As is the norm every year, IPL 2023 has seen several young Indian players put their hands up and grab the opportunity that has come their way. While this has been a tournament where the veterans have shown that they're still here to stay, quite a few emerging talents have laid down a marker of their own.

Here, we look at the five best emerging young Indians of IPL 2023:

Yashasvi Jaiswal 

From selling pani puri on the streets of Mumbai to sleeping on an empty stomach in tents at Azad Maidan to recently firing his maiden IPL ton, Rajasthan Royals opener Yashasvi Jaiswal has come a long way, and this only seems to be the beginning of a fascinating journey for a superstar in the making.

The 21-year-old Jaiswal, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, has set the IPL 2023 stage on fire with his incredible batting performance this season. With 625 runs in 14 games, the swashbuckling left-hander is the fourth-highest run-getter in the tournament behind RCB's Virat Kohli.

With a ton and three fifties already to his name, Jaiswal has the best run he has ever had in an IPL season so far. He looks all set to make this season his best. And even before the ongoing edition of the IPL, Jaiswal was scoring runs by the bucketfuls in domestic cricket.

In the form of his life, a national call-up for Jaiswal seems to be a matter of time, at least in the shortest format, as he will be on the radar of the selectors, who are looking for a revamp of the Indian T20I side. A left-handed opening batsman is always an asset for any team.

Rinku Singh

Rinku Singh has been a sensation this year. In the 2023 IPL season, he became the young star everyone followed closely. The UP batsman has had a great run from hitting five sixes in five balls to being Kolkata Knight Riders’ spine in the middle overs.

He almost became a sweeper, but his dream of making it big in cricket prompted him to hang in there. When he started earning by playing cricket, all the money would go to paying loans his family had taken from various people. After securing an IPL contract in 2018, he said, "I will contribute to my elder brother's wedding, save some for my sister's wedding. And I'll move to a good house with my family."

But the chances in the IPL took a lot of work to come by. After staying in the fringes for three seasons, he finally got a few opportunities in 2022 and impressed. In seven innings last year, Rinku scored 174 runs at a strike rate 148.

In his full-time first season at Kolkata Knight Riders, Rinku scored 474 runs from 14 matches at an incredible average of 59.25. He has scored runs at a strike rate of 150 and won fantastic KKR matches.

Akash Madhwal

MI is known for its scouting – Jasprit Bumrah is a shining example. And over the years, MI’s scouts have managed to unearth talents from every nook and cranny of the country. Madhwal had his first taste of IPL in 2019 as a net bowler with Royal Challengers Bangalore, and the following year, he was in the MI setup. What worked in Madhwal’s favour was his talent of bowing yorkers consistently—a challenging art to perfect and with practically zero error percentage.

After impressing as a net bowler, Madhwal graduated to the main team. In 2022, he was added to the MI squad as a replacement for an injured Suryakumar Yadav with two games remaining in the season, but he did not get a game. But, he was assured that he would be in the scheme of things next year. With Bumrah ruled out of the 2023 season, MI had to draft in Madhwal to fill in the big boots of Bumrah and to keep things tight in the backend of the innings.

Madhwal had to wait till MI’s eighth game for his debut cap. In the first seven, the five-time champions tried two uncapped left-arm pacers, Arshad Khan and Arjun Tendulkar, before giving Madhwal a go. His first three games were average, conceding over 11 runs per over. After being in the XI for those games, Madhwal was relegated to the bench as a substitute for Impact Player.

Then the Gujarat Titans game happened on May 3, 2023, and the chance he wanted to grab, he finally did, returning on 3/37 as an Impact Player. MI won the match, with Madhwal packing off Wriddhiman Saha, Shubman Gill and David Miller.

In the crunch game against SRH, he again put his hands up with 4/37, including a spell of 10 balls which included three wickets, giving away only six runs. Madhwal was particularly praised for his Yorkers. The fast bowler delivered a lifetime performance, shattering the core of LSG’s batting lineup and delivering an exceptional spell with figures of 3.3-0-5-5. And it wasn’t just the yorkers he was nailing, but Rohit Sharma had so much confidence in Madhwal that he was to become Rohit’s go-to bowler, bowling with the new ball in the middle and at the death.

Nehal Wadhera

Several unheard names take the tournament by storm every year with their sensational performances on the field. It has been just a few days since the start of IPL 2023, and several youngsters have grabbed the attention of fans with their sheer talent.

One such player is Nehal Wadhera, who’s playing for Mumbai Indians this season. The 22-year-old made his IPL debut in match 5 between Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday, April 2, 2023. 

The left-handed batter started his IPL career in style as he smartly placed a delivery by Michael Bracewell towards third and got a boundary. Later in his innings, he took on Karn Sharma and smacked him for back-to-back sixes. One of which went over the roof at long-on and travelled a massive 101 metres. 

The Punjab-born batter was finally dismissed for 21 off 13 balls, but not before he clobbered one four and two sixes in his innings. The youngster hailing from Ludhiana, Punjab, idolises former India cricketer Yuvraj Singh and his batting style also resembles Yuvraj Singh. Wadhera has played 12 games and scored 214 runs. The Indian captain backed him to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Hardik Pandya. 

Yash Thakur 

For the last few years, Yash Thakur has always been part of the Indian Premier League, but on all occasions, he has only ended up as a net-bowler for various franchises. Last year, the pacer was also involved with the Punjab Kings set up as a net bowler. 

However, this year, everything changed when Lucknow Super Giants splashed the cash on the youngster, who has a proven record at the domestic level, having risen through the Indian U-19 ranks. Thakur finally made his IPL debut against Chennai Super Kings in Chennai. However, he had to wait until his next game - against Sunrisers Hyderabad- to pick up his first wicket. But in Lucknow, he polished off Punjab Kings with a four-wicket haul.

Yash is a cricketer who began his domestic cricket career in 2017, playing List A matches. He debuted on February 25th, 2017, against the Punjab team. However, he has only played in 28 List A games, scoring 23 runs and taking 44 wickets with an economy of 4.97.

Yash made his first-class debut for Vidarbha in the 2018-2019 Ranji Trophy on November 28th, 2018. Since then, he has played in only 13 first-class matches, taking 37 wickets and scoring 55 runs.

Yash’s T-20 debut was on February 21st, 2019, in the match between Himachal and Vidarbha in the 2018-2019 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He has played in only 37 T20 matches, scoring 28 runs and taking 55 wickets with an economy of 6.68.