Those who follow the Indian Domestic League have heard the name Krishnappa Gowtham. The Karnataka-born all-rounder is currently playing for Chennai in the IPL. Why did Chennai hire him at such a high price?
Let’s have a throwback from 2019. That year in Karnataka Premier League, Krishnappa Gowtham registered arguably the best ever all-round performance in T20 history. Playing for Bellary Tuskers against Shivamogga Lions, he scored 134 off just 56 balls with the bat and took 8 wickets with the ball giving just 15 runs.
Well, such a colossal performance couldn’t make a place for him in the national side. And he is not alone. There are too many players in different teams of Indian domestic leagues who have tremendous talent, performing constantly well, but yet to find a way to international cricket.
Players like Krishnappa Gowtham, Baba Aparijith, Shahrukh Khan are some examples who are yet to get called for the national side. Even big names like Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Sanju Samson don’t get regular chances in the national team due to the heavy pipeline of talented players.
It is hard to realise how difficult it could be to get a place in the list of top 11 in a country of 1.20 billion cricket loving people. And there India faces their only problem, a problem that every top cricket playing nation would love to have-- selecting an 11 men squad out of numerous talents.
Let's see the pattern of the Indian selector’s selection dilemma. Their opening positions include Rohit Sharma, Shekhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, Shubhaman Gill and Lokesh Rahul. Six options for the opening position, makes it so competitive that everybody has to be on top of their game to uphold their place in the team.
Only Virat Kohli's place in the one-down is assured, who is, arguably, the greatest batsman of his generation. Others have to perform and compete for the rest of the batting order. No matter how senior a player is, if he doesn’t perform, then he doesn’t have a place in the team.
Well, India hasn’t achieved such a strong pipeline overnight. Continuous efforts to upholding the highest quality and visionary thinking of the concerned cricketing bodies have brought India to the position where it stands today. Apart from many other underlying reasons, we can ponder over some visible elements that strengthen India’s cricketing power.
- Pitch: Sporting pitches always encourage players to play well. Both batsmen and the bowlers get a chance to match their talents on sporting pitches. Playing on sub-standard pitches at the domestic level doesn’t give the players a taste of real challenges at the national level. Hence, India always emphasises making quality pitches.
- Department based training: India arranges training for Under-19, Under-21 and A teams under separate coaches for all three departments- batting, bowling and fielding.As every coach has their own way of reading a player’s ability, the players get the chance to get introduced to different cricketing philosophies under separate coaches and find out all their limitations while going through age-level cricket.
- BCCI's good structure: BCCI arranges big tournaments like the Vijay Hazare trophy, RanjiTrophy, Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy, Tamil Nadu League, Karnataka League, all of which are excellent in terms of quality of the game, grounds, umpiring and other aspects.
- International standard ground: BCCI has made some ground with all the international facilities. This makes sure that when a player gets promoted to international cricket, s/he doesn’t find things unfamiliar.
- Intense desire to play IPL: The IPL is currently a major attraction in world cricket. Players from all the stages of domestic leagues have to put up the best possible performance to have their names on the IPL auction list. Such a strong competitive franchise league is a big factor in making India’s pipeline strong.
In other words, India’s pipeline is strong today because of the domestic league. Such a powerhouse has India become not that it can easily make three strong playing XI for international cricket. And they are moving in that direction- forming separate teams for each format of the game.
As of India’s upcoming fixtures, Team India will play the final of the World Test Championship this month, and face Sri Lanka in a bilateral series next month. Two completely different sides will play the games-- says enough about India’s intent.
