Next generation of Indian players light up the IPL

On Thursday evening, Kings XI Punjab’s Ravi Bishnoi was getting hammered by Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Jonny Bairstow even as his coach Anil Kumble was speaking about the 20-year-old leg-spinner in a chat with TV commentators. The India U-19 player had leaked 18 runs in a wicket-less first over, but Kumble backed the youngster to come back stronger. Bishnoi was reintroduced in the 16th over, and the wrist-spinner didn’t disappoint the former India captain.

He grabbed three wickets in his next two overs, including the set opening pair of David Warner and Bairstow, to help KXIP peg back Hyderabad towards the back-end of the innings.

Just a few years ago, it would have been unthinkable that a young man possessed the capacity to bounce back from such a beating from two established international batsmen on a stage as big as the IPL. This generation, however, appears devoid of stage fright.

While it is deferential to the senior group, it’s not daunted by reputations. Brave, but not brash. And Bishnoi is just one of several names to have lit up the 13th edition of the T20 league in the United Arab Emirates.

Devdutt Padikkal (RCB), Priyam Garg and Abdul Samad (both SRH), Kamlesh Nagarkoti (KKR), Arshdeep Singh (KXIP) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (RR) have stood out with their performances in their debut season itself.

Other unheralded names such as Rahul Tewatia, T Natarajan, Abhishek Sharma, Mahipal Lomror, and Shivam Mavi, who have made scattered appearances in the last couple of years, also seem to have to have found their mojo this season.

Granted that the absence of crowds and the energy they manufacture to turn humble stadiums into colosseums, where only gladiators survive, might have helped them to an extent, but to credit their early success entirely to empty stands will be too simplistic. Take the example of Samad, the 20-year-old from Jammu & Kashmir. While it must have been surreal for him to be amidst the likes of the Warners, Bairstows, Laxmans and Muralitharans, the way he bowled the last over to M S Dhoni while defending 28 runs was exceptional for the composure he showed, especially after conceding five runs off a first-ball wide.

That’s exactly the kind of start you don’t want against someone like Dhoni, whose presence at the striker’s end has left the best of bowlers nervous wrecks at the death. Samad, though, remained unperturbed and took SRH across the line.

“He just smiled when the skipper asked him if he would bowl the last over,” his team-mate Rashid Khan revealed later.

Before Samad provided the finishing touches in that match against CSK, Garg and Abhishek had launched a counter-attack on the Chennai bowling to give the bowlers something to fight with. This, after SRH, lost the experienced top four with just 69 on the board. Garg, the Indian U-19 captain and batting only in his second match in the IPL, betrayed few nerves for a debutante.

Talking of debutantes, none has been more impressive than Padikkal, the left-handed opener from Karnataka. The 20-year-old, who watched AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli from the stands at the Chinnaswamy stadium not too long ago, is matching them shot for shot. There were a lot of expectations from the youngster following his stupendous success in the last domestic season, and the youngster has proved that the hype around him isn’t misplaced. While he has solved RCB’s long-standing opening problem with three fifties so far, the manner in which he has collected those runs has been impressive - aggressive without being reckless.

Not since 2008, the inaugural edition, have so many young Indians made their IPL debut in a single edition and shown that they are not here to just make up the numbers. It’s also a tribute to the much-maligned BCCI, which has put in place a domestic structure that ensures the smooth graduation of a player.

Equally, it is impossible to overlook the impact of Rahul Dravid during his four-year stint as the coach of India A and U-19, from where a majority of these players have transitioned. With a colossus like him around to offer unparalleled cricketing wisdom, they have learnt what it takes to deliver on the big stage, without being intimidated by reputations and the occasion.