IPL 2018: 5 players who are dark horses for Mumbai Indians this season

#3 Akila Dananjaya

Akila celebrating after dismissing KL Rahul in an ODI match.

Sri Lankan cricket has introduced some terrific mystery spinners to the world of cricket. Akila Dananjaya is one of them. The most interesting aspect of his career is that he made it to the Sri Lankan squad without having any first-class, List A, T20I or U-19 cricket experience.

Mahela Jayawardene and Graham Ford were very impressed with him after his net session with the Sri Lankan team in 2011, after which he was given a chance to make his limited-overs debut in 2012. He got injured in the very first match, fell out of the selectors' radar but made his comeback to the senior side after a gap of five years.

His excellent performance against India, scalping 6 wickets for 54 runs put him on the cricket map once more. Dananjaya record-breaking figures of 8/44 on his Test debut is regarded as one of the most economical bowling figures by a bowler on Test debut. He is also a handy batsman down the order.

The young off-spinner has plenty of variations in his arsenal, which is very important in the shortest format of the game.