The yuva brigade, including those from the ICL, is on a roll in IPL Season 3
We may detest the ipl for all its grandiosity but hasn’t it been a fertile field for emerging talents to announce themselves to the world? Hasn’t it provided an opportunity to show what they are capable of? Royal Challengers player Manish Pandey has raided our imagination with his brand of fearless cricket. There is R Vinay Kumar from the same team, who may lack in pace and prodigious movement but has grasped the nuances of the slow bouncer, cutters and change of angle. So much so, that his performance in IPL has already got him a berth in the Indian team for the next T20 World Cup.
The most interesting story of Season 3, however, has been the emergence of Saurabh Tiwary (Mumbai Indians), a model of consistency. Part of the U-19 team that won the World Cup in 2008, Tiwary hails from Jharkhand (MS Dhoni’s state). His tanned-brown tresses apart, he also bears an uncanny resemblance to the Indian captain in many ways. Such is the power he packs behind his shots that he comes close to the visual delineation of the blacksmith in H W Longfellow’s Village Blacksmith whose arms are “as strong as iron bands”.
Organised hitting was not part of his vocabulary but now he seems to have learnt the trick. What’s more, he is punching them ramrod straight, reducing the risk factor considerably. This 20-year-old cricketer’s performance has caught the fancy of his captain, Sachin Tendulkar too, and the latter now regularly promotes him up the batting order. How do such transformations come about? With not great records to talk about in the first two season of IPL, the big question is what’s so different this time around? Are they motivated by the lure of the big stage which first-class cricket often denies them or is it the guidance and confidence that players are instilled with in this tournament?
If Mumbai Indian looks a much focused and organised lot, the credit goes to Sachin Tendulkar for showing confidence in the young and budding cricketers of his team. Tendulkar has personally been keeping an eye on Tiwary’s progress. When asked, the batting genius had high words for this lad from Jharkhand, “Saurabh ko groom kar rahe hain. temperament theek hai uska. (Grooming Saurabh. He's got good temperament.) He is capable of playing big cricket and he’s a hard hitter of the ball.”
Tiwary has not only been living up to the expectations of Mumbai Indians and Sachin Tendulkar, he also had an interesting observation about IPL. “You cannot compare the IPL to domestic cricket because even if you score 20 runs in this tournament, it gets coverage. But in domestic cricket it all depends on the media coverage — if that is good then your performance gets noticed.” The likes of Kedar Jadhav and Manvinder Sultansingh Bisla will vouch for his words.
Apart from the Tiwarys, Pandeys and Kumars there has been some sparkling performances by the young Aditya Tare. He has given a fine balance to the Mumbai Indian team with a flexible batting position and an agility behind the stumps.
Or the young 24-year-old Kedar Jadhav, who hit a 29 ball half century on his debut. He not only won the match for his team, the Delhi Daredevils, but also provided a much-needed victory since the team’s confidence and presence in the point table were dwindling after three consecutive losses.
Even the Rajasthan Royals are not behind in promoting their brand of yuva cricketers. If the first two seasons have seen the talented Ravinder Jadeja, Yusuf Pathan and Swapnil Asnodkar coming of age, Season 3 so far has seen some fiery knocks from the bat of 25-year-old Paras Dogra.
If young stars are having a great time in this 20-20 IPL bandwagon, the once-ICL recruits too have shown what they are capable of. Three years ago when the rift between the Indian cricket board and the Indian Cricket League (ICL) threatened to split world cricket, many an outstanding talent was in danger of slipping through the net. Standing on one side of the divide, the ICL recruits knew not where they were headed.
The ICL wouldn’t budge, and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was firm that cricket in the country was their cake and not a slice of it would be shared, come hell or high water. Even as the likes of Ambati Rayudu, Rajagopal Sathish and Rohan Gavaskar were shuffling themselves uneasily in a setting least conducive to their careers, the BCCI handed them a lifeline: sever all ties with the ICL and we embrace you.
It wasn’t that the Indian cricket board had suddenly got emotional. But after all attempts to arm-twist the rebel league failed, they realised that granting amnesty to the Indian players was the only way to checkmate it permanently.
The move not only restored the ICL cricketers to domestic cricket, it gave them a window to present their wares to the Indian Premier League. And this in an environment not vitiated by the mind’s prejudice — skills and form gain primacy over what career choices you have made in the past.
How the ICL-returnees have impacted the IPL is there for world cricket to see. With Rayudu and Sathish in their ranks, Mumbai Indians are looking a far more settled outfit this year. Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, who was on the rolls of ICL’s Kolkata Tigers, has rendered solidity to Rajasthan Royals’ fragile middle-order. BCCI may not admit it, but ICL’s exposure had seasoned these players to handle the rigours of a one-month long T20 opera.
Rayudu, who holds the record of being the youngest player to score a double century in first class cricket, was once touted as India’s future middle-order bet. His 177 against England for India’s under-19 team (2002 series) cried out as a testimony of the awesome skills the boy is blessed with.
Somehow he comes across as a man of dichotomy. He covets Pink Floyd, the English rock band, though Rayudu’s personality is anything but vivacious. He is unassuming to boot but there was a time when Rayudu only made news for his antipathy towards the establishment. Tired of getting the short shift from the Hyderabad Cricket Association, he switched to Andhra Pradesh and then made headlines owing to a verbal skirmish in a Ranji match.
He returned to Hyderabad before defecting to the ICL to cut his teeth for the Hyderabad Heroes. It was here that Rayudu bloomed under the watch of coach Steve Rixon, former Australian and New South Wales cricketer, who made the latter realise that he is too precious to be messed with.
No less a legend than Inzamam-ul-Haq, who led ICL’s Lahore Badshahs, gushed over him. Inzamam and Stuart Law singled out three players for special mention: Anirudh Singh, R Sathish and Rayudu.
The swiftness of Rayudu’s feet and the smooth flay of his bat, was evident in the first game against Rajasthan Royals where he hammered a 33-ball 55 and then took on Delhi Daredevils in a similar fashion.
Sathish, too, made his presence felt in the IPL, first by effecting a crucial run-out of Yusuf Pathan in the encounter against Royals and few matches later guiding Mumbai Indians to victory against Kolkata Knight Riders with a carefully calibrated 21.
