Where Are The Indians In The ‘Indian Premier League’ (IPL 2019)
IPL 2019 has proven to be a one of a kind tournament. It has charted great controversies and even made the great captain cool MS Dhoni lose his cool. And now, another small yet very pertinent question has popped up for IPL 2019- where are the Indian players? The IPL cricket game has been going on for over 12 years. In the initial phases, both the highest run-getter to the most wicket taker was usually in the hands of Indian players. This mattered a lot, since not only did these young boys get exposure but also, it showed the amount of talent these young players have. In the current scenario, i.e. IPL 2019, we can see that the paradigm has shifted. Increasingly more and more foreign players have taken away the top spots from the domestic cricketers. While this can be simply attributed to the foreign players by saying that maybe they are genuinely playing better and deserve the spot. Yet, a closer inspection will show that there are actually a few other reasons that might have brought about this change.
The dependance on IPL
Young Indian players have become heavily dependent on IPL. This is a tournament where quick and hefty bucks can be made, and overnight fame can be achieved. But, that is not really how real life works. A cricketer must be good at all forms including Test to prove his worth. In the present IPL matches, there are a few players who haven’t even played the Ranji Trophy yet. This has rendered this player only IPL good and experience less. This has been noticed by the BCCI also, when they chose Dinesh Karthik over Rishabh Pant, even though the latter’s performance has been much better than the former. Players have started playing and bracing themselves for the IPL more than for the nation or their state. This has harmed them in ways that when they go against foreign players they lose their mantle in comparison to those players. They fail to understand their techniques and aren’t experienced enough. These Indian player have only the skills needed for IPL, whereas the foreign players are well versed with all formats.
Assessing The Pitches
IPL teams tend to change their young domestic players quite frequently. They are the casualty who gets sacrificed when the team has to change or if another big name has to be adjusted. In the case of foreign players- especially big names like Pollard, Watson or Warner, haven’t had too many changes with their teams. They have by now assessed the home pitches and have also read the Indian conditions well. This has helped when to read the pitch well and fire away. The young domestic players that IPL claims to give exposure, do not have such luxury. While, these might not to be only reasons why domestic, Indian players undoubtedly have faded into the shadows especially when in IPL 2019, with orange cap and purple cap are with two foreign players ( David Warner and Kagiso Rabada). There have also have been many Indian players who found their fame in IPL and lost themselves along the way.
Indian Premier League was launched on the pretext that it will be a boost to the Indian players, and give exposure to them. Now only time will tell whether the Indians will regain their lost ground and reclaim the league or is this the new era for IPL
