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The legendary Indian batter Sunil Gavaskar has stressed on the importance of Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises picking players based on performances of premier domestic T20 competition, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, instead of local state leagues. Over the years, there have been several state franchise leagues. A few players from there have made it to IPL franchises as well. However, Gavaskar feels that the standards of these leagues are different. He believes that some of these players get complacent and lose the motivation to do better after getting big contracts at a young age.
“This year’s IPL proved once again that relying on the performances of the state T20 leagues is not the way to go into the auction. It’s far better to go by the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy deeds as these games are a lot more competitive than those in the state T20 leagues. Also, don’t go overboard with what one sees in the Under-19 tournaments. The level of competition there, is way below that in the IPL and so many of the youngsters not used to so much money lose the motivation and are quite content just to be around rather than perform,” the 75-year-old wrote in his column for Mid-Day.
“What is needed is to see when the batting and bowling performances came. What was the situation when the batters scored and the bowlers took the wickets for, at the end of the day, in the IPL it is going to be totally different. Here’s where temperament will come into play. The runs and the wickets have to come when it matters,” he added.
Gavaskar unimpressed by 'so-called six hitters'
Gavaskar also talked about their limited contributions to the game and how they lack what's needed to take their team over the line.
“Some will justify scoring 15 in five deliveries as it’s a strike rate of 300 but maybe it was important for the side that they batted another 15 deliveries and got 40 and took the team to a win. Hitting a six off the first ball one faces and getting out the next ball does give a strike rate of 300 but how does that help the side? Many of the so-called six hitters in the state T20 leagues came a cropper in the IPL and were unable to take their teams to a win,” Gavaskar added.
Young players impressing in debut IPL season
Among young talents, the likes of Priyansh Arya, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Digvesh Rathi and Vipraj Nigam, Ashwani Kumar impressed the most. They got regular chances for their respective franchise as well.
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