Young Indian Talent Takes Centrestage in the IPL

There has been an underlying grouse about how the Indian domestic players did not contribute enough to the team. But this year, and especially, the last week, has seen a string of performances by Indian players, opines Vijayhardik. An exclusive for Different Truths.

An amalgamation of experience and talent happens every year at the Indian Premier League (IPL). Upcoming cricketers get to share space with the bigwigs of international cricket. The international stars add flair and style to the league. At times, teams are heavily dependent on their foreign players for them to deliver.

This overdependence was a strategy for various franchises over different periods of their IPL journey. This led to an underlying grouse about the non-performance of Indian players. It seems to be changing this year.

The last week of cricket has put the spotlight on cricketers, who have just made it into the Indian team or are upcoming Indian cricketers. Last week saw scintillating performances from Shubman Gill, Rahul Tewatia, K L Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Ishan Kishan and T Natarajan.

The string of some amazing performances from Indian players began with a match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab. Punjab captain and opener K L Rahul leading from the front put up an amazing display of batting. Clean hitting combined with timing, he sent the ball to all the corners of the ground scoring a magnificent 132 (69). It is the highest score by an Indian in the IPL.

The innings by K L Rahul set up the match for Punjab. It led them to a 97-run win over Bangalore. As Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders resumed their rivalry at Abu Dhabi in a low scoring game, it was young Shubman Gill who took Kolkata home.

Looking at the Kolkata squad before the tournament began, it did not inspire much confidence. While they stocked up on bowling resources, their batting looked thin. Andre Russell could not win them every match. And with the limitation on foreign players, the batsmen had to step up.

Shubman Gill turned up to the occasion. He played a mature knock and was there on the pitch when the winning runs were hit. He held one end up and kept the scorecard. He paced his innings and played a brilliant unbeaten knock of 70.

The next day saw a humdinger of a match. The clash of the royals. Rajasthan Royals were up against the Kings XI Punjab. In the small stadium of Sharjah, K L Rahul and Mayank Agarwal put on a 183-run stand for the first wicket. The third highest in IPL history. Courtesy a century by Mayank Agarwal, Kings XI Punjab scored a mammoth 223.

Chasing 224 on a small ground, Royals were always in the game. They started off well. Halfway through they lost two wickets and enter Rahul Tewatia. His batting shot up the required run rate above 16. It put pressure on Sanju Samson. When he got out on the first ball of the 17^th over, with 63 needed off the remaining 23 deliveries, many people had written off chances of a Rajasthan victory.

Tewatia had laboured to 8 runs of 20 balls and a fortunate hit that went for six put him at 14 off 21 at the end of 16^th over. The commentators even recommended for a strategic retired hurt just so that Tewatia would not be on strike. It all changed in the 18^th over. With 51 required off the last three, he smashed West Indian left-arm pacer, Sheldon Cottrell, for five sixes. He took 30 runs in that over and changed the course of the match.

They say lightning does not strike twice. But it did in Dubai. The following day a great collective batting performance saw Bangalore amass a total of 201 in 20 overs. Chasing that total the Mumbai Indians were completely out of the chase. They needed 90 runs in 30 deliveries. Six wickets remaining. Runs began flowing after Pollard was dropped and Ishan Kishan who was holding the fort for the Mumbai franchise almost took the team home along with Pollard. He fell one run short of a well-deserved century in the final over. Ultimately, Mumbai lost the game in a super over.

As cricket experts and followers were discussing the absence of the yorker, the Sunrisers Hyderabad turned up yesterday to give a reminder that the yorker was not forgotten. Playing their third game and yet to open the score on the points table, the batting trio of Warner, Bairstow and Williamson helped put 162 on the board.

Against the firepower stacked up in the Delhi Capitals batting line-up, there was not much room for error. With a par score, letting the batsmen go after the batting might see them lose three on the trot. While the experienced Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Rashid Khan did their job picking up 5 wickets between them, it was left-arm pacer T Natarajan who stole the limelight. The accuracy with which he bowled the yorker against batsmen like Pant, Hetmyer and Stoinis made every-one take note of him.

The way the matches are playing out, it is not easy picking up matches to watch out for. But the game between Punjab and Mumbai, who are in the middle of the table is one to look out for. And there are two matches: Delhi versus Kolkata and Mumbai versus Hyderabad at Sharjah. These are games to look out for this week. 

Photos sourced by the author

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