Darshan Nalkande

A skiddy young fast bowler emerging from Vidarbha, Darshan Nalkande is a promising young talent with limited experience of first-class cricket. Starting off his career predominantly as a bowler, Nalkande started improving on his batting skills and has evolved as a good young all-rounder.

The youngster was picked in the U19 squad in the 2018 Youth Asia Cup and also found himself on the probable list for the World Cup. However, he was left out from the final squad which India, eventually, went onto win under the captaincy of Prithvi Shaw. 

He showed his might with both bat and the ball in the 2020 U23 CK Nayudu Trophy and was fast-tracked into the senior Vidarbha team after being selected in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, the same year. He was quite impressive with the ball and bagged 2/26 and with the bat in hand, he played a sensational knock of 53 while chasing, leading Vidarbha to an unlikely victory from a precarious situation.

He was rewarded for his good all-round showing and made his first-class debut in a Ranji Trophy match against Maharashtra. The Maharashtra-born cricketer impressed the Kings XI Punjab scouts and was picked up by the franchise in 2019 Auctions. However, he is yet to make his IPL debut and will be hoping to get an opportunity in the upcoming season. 

Nalkande was seen cheering for his franchise from the stands of Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi in the 2020 IPL but is yet to make his presence felt in the cash-rich league. Despite being with the team for two years, he is yet to make his debut. 

Ex-performance analyst of the Kings XI Punjab, Prasanna Agoram, who was one of the reasons behind his inclusion in the squad feels that Nalkande needs to put up some impressive performances on a consistent basis in domestic T20 tournaments and Vijay Hazare Trophy to get noticed. 

“Darshan has done well in those tournaments and that’s why he is in the IPL fold. Now he needs to make those impactful performances for his team, just like Hardik Pandya did a few years ago or Devdutt Padikkal did last year in shorter-format tournaments. Once you do that, think-tanks of franchises also get confident about your skills and match temperament,” Agoram was quoted as saying by the Times of India. 

(As of March 2021)