Top Debutants in ICC Cricket World Cup 2015

Rohit Sharma oozes batting talent: malleable wrists, knack to find the gaps, and the extra half a second when he plays his shots. However, for a player of his class, the first six years of his international career were frustrating for him, the team, and the spectators, as the odd delightful innings was followed and preceded by plenty of failures. It all came together finally in 2013, when Rohit was promoted to open the innings in ODIs. The move turned out to be a masterstroke, as Rohit found form in the Champions Trophy, and then went into overdrive in the ODI series against Australia, scoring two centuries, including 209, only the third double in ODI cricket.

That Joe Root will one day captain England has been taken as read since he hit the grand old age of 23 - but for the moment it is his batting potential which so excites England. It is a rare England batsman who achieves maturity so quickly, but Root has looked consumed by the delights of batting from the moment he first took guard. Fast bowlers worldwide might begin to find his scampish grin a little wearing.

Not since Mark Boucher and Nic Pothas tussled over who would become South Africa's permanent wicket keeper after Dave Richardson, has there been this much excitement over a gloveman. Because he can bat too.

An allrounder who broke into Victoria's limited-overs outfit briefly in 2009-10, Glenn Maxwell really made his name in the following season when he scored a 19-ball half-century against Tasmania, the fastest one-day fifty in Australia's domestic history. His powerful striking made him a threat in all three formats and his maiden first-class hundred came in March 2011 when he scored a brisk 103 not out against South Australia in a Sheffield Shield match.

Corey Anderson had always been known for his powerful striking, but he took it to a new level on New Year's Day 2014 when he broke the world record for the fastest ODI hundred with a 36-ball blitzkrieg against West Indies in Queenstown. It came at a time, a few months after he scored a century in his second Test, that Anderson was suggesting he was ready to fulfill the potential spotted in him as a teenager.

A promising pace bowler, Jason Holder's long-term potential was recognised when he was appointed West Indies' ODI captain during their 2014-15 tour of South Africa. He had played only 21 ODIs at that point.