DH Radio | The Lead: Young Indian players rub shoulders with international legends in IPL 2020

In this episode of The Lead, from DH Radio. We look at rising young Indian talent in the Indian Premier League. From Devdutt Padikkal and Navdeep Saini to Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Sanju Samson, young Indian cricketers have been spectacularly impressive, scoring more runs and scalping more wickets than established international legends. Tune in to catch up on how young Indian cricketers have made a mark in the 13th edition of the IPL.

Sidney Kiran: Good morning and welcome to The Lead.

The IPL, an event that supersedes everything in the country, be it sports or entertainment has gotten off to a rollicking start this year. Record run chase to Super Over finishes. The IPL so far has given what the fans wanted. Sure heart-stopping entertainment. For all of them working from home since the pandemic started, and those starved of T20 action. This is nothing but a Godsend. So today, I Sidney Kiran, and my colleague from the sports desk, Roshan Thyagarajan will be talking about what has caught our attention since the IPL started. And what can be expected in the upcoming week. Hi, Roshan, how are you doing?

Roshan Thyagarajan: I'm good.

Sidney: So tell me how is it covering the IPL from home must be a very surreal experience, right.

Roshan: I'm enjoying it a lot. It's comfortable. You don't have to go get stuck in a crowd and stand outside a turnstile, so much easier to just, you know, stay there and get it done. In most cases, even though throughout the stadium, you'd be watching it off the television because you have to pay attention to the television at some point in time. So more often than not, you're not watching the screen.

So you may as well do that in the comfort of your house for four hours. Just I mean, I still stand in front of a television, which isn't ideal, but it's not too bad.

Sidney: But I'm sure about one thing that you want to miss is the wonderful food at the stadium. Because that's something that I really miss now sitting at home.

Roshan: Yeah, really not. Not particularly the after all these years, you sort of get used to the kind of food that's there, and you got to avoid bloating at some point eating outside doesn't help. So yeah.

Sidney: Okay, so now we'll get started with the program. Now since we're living in the time of vocal for local, as the Prime Minister wishes to call, and it's the Indian Premier League. Let's kick off by talking about the Indian performance. And also since it's a batsman's game, let's start with the batsman. So tell me Roshan, a lot of Indian batsmen have done really well.

KL, Mayank, Sanju Samson, Shubhman Gill, as well as Devdutt Padikkal. So, who has caught your attention, this IPL?

Roshan: It's inevitably going to be K L Rahul. It's just his position on the ball. Especially for those who are, “purists. It's amazing. I mean, there was the second game when he played that cover drive, it was on the rise. And it was actually was that shot, that was the standout. Two sixes, sure, I mean, many of them can get them now. But the way he played that cover drive on the rise, it's absolutely amazing. And another person who can do that is Rohit Sharma, like one of those very rare talents. So I think for me, it'll still be KL, and Sanju Samson has been good.

Again, consistency, we don't know yet, two games, third game, he sort of got runs. So we don't know yet. Right? Early signs are good. And Mayank has a problem with the gap between bat and pad so that's going to be a problem with against the leg spinner who's bowling the googly. He’s going to play a key role as of now. He just looks spotless.

Sidney: So I think talking about K L Rahul, I would also like to mention Mayank his Karnataka teammate because this IPL matters a lot for Mayank because, given all his domestic season progress, he's made a really good debut for India as well performed.

In Test matches, he scored a double century, but somehow in the IPL given that he is an attacking batsman, he's never really taken off. And just before the IPL could start, he had spoken to a few papers and he said that this IPL matters a lot for him and next year in the world T20. He's already got a spot in the test side.

And a good IPL this year will really help him cement a spot in the limited-overs team, although the competition's very immense with Rohit and Shikhar Dhawan and KL. But with all that, do you think that going ahead and proving himself you know, the century was mind-blasting, And then in the first match, he started with an 89 as well?

To know more, tune in to the podcast...