2023 will go down as both a memorable and a heartbreaking year for India. They reached the finals of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) as well as the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup, which was played at home.
However, they lost both finals to the same team, Australia, who are perhaps India's biggest rivals after Pakistan.
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India were the favourites to win the 2023 World Cup after being unbeaten in the entire tournament, winning all nine group games and entering the final in resounding fashion by avenging their 2019 World Cup semi-final loss to New Zealand.
However, in front of over a hundred thousand Indian spectators, it was the Men in Yellow from Down Under who won their record-extending sixth World Cup trophy, elongating India's ICC trophy drought that has been going on since they won the Champions Trophy in 2013.
On the bright side, though, a lot of players made their debuts for India this year, with some of them showing extraordinary promise.
The Sporting News takes a look at India's breakout stars as we are about to enter 2024.
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India's breakout stars in 2023 across formats
The Indian Premier League (IPL) has been the biggest talent manufacturer in the past decade for the Indian cricket team. Players such as Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj etc., all mainstays in the Indian team, were handed their debuts thanks to their excellent showings in IPL.
So, which Indian players broke on to the scene in 2023?
Yashasvi Jaiswal
After making waves as a teenager from Mumbai, Jaiswal was bought by Rajasthan Royals ahead of IPL 2020. He made his IPL debut that season and has been with the Royals ever since, with his breakout season coming earlier this year as he amassed over 600 runs at a strike rate of over 160.
An India debut, then, was on the cards. Surprisingly, it was in India's whites that Jaiswal got a chance to make his international debut. He made his Test debut against West Indies on July 12, 2023, and scored 171 in his first-ever innings.
His T20I debut came a month later against the same team. Jaiswal, who celebrates his 22nd birthday today (December 28), has a T20I hundred to his name, coming against Nepal at the Asian Games 2023.
Although he is yet to make his ODI debut (which is on its way sooner rather than later), he has cemented his spot as an opener in both Tests and T20Is, and is set to appear at his first major international tournament in the 2024 Twenty20 World Cup.
Sai Sudharsan
Sudharsan and Jaiswal have a lot in common. Both are left-handed batsmen who open the innings. Both of them made huge impressions in IPL 2023.
Thanks to Sudharsan's fine season in the IPL earlier this year, with the highlight of his season being the gutsy 96-run knock in the final against Chennai Super Kings, he got an India call-up for the ODI series against South Africa.
Sudharsan averages above 60 in List A cricket, which is why he was selected for the ODI squad. He made his debut in the first ODI and scored an unbeaten half-century. He followed that up by another half-century.
It's rare for young, inexperienced players like Sudharsan to make their debuts against a team like South Africa in their own den, but the 22-year-old southpaw showed that he belongs to the biggest stage.
Tilak Varma
A fantastic List A record in addition to impressive IPL displays opened the doors to the national team for the Hyderabad-born Tilak Varma.
Varma made his international debut in a T20I against West Indies on August 3, 2023. He has since played 15 T20Is, striking at over 140 and notching two fifties.
His ODI debut came as a surprise as he was selected for the Asia Cup 2023, which was the last big assignment for India ahead of the 2023 World Cup. Varma featured in the middle-order against Bangladesh on September 15, 2023.
Although he wasn't selected for the World Cup, he returned to the ODI squad for the tour of South Africa, scoring a valiant half-century in the third ODI.
Rinku Singh
Perhaps the biggest breakout star for India in the past 12 months, Rinku Singh has won over as many hearts as there are planets in this universe.
It all started for Rinku when he smashed five sixes on the last five balls of the final over of Kolkata Knight Riders' run chase against Gujarat Titans, with KKR needing 28 runs off five deliveries.
The Uttar Pradesh man made his debut for India in a T20I against Ireland on August 18, 2023. However, he did not get an opportunity to bat. In the second T20I against the Irishmen, Rinku scored 38 runs off just 21 balls, showcasing his power-hitting ability.
In the five-match T20I series against Australia at home, which took place immediately after the 2023 World Cup, Rinku was once again a dangerous proposition for the opposition.
He made his ODI debut against South Africa and scored 55 runs in the two ODIs at a strike rate of close to 140, walking in at No. 6. In the T20I series against the Proteas, he raised his maiden T20I - and international - fifty, scoring an unbeaten 68.
Jitesh Sharma
Even though Jitesh Sharma played just five T20I innings, scoring just 69 runs, the wicketkeeper-batsman showed that he should be given more chances to be India's wicketkeeper in T20Is, at least as long as Rishabh Pant remains on the sidelines.
The hard-hitting 30-year-old showed a lot of temperament and range during the T20I series against Australia, and dealt with pressure situations pretty well. He seems to be a certainty for one of the two wicketkeeper spots in India's 2024 T20 World Cup squad.
Ravi Bishnoi
Even though Ravi Bishnoi made his debut for India almost two years ago, in February 2022, it was in the T20I series against Australia that he actually staked his claim as one of the best Indian spinners at the moment.
The crafty leg-spinner took nine wickets in five T20Is against Australia to be named as the Man of the Series. What's more interesting is that those wickets came at a solid average of 18.22 and an economy rate of just 8.20. It was a good economy rate considering the high-scoring nature of all the games.
With 34 wickets in 21 T20Is, Bishnoi is currently the top-ranked T20I bowler in the world. Although he might not have usurped Kuldeep Yadav as India's frontline spinner in the shortest format, his performances have surely signaled the doom of fellow leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal's T20I career.
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