LUCKNOW: Flowing mane, a bowling run up resembling West Indian spinner Sunil Narine and the ‘infamous’ Notebook celebration—that’s Digvesh Rathi, who until last years was plying his trade in the shadows, quiet and unknown. Things have changed this season during the Indian Premier League.
The 25-year-old leg spinner from Delhi has become a household name thanks to his performances for Lucknow Super Giants. Until last year, when he turned up for Delhi Superstarz in the inaugural Delhi T20 League, he was just another player. Fortunes changed when his team ended as runners-up in Delhi. It fetched him a contract with the Lucknow franchise and also got him a T20 debut for his state team.
The story is not confined to him alone. It’s the same for Uttar Pradesh’s leg spinning all-rounder Vipraj Nigam, pace bowling all-rounder Aniket Verma from Madhya Pradesh and left-arm wrist spinner from Kerala Vignesh Puthur. No one played first class match for their state. Yet they are leaving a mark in the Indian Premier League this season. And they owe this their respective T20 state leagues. This also points towards a new trend among franchises’ hunting ground and new platforms players have.
With the state T20 leagues flourishing across India and the parent body, BCCI, allowing them a separate window, an eye-catching performance is enough to jump into contention for the cash-rich league. “The introduction of state leagues has indeed facilitated the scouting process,” Ashish Tuli, general manager - Cricket Operations of Punjab Kings, told this daily.
Tuli has been overlooking the franchise’s scouting for years and has unearthed talents like Arshdeep Singh, Rinku Singh and Priyansh Arya, the latest IPL sensation, who slammed a century in the ongoing tournament. Tulli is of the view that the introduction of the state leagues have helped franchises widen their base.
“Initially, in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, our scouts were limited to evaluating just 16 players selected per state association. However, with the advent of the T20 league, our scouts now can assess from a significantly larger pool of 90 to 120 players on a common platform,” Tuli told this daily.
These leagues have given the IPL scouts a larger pool of players unlike the domestic tournaments where only a limited number of cricketers can play and showcase their skills.