The Indian Premier League (IPL) is well renowned worldwide for giving opportunities to young and talented players to showcase their skills against some of the biggest names in T20 cricket. ‘The Best Emerging Player’ is an award that has a lot of eyeballs from fans and media alike, wanting to find out who the next big superstar is.
There are, however, certain criteria a player has to meet in order to be in contention for winning the prestigious accolade. A player must have played fewer than five Tests, 20 ODIs, and 25 IPL matches at the start of the season and must not have previously won the award.
A host of future superstars have won the IPL Emerging Award in the past. These include the likes of Rohit Sharma, Sanju Samson, Axar Patel, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant, to name a few.Â
Here are the five contenders for the 2026 Emerging Player of the Season award
5. Prashant Veer – Chennai Super Kings
Prashant Veer comes into the 2026 Indian Premier League with a huge burden of expectations. The 20-year-old uncapped spinner was signed by the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for INR 14.20 crore in the most recent mini auction.Â
The left-arm spinner has a great chance of winning the Emerging Player Award in his debut season as he will be expected to play a huge role towards CSK’s success. Representing Uttar Pradesh, Veer played seven games in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy to take nine wickets at a healthy economy rate of 6.76. He also scored 112 runs at a strike rate of 170.
With Ravindra Jadeja transferred to Rajasthan Royals, Veer will be expected to fill in the gap and lead CSK’s spin department at the 2026 IPL.
