Indian Prospects League. Review on Indian Premier League

Love it or hate it, the IPL has come to stay and it has become a daily dose of Cricket for this religious fraternity of India. Silently, the IPL has opened up avenues for future stars of Indian Cricket who are rubbing shoulders with the best in the Cricket Industry and evolve as a daring new face of Indian Cricket. Here is my future Team for India consisting of young dynamic aggressive Cricketers playing fearless brand of batting, bowling and fielding and if properly groomed have the skills and power to make it to the top of new face of Cricket.

Listed in the order of Batting:-

Yousuf Pathan(27 years) Elder brother of the more popular Irfan, he has matured immensely playing along with G.Smith and under Warney’s captaincy.  Modern Cricket is also about brute force and Quantum muscles and he best fits the new brand at the top of the order and can be as devastating as Jayasurya if groomed. He has added repertoire of tweaking finger spin.

Gautam Gambhir(26 years) The soft spoken Southpaw has been the most impressive player of the IPL at the top of the order and he has the unflinching ability to score runs all around the square and has wonderful technique against spin as well. A good fielder, he has to be a permanent entity at the top of Indian Batting order even for tests. He has to curb his tendency to play lot of shots in air.

Shikhar Dhawan(22 years) You can brand him as a junior Gautam and the best part of him is his temperament apart from his scoring ability. More of a dominant leg side player, he needs to work on his drive to succeed at higher level. He has abundance of youthful energy.

Rohit Sharma(22 years) Make no mistake, he has class and style of Greg Chappell and unassuming calmness of Viv Richards. He will be the toast of Indian Cricket with style, elegance and power all in one stream and an ideal future replacement for Sachin if groomed well.

Venugopal Rao(26 years): He had lot of opportunities and he missed the bus. But this pocket dynamite a good Test level Batsmen has proved that he can be devastating and fearless and his repertoire of strokes and his proper technique combined with Innovation will be a force to reckon. He has to work on his fitness.

Irfan Pathan(24 years)** The resurgence of Irfan as an all rounder is nothing less than fantastic. He is a sound player who plays in the straight V and he has more than compensated for his loss of ability to swing with accuracy cutting his pace. He is no bits and pieces player though he may not have the venom of a Test bowling spearhead.

M.S.Dhoni( 27 years) The Indian ODI Captain has been the best Indian captain in the shortest version of the game so far and his combination of explosive power, calm temperament and guiding force for the younger legs can be of immense resource to the team and at 6-7, he can wreck any attack with shear power.

Praveen Kumar(21 years): He is a natural medium pace swing bowler and will relish the conditions in helpful wickets and can be a handful even against the best Batsman. He is also a talented tonker of the ball and he needs good Coach to consistently perform at the highest level.

Piyush Chawla(19 years):** He is the baby face of Indian Cricket and has the ability to be a good all rounder. He may not break the ball like Warney, but he will learn with age and leg spin is like Wine. He may be trifle immature as seen in IPL, but he will learn the hard way as Harbhajan is.

L.Balaji(26 years): Tall and lanky with the ability to move the ball either ways and a cool temperament(this is where he scores over Sreesanth), he will be difficult to score of in shorter version and add to that his ability to take wickets. He lost 2 valuable years in Stress fracture of abdomen and he has shown perseverance to come back which should be rewarded with an opportunity.

Ishant Sharma(19 years):  Not many have achieved as much as he has at this age in Fast bowling in India and his ability to hit the deck and jag the ball in has troubled the best of the lot in Australia. He has matured immensely in the matter of six Months and he will be the spearhead of Indian attack for years to come. Needless to say he has to maintain top physical fitness and play the game below his head.

Badrinath(27 years): **The oldest player of the lot, he has shown enough class and temperament for 2 years banging the doors of the Indian team with consistent performances. He is a compact player who can score all around the wicket and needs the break at higher level. A solid fielder, he bowls spin as well.

Others in the list: Raina, Sreesanth, VRV Singh, S Trivedi, Jadeja. A Nayar, Laxmi Shukla.M Tiwary

(Yuvraj Singh has been excluded as he has already cemented his place in IndianTeam, so too with Zaheer Khan)

The right balance beyond market forces is very important to prevent overkill of T 20 which will ultimately change the way Test Cricket is played.  As P.Roebuck mentioned, T 20 is like a game of Cards and Test Cricket, a strategy Game of Chess. Eventually all three formats of the game will have their space unless the overkill of Cricket O Mania and the commercial factors play havoc on Conventional Cricket.

The need to focus on Future of Indian Cricket was alone necessary more than analyzing thread bare the wills and vows of IPL, the context of which is being written in plenty.

One thing is for sure, we need more Dravids for Indian Cricket if India has to stay at the level it is in World Cricket at the highest level-Test Cricket.

Thanks for reading.