Top 5 U-24 bowlers in India

As India is garnering the benefits of a wonderful batch of young contemporary bowlers including Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron and Ishant Sharma, the first two just crossing the 24-year mark, it is not a bad idea to look at the reserves and bench strength for the next set of bowlers who could represent India at the highest level. A couple of them are already under the radar and might find a slot in the squad that will fly down under for the World Cup next year.

#5 Harshal Patel

He first made the headlines with his impressive bowling for Haryana against Karnataka, picking up 8/34 which caught the eye of theRoyal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL. The 23-year-old averages under 25 in first-class and 26 in Twenty20s, playing for Gujarat which boasts for two other players in this list and Haryana. He has 76 wickets so far in 21 first class games, impressing one and all in his debut Ranji season for Haryana in 2011-12. He has gone a little quiet since.

#4 Jasprit Bumrah

Almost nudging 21 years, the young Jasprit Bumrah has already played for ahigh profile IPL team inMumbai Indians. The right-arm fast medium bowler, played for Gujarat in the Ranji Trophy, bagging 43 wickets in just 18 innings at an impressive average of 24.79. He is one of the very few domestic bowlers to average under 30 in all forms of domestic cricket first-class, List A and Twenty20. He also impressed on the India A tour to Australia.

#3 Sandeep Sharma

Joint highest wicket-taker inthe Under-19 World Cup in 2012 that India won, Sandeep Sharma is an extremely talented pacer whoaverages around 23, 27 and 19 in the three formats at domestic level. With 83 wickets already in first-class cricket, Sharma has been impressive for Kings XI Punjab as well and has beenknocking on the doors ofthe national squad for a while now. The 21-year-oldPunjab pacer is economical while retaining the ability to swing the ball both ways, a rare talent for such a young bowler.

#2 Kuldeep Yadav

The surprise package in the recently concluded Champions League, the 20-year-old Kuldeep Yadav belongs to the rare breed of left-arm chinaman bowlers, convinced to switch from his pace-bowling ambitions. Soimpressive was his performance in the CLT20that he got a call-up to the national squad almost immediately, making him one of the prime contenders for next years World Cup squad. His accuracy and control, rare for a chinaman bowler ensured he bagged 14 wickets in 9 Twenty20 matches at a handsome average of under 16.

#1 Akshar Patel

Praised in unequivocal terms by his KXIP captain, George Bailey, the 20-year-old Gujarat player has already made his ODI debut, picking up3 wickets in 2 innings and averaging a touch over 24 in the first-class circuit. A decent bat as well, Akshar Patel bowls slow left-arm orthodox, his main strength being line and length rather than any mystery deliveries, coming into his own in the 2014 IPL and later the Champions League.

In 35 Twenty20 matches, Akshar Patel averages just 22.5 with an impressive economy of 6.13, making him, easily, Indias finest Under-24 prospect. Bowling to players like Glenn Maxwell, Virender Sehwag and David Miller in the nets would have definitely helped too.