The IPL is arguably the biggest carnival in world cricket today and as with all carnivals there are always certain events, we all look forward to. In 2021 the eyes of world cricket are as much on the IPL as they are on the Men’s T20 World Cup happening later this year. Both tournaments are happening in India and all the big-ticket players, barring a few are taking part in both tournaments. So, is the fourteenth edition of the Indian Premiere League the biggest carnival of world cricket or simply the dress rehearsal for the blockbuster that is premiering in a few months’ time?
To say the IPL is simply a ‘dress rehearsal’ would be a bit of an overstatement but one can concur that the league will certainly help answer some vital questions for various teams all over the world. For a well settled English and New Zealand team it will give key players like Ben Stokes, Jos Butler and Trent Boult at least fourteen games worth of practice in one of the most competitive set-ups in world cricket today. For players like Shakib-Al-Hasan from Bangladesh, a team that may not play any cricket in India before the World Cup it will help them adapt to conditions and get used to an arguably better quality of bowling.
Let us now address the big elephant in the room. How will the IPL help Team India prepare for the T20 World Cup? Surely with the recent wins against Australia and England India’s composition for the World Cup must be sorted and surely the team must be well prepared.There are a couple of reasons why that is not the case.
The first is lack of quality all rounders in Indian cricket. If Hardik Pandya does not bowl then barring Ravindra Jadeja there is no player good enough to get selected for both their batting and bowling capabilities. Therefore, the IPL becomes crucial for youngsters like Washington Sundar, Axar patel and Shivam Dube who could potentially have a really good tournament and then storm back into the playing eleven for the World Cup.
The second issue is actually a pleasant one and that is the immense depth that exists in Indian cricket today. In a standard ICC tournament squads cannot have over 15 members. Just look at all the players that have made a mark in Indian cricket over the last few months…Navdeep Saini, Krunal Pandya, Shubman Gill, Washington Sundar, T Natarajan, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Rahul chahar and so many more. Add that to Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and the rest and one quickly realizes how difficult picking a squad of 15 would be. Let’s take an example of the fast bowlers. In an ideal world Bhuvneshwar and Bumrah would be the fast bowlers with Shami to back them up. But how does one leave out Shardul Thalur who’s been India’s highest wicket take in limited overs cricket since the start of 2020 or the very impressive T. Natarajan?
This is where the IPL would actually help. The IPL is the kind of tournament in which one can be sure that all the players contesting for those spots in the World Cup squad will get a lot of game time. That allows one to conduct a very interesting thought experiment by looking at the current Indian team and trying to fill in the missing slots. In this ideal team there would be 3 sure shot picks: - Virat Kohli as captain, Rohit Sharma as Vice-Captain and Jasprit Bumrah as the leader of the bowling attack. There are clearly a lot of components missing in this side so now let’s try picking a team based on the batting order.
We saw in the last T20 between India and England that Virat Kohli opened the batting with Suryakumar Yadav coming into bat at number three. So, one should be looking at Shikhar Dhawan and Kl Rahul with a very keen eye to see how they do in this IPL. Only one of them can make this side provided Virat Kohli does not open the batting and moves back down to his regular slot at number three. So that is one slot filled. For the middle order an ideal T20 side would require a steady batsman with the ability to accelerate, a wicketkeeper batsman, finishers and all-rounders. For that first slot the incumbent choice is Shreyas Iyer and this is really where this experiment gets interesting because Shreyas Iyer is injured and is set to miss out on the entirety of the IPL. Post the IPL he may still not have fully recovered from his injury and this opens up opportunities for the likes of Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan and Rishabh Pant to fill in the number four and five slots. These would be the accelerating batsmen and finishers. Then there would be the all-rounders.
Now in this category there are quite a few possibilities. If Hardik Pandya is fit, then he must play…but if Pandya is not fit then it opens up the option to play two spin bowling all-rounders with wrist spinner and three fast bowlers to complete the side. But assuming Hardik Pandya remains fit to bowl then he straight away slots in at number six. Now the big question…number seven. Indian cricket is simply spoilt for choice when it comes to spin bowling all-rounders. You could play Ravindra Jadeja, or Krunal Pandya, or Washington Sundar or even Axar patel. As you move lower down the order to number eight you quickly realize that the number eight player must be able to hold their own with the bat and that really limits the choice to one of Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur. Lastly for the fast bowlers there would be a combination of Jasprit Bumrah with one of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami.
So as one can clearly see Indian cricket is spoilt for choice. This edition of the Indian Premier League would help the cricketing setup narrow down on that choice to determine a potentially World Cup winning squad. As we saw in the 2019 fifty over World Cup apart from a few constants there was a lot of chopping and changing within the Indian playing eleven which resulted in India's eventual elimination from the tournament. To correct that error in the T20 World Cup the IPL can be used as a platform to narrow down a fifteen man squad which covers all bases within the confines of a short period of just six weeks.
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