Kamal Ghorui
It’s unfortunate that Shreyas Iyer misses out. It’s no fault of his, nor ours. He has to wait for his chance.” This was India’s chief selector Ajit Agarkar while announcing the T20I squad for the Asia Cup last Aug. Iyer was still fresh from an IPL season where he scored 604 runs at a strike-rate of 174 while leading Punjab Kings to the final.Barring Arshdeep Singh, no player from either of last edition’s finalists could find a place in India’s triumphant T20 World Cup team last month. The IPL is in a very interesting phase now. It has thrown up a surfeit of players that have turned India into a T20 superpower, but the earlier phase of only a few big teams dominating the league may be over.
Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians — the two most successful franchises — are struggling to maintain consistency as the years roll by. In fact, the trend mirrors India’s domestic cricket scene. The power centre doesn’t necessarily end with Mumbai, Karnataka, Delhi or Tamil Nadu any more.The ‘lesser’ state teams have found a way to make their presence felt, starting with Rajasthan, Vidarbha, Saurashtra and Gujarat. Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand too have risen above the rest. In the IPL, CSK and MI’s success became templates for other franchises. Talent could be plucked from the remotest part through some extensive scouting programmes run by the franchises.India’s national selectors — a committee of just five former cricketers — could in turn tap the scouts of IPL teams.Over the next two months, Agarkar’s committee will closely follow the players that perform well in the IPL. Punjab Kings didn’t have anybody other than Arshdeep in the World Cup team, but a close look at the makeup of the India ‘A’ team over the last year tells the real story. The likes of Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh, Ayush Badoni, Riyan Parag, Yudhvir Singh and Vipraj Nigam are now well-established names. National selectors have often been accused of getting carried away by IPL performances, but former national selector claim the league is a perfect tool to gauge the temperament of younger players.TOI understands the selectors have already prepared their objectives for this IPL.One part deals with recognising fresh talent and tracking how standout talents from last season are working towards achieving consistency. The other part involves keeping an eye on monitoring the core of the ODI team ahead of next year’s World Cup. For example, the selectors will keep a close eye on the development of pacer Mayank Yadav and Abdul Samad from LSG. But they will also see how Rishabh Pant is placed. Pant has been a part of the ODI team for the last two years but got just one game.Hardik Pandya’s bowling fitness will also be monitored. Then there’s Nitish Kumar Reddy, whose development as a seam-bowling allrounder will be watched. The franchises and national selectors co-exist, yet the purpose is independent of each other. The IPL has grown enough that national selectors don’t need to restrict themselves to table toppers to spot new talent.
