Hand on heart, without any fear, please confess to everyone. Almost out of habit, how many of you switched on your digital/television sets at around 7.30 pm on Monday, 30 May 2022?
It had become a habit for close to 64 days to keep track from 7.30 pm everyday about the scores in the 2022 edition of Indian Premier League Indian Premier League (IPL). Almost everyone found different ways to keep track of the action.
Not everyone was watching on television, as the ratings would testify, because there is now a different mode of knowing the latest scores in the tournament. This has therefore been a success of a tournament because this year it showed that cricket is no longer about being close to a television set.
But this is not about whether you watch cricket on a television set or a mobile or a laptop. This year was more about how the action was compelling for a particular reason and that is the cricketers who made it an appointment viewing for everyone around the globe.
Almost everyone now knows the names of some of the biggest names in the world of cricket, but this year’s tournament brought us up close to some of the biggest unknowns. These unknowns are actually the engine room of the tournament who add all the chutzpah to the event with their performances. This year there were plenty of them.
Some of them have already been anointed as the next big thing, whether with the ball or the bat. Umran Malik for one has already zoomed into the Indian T20I squad for the upcoming series against South Africa. Then there is Mohsin Khan who is a left-arm fast bowler, who bowls with pace and extracts bounce out of any surface. Most former players involved in the tournament in varying capacities had identified Mohsin as someone who can be fast-tracked into the Indian T20I squad.
Then there were others like Kuldeep Sen, who hails from Madhya Pradesh and bowled a calm final over under pressure. Sen also bowled at rapid speeds whenever he was played by Rajasthan Royals and showed that such hidden talents exist in the country.
Ayush Badoni in the first few weeks of the tournament seemed to be the toast of India, while Tilak Varma oozed class and was the only bright spot for the struggling Mumbai Indians. So much so that India’s all-format captain Rohit Sharma announced that Varma would play for India very soon, in all three formats. That was a high praise indeed.
Then there were the old uncapped performers like Rahul Tripathi, Arshdeep Singh, Harpreet Brar, Rahul Tewatia, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Rinku Singh. All these boys showed just why they have been around the tournament for so long. They had regular contributions for their respective franchises. Each one of them had a heartwarming back story, one which was more emotional than the others.
Arshdeep leapfrogged this lot into the Indian T20I squad against South Africa. Amongst the others Tripathi will surely get a gig on the Ireland tour, while Brar was around the Indian T20I squad against Sri Lanka recently.
So, plenty of young talents that India can look forward to welcoming to their screens in the blue colour in the coming months. All these names who we now call out so easily are now household heroes thanks to the IPL and specifically the 15th edition.
It has happened precisely for a reason because the tournament for the first time in over a decade had 10 teams to boast of, unlike the previous number of eight. A lot of these young names had spent their time away without much of a chance to show their wares because there were only eight teams in the competition.
Now with 10 teams in the fray, there were more opportunities for the players to come forward and show the world just why they have been picked for their respective franchises. So, a Yash Dayal who otherwise would have been slogging away in the nets, got an opportunity to show just why the Indian national selectors have earmarked him as the next big thing, in Test matches. There were others like Rajat Patidar who came in as an injury replacement but stayed on to lead Royal Challengers Bangalore into the second Qualifier.
All the sceptics who guffawed at the thought of a 10-team IPL have had to eat humble pie. All those critics who were wondering if there was enough talent to sustain a 10-team IPL over 64 days have had to recalibrate their opinions. This would not have been possible but for a 10-team event as more players were divided across the spectrum, which gave them more opportunities to perform.
There are many more on the sidelines who did not get opportunities as they did not fit into the scheme of things of a side’s planning for 2022. They may surely feel left out, but their turn will come next year. With 70 league games in all, there are bound to be more opportunities opening up. There is some confusion over whether we will have an all-play-all concept from 2023 when the new media rights cycle kicks off or from 2025. But whenever the all-play-all concept starts off, then we may end up having a total of 94 games in the tournament.
This could mean that the tournament lasts about close to three and a half months with very few double headers. That would mean more such unheralded players coming forward.
But the tournament is not just about the unknown and the unheralded. A number of the known overseas players too have shown that they belong to the tournament. Take a look at David Miller, Glenn Maxwell, Devon Conway, Tim David. All these players have proven track records internationally, except maybe David. Yet they finally have a stable home thanks to the expanded IPL.
Miller especially has been travelling around franchises over the years because they would never be able to find him a consistent place in the XI. Finally, Miller has a home and that is Gujarat Titans. It was Miller’s pyrotechnics lower down the order that helped Gujarat to be cautious at the start of the innings. There were many others like Alzarri Joseph, who is a record holder in the IPL, who had been forgotten for long but came back strongly this year. Joseph bowled rapidly and almost matched Lockie Ferguson for speed.
All this would not have been possible but for a 10-team event where you needed close to 50 players more and that is precisely why we have a new champion. The champion side, Gujarat, was a fresh lot with new ideas buzzing with players either wanting to prove a point or wanting to show that they belong.
Unfortunately, we have to wait till March 2023 to once again get close to a television or a digital set every day. But whether it is at 7.30 pm or 8 pm, we will have to wait for the sources to reveal just like they did for the change of time for the final this year.
Until then, get back to your guilty viewing.
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