dale Steyn, Rabada impressed everyone with his performances against the batsmen-heavy India side on pitches which were not very supportive to the seamers.
Still only 20, Rabada has a lot of pace and his accuracy is spot on too. He clean bowled Rohit Sharma, the batsman who is currently in the form of his life and also had scored 150 in his previous outing, with an unplayable delivery in the second ODI, reaffirming his status as ‘the next Steyn gun’.
In the ODI series, he also became the first bowler to bowl a maiden against MS Dhoni, one of the best finishers in the world in the limited overs.
The next ‘Swiss miss’ Belinda Bencic
Following in the shadows of former World No 1’s and multi Grand Slam winners is not an easy task. But Belinda Bencic is on her way to possibly becoming just that as she chases the accomplishments of her compatriot Martina Hingis. At just 18, Bencic has won two singles and doubles titles on the WTA Tour alongside as many on the ITF circuit.
At 15 she had played for her country in the Fed Cup and in 2013 won the junior singles titles at French Open and Wimbledon. Coached by her father and at times by Hingis’ mother Melanie Molitor, Bencic could have gone without the ‘new Martina Hingis’ tag but she’s shown that its possibly not far from the truth.
To aid the youngsters’ growth and rise, she finds Martina in her corner at times too — as she did at Eastbourne this past year. For the 2014 US Open, she earned a straight spot into the main draw which is no small achievement for a 17 year old.
She went on to win the Eastbourne title which was her first WTA crown. later she added the biggest title of her career with the WTA Premier 5 championship in Toronto. During that run, she beat four top-ten players in Caroline Wozniacki, Ana Ivanovic, Serena Williams and Simona Halep.
Her best showing at a Grand Slam was a fourth round finish at Wimbledon where she eventually lost to Victoria Azarenka. Bencic ended the year ranked 14 to round off a splendid 2015 and raise hopes for 2016.
Gayatri Gopichand: It’s all in the family
Being daughter of national coach and former All-England badminton champion, one can easily say that this sport is in her genes.
On 13th September, Gayatri created history by becoming the youngest shuttler to be selected for national youth side. Aged just 12, she participated in the Asian Youth Championship which was held in Indonesia in October and made it to the semi-finals of U-15 doubles event with her partner Vaishnavi Jakka Reddy. Prior to this, she won three titles- U-13, U15 singles and U-15 doubles event partnering Vaishnavi again at national tournament in Gulbarga.
In August, she added her name in the record books by becoming the youngest player to win U-17 girls doubles titles at All India Junior Badminton tournament.
At the All India Sub-Junior ranking badminton, Gayatri won the singles title in the girls’ under-15 and under-13 categories as well the doubles crown in under-13.
Kokkinakis in the shadows
He might be injured now but Thanasi Kokkinakis has shown enough promise for a future star on the ATP Tour. With Australian tennis undergoing a crisis of sorts with no prominent threat at the top, youngsters Nick Kyrgios, Kokkinakis and Bernard Tomic are slotted for the prime in years to come. While Kyrgios and Tomic have already shown their capabilities, however inconsistently, the same cannot be said of the player with Greek roots.
A shoulder injury will keep him out of the upcoming Australian Open despite resting at the end of the season but thereafter, one could expect him to come out of the shadows of his peers.
The 19-year-old started playing tennis when he was 8 and has reached the final of two junior Grand Slams at Australian Open and US Open — both in 2013.
Ranked at 78 in the world, he’s one of only three male teenagers inside the top-100 of ATP rankings.
He’s rightfully earned appreciation from Andy Murray and John McEnroe and more importantly, not been slacked off as flamboyant and someone with poor conduct — something that has been associated with both Tomic and Kyrgios.
India’s Tiger Woods – Shubham
He’s 11 and barely five feet tall and has already won over 110 golf tournaments in India and across the world.
Shubham Jaglan, the son of a milkman, has come a long way from Haryana’s mustard fields to much greener pastures since then.
The 11-year-old golfer from Haryana, Jaglan, took world golf by storm when he won the Junior World Golf Championships in California, in July, and just a week later he capped the IJGA World Stars of Junior Golf title in las Vegas. He became the first from India to do so. Jaglan was put into a golf academy by his grandfather when all of his members opposed this move. But the boy was so passionate about the game that he continued his practice on a small piece of land in his backyard. This land was cleaned by his father and converted into a green with three holes. Most of Jaglan’s formative training was self-taught from videos on YouTube.
He was later spotted by the Delhi Golf Foundation that gave him annual scholarship of `2 lakhs and a membership at the Delhi Golf Club. After that, India’s Tiger Woods was up and running in the world of Golf.
He has been mentored by Nonita lall Qureshi since he was five-years old. His ultimate goal is to beat the 18 major championships record held by his idol Jack Nicklaus.
legendary South African golfer Gary Player heaped praised on Jaglan by saying: “He is the next Tiger Woods from India”.