One of the significant positives of the annual cricket jamboree, the IPL T20 cricket league, is the young talent that every edition consistently throws up.
Every year or two, raw talent is hired by the franchisees and in the course of the summer tournament, these youngsters prove themselves and many make it to the India ‘A’ team and some even to the Indian T20 and ODI sides.
The current edition has been no different. It has been a delight to watch the diminutive Prithvi Shaw, the World-Cup winning, India Under-19 captain badger the opposition bowlers in his role as opening batsman for the Delhi Daredevils team. Ditto with his India Under-19 team-mate, Shubman Gill, who has done well for his KKR side.
It has also been interesting to watch the transformation of Shreyas Iyer (23) from prolific IPL batsman to captain of the Delhi Daredevils side in a very short span of time.
But first, Shaw. Playing for the bottom of the pool, Delhi Daredevils team, Shaw has scored over 200 runs from six IPL games with two, 60 plus scores.
This is hardly surprising considering that Shaw has scored centuries in his very first Ranji and Duleep trophy matches, equalling batting legend, Tendulkar’s feat.
What is heartening to see is that Shaw does not hesitate to hit the ball from the word go. In his 44 ball 62 against the Kolkata Knight Riders, he treated an attack led by former Aussie speedster Mitchell Johnson with utter disdain. Similarly, his 36 ball, 65 against the Sunrisers Hyderabad, arguably the best bowling attack in the tournament was another revelation of his confidence and skills.
Similarly, batsman Shubman Gill, has also began his IPL career on a strong note. With his team KKR needing 178 runs to win against the strong, CSK, Gill played an unbeaten 57 with six boundaries and two sixes to clinch the game for his side.
Another example of how the IPL is indeed a launching pad for young talented Indian cricketers is the young, Delhi Daredevils (DD) star, Shreyas Iyer.
Drafted into the DD side in the 2015 IPL season at a whopping amount of INR 2.6 crores, Iyer (23) repaid the trust reposed in him, by scoring 439 runs from 14 matches and won the IPL ‘emerging player of the year award’.
This year, as captain of the DD side for the first time, after they suffered three, back-to-back losses, Iyer smashed a 40-ball, unbeaten 93 with three fours and 10 sixes to enable his side beat KKR by a margin of 55 runs. Not surprisingly, Iyer has been made captain of the India ‘A’ cricket team scheduled to play an ODI tri-series against England and West Indies later this year.
As can be seen the IPL T20 league is indeed a very effective launch pad for future India stars. Here are more instances. India all-rounder, Hardik Pandya’s successful stints with the three-time IPL champion side, the Mumbai Indians pitchforked him into the national side where he has shone.
Other examples of IPL stars who have made the transition to international cricket include spin bowlers, Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav, who have become the first choice spinners for India’s T20 team. Likewise, left arm spinner Axar Patel would also be grateful to the IPL league for introducing him to the big league.
Young prolific batsmen too have used the IPL ladder to climb into the India side. Sanju Samson (23) of Kerala, wicket-keeper Rishab Pant (22), Manish Pandey and Karun Nair are just some examples.
Pant, was in the news on Thursday night, when he became the second, youngest Indian cricketer to score a hundred in the IPL tournament. Pant pulverised the Sunrisers Hyderabad bowling attack to score an unbeaten 128 off just 63 balls. With 15 fours and seven towering sixes, Pant helped himself to as many as 26 runs off India pacer, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar’s last over.
Sanju Samson, the Kerala Ranji trophy cricketer is another example of how the IPL league helps players from relatively weaker, Ranji trophy sides to catch national attention. In the current IPL edition, Samson gave everyone a glimpse of his batting prowess, when he scored a 45 ball, unbeaten 92, helping his Rajasthan Royals team beat Royal Challengers Bangalore on their home turf. Samson’s blistering attack comprised 10 sixes and two fours.
Karun Nair, the prolific Karnataka Ranji trophy batsman who scored a triple hundred in his debut Test series for India, has also been a consistent batsman in the IPL league. Not surprisingly, he has been rewarded with the captainship of the India ‘A’ four-day side for a series in England later this year. Hence, while Shreyas Iyer will lead the India ‘A’ team in a ODI tri-series, Pant, Shaw, Gill, Samson and several other IPL young guns will also wear the India ‘A’ colours.
