Inexhaustible talent of Indian cricket

Hyderabad: Since last year, the BCCI has been fielding its second-string side for some tournaments. While India left England to play the ICC Test Championship against New Zealand in June 2021, the BCCI fielded a second-string Indian team for the tour of Sri Lanka. This year, India again sent a backup squad for the series […]

Hyderabad: Since last year, the BCCI has been fielding its second-string side for some tournaments. While India left England to play the ICC Test Championship against New Zealand in June 2021, the BCCI fielded a second-string Indian team for the tour of Sri Lanka. This year, India again sent a backup squad for the series against West Indies (June) and Zimbabwe (July).

With the increase in the frequency of playing matches, in addition to the IPL season, it has become an arduous task for players to play all tournaments continuously. Moreover, with the availability of a large pool of talent, it has become easy for BCCI to send a backup team. Even the Australian cricket board adopted the same strategy two decades ago.

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Credit to IPL

During the recently concluded South Africa’s tour of India, Keshav Maharaj, who captained the South African team, in a press conference, said that India has the capability to field 4 national teams at the same time.

Top players like Shreyas Iyer, Shubman Gill, and Sanju Samson, who played against South Africa, were part of the Indian main team before. But unfortunately, due to high competition in the main squad, they failed to secure a place in the T20 World Cup. Other cricketers like Prithvi Shaw, Devdutt Padikkal, and many others, are playing in the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy.

IPL (Indian Premier League) is one of the main reasons behind India’s huge talent pool as it paved way for multiple opportunities for cricketers to prove their worth. Before IPL, it was really challenging for any cricketer to make it to the Indian team.

Many talented cricket careers came to an end and some even didn’t get an opportunity to represent India due to the existence of politics and a culture of favoritism in the Indian cricket system.

It doesn’t mean that now the toxic culture has been completely wiped out, but in a way, the IPL has helped cricketers to foray into the Indian team by proving their skill and talent.

The credit also goes to the IPL team franchises as they keep scouting for talented cricketers across the nation. But that wasn’t the case earlier in Indian cricket; a player needs to perform consistently in domestic cricket to get a call.

For example, players like Arshdeep Singh, Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, and Jasprit Bumrah, among other cricketers, have proved their worth in IPL before making it big.

Efficient use of young talent

In order to take Indian cricket forward, the BCCI had assigned the task of spotting the right talent with Rahul Dravid. He coached India’s Under-19 A team for a few years before moving to the position of head coach of the national team in November 2021. Rahul was instrumental in shaping the careers of players like Rishab Pant, Ishan Kishan, and Shubman Gill, who all played Under-19 cricket during his stint as a domestic coach.

At present, there is no shortage of talent in India, but having said that, BCCI has not been able to tap the full potential of the talent pool available. Despite India’s impressive performances, the Indian team failed to win crucial ICC trophies (world cups), including the new Test Championship. It is a matter of grave concern for both BCCI and Indian cricket fans.

Cricket enthusiasts in India desperately want India to win the ICC T20 World Cup that is being held in Australia. India will play their first match of the mage event against Pakistan on 23 October, so let’s wish the Indian team all the best.

The ICC T20I World Cup kicked off on 16 October, and Namibia beat Sri Lanka by 55 runs in the opening match of the World Cup.