CHENNAI: Overlooked under headlines on their lack of fitness, Indian players have displayed one more trait in the first week of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Despite not being in touch with bat and ball for months and having to make do with about three weeks of net practice in the UAE, a number of them have put in impressive performances. The standout players in each of the first seven games have mostly been Indians.
This is somewhat unexpected, considering that players from England, Australia and the West Indies had match practice heading into the IPL. Indians had nothing under their belt in terms of preparation. Going by that, recruitments from those countries were expected to get off the blocks first and better.
But the first seven days saw six Indians win Man of the Match awards. The only time this did not happen, Mayank Agarwal could well have got it ahead of Australian Marcus Stoinis. This is a new trend, one can say. In the 2019 and 2018 editions, there were four overseas Man of the Match award winners after the first seven matches.
While lack of fielding practice and fitness drills was evident at times, Indians showed that primary skill-wise, they have been alright. After Ambati Rayudu on the first day, Sanju Samson, KL Rahul, Agarwal, Rohit Sharma, Prithvi Shaw and Devdutt Padikkal shone with the bat. Shreyas Iyer, Saurabh Tiwary, Suryakumar Yadav and Rishabh Pant made contributions, without getting past the half-century mark. Faf du Plessis and Steve Smith, who got runs among the foreigners, played useful second fiddle without making a telling difference.
Although Virat Kohli is still to get going, the national selectors should be happy to see more batsmen coming to the fore. There is a T20 series in Australia later this year and hopefully a World Cup a year later. The IPL being a major testing ground for hopefuls, the performance in the UAE might carry crucial points when the national side is chosen. Not more than three slots in India’s batting order are sealed. There is a lot to gain from this IPL for batsmen who aspire for that blue jersey.
The numbers are fewer as far as Indian bowlers are concerned. Yuzvendra Chahal put in a Man of the Match performance, Mohammed Shami and Navdeep Saini looked sharp. Young leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi also caught the attention without bowling much of a leg-break.
Dew in the later part of the evening and conditions in general favouring batting may have played a part in this list being shorter. And it’s natural that bowlers, especially the quicker ones, will take longer than batsmen to get back to their best after a long and unanticipated break.
Of the 122 Indians in the IPL this year, only the centrally contracted ones had access to the physical conditioning programme circulated by BCCI. The majority had to rely on state associations. So bowlers in this lot may take a bit of time to get back in rhythm.
Fitness apart, which is expected to improve as the IPL progresses, Indians have got off to a good start. Proven and inexperienced players both contributed to this. After months of despair, this is a small reason to cheer for the BCCI, players and fans.