After what can only be described as a whirlwind second leg of IPL 2021 for Kolkata Knight Riders’ Venkatesh Iyer, it was quite bizarre that the 26-year-old was asked to stay back as a net bowler for India’s T20 World cup campaign (though the net bowlers were eventually sent back) for Iyer had a stellar IPL with the bat scoring 370 runs at 41.11. Be that as it may, post India’s T20 World Cup debacle, Iyer finds a place - deservedly at that - in the Indian squad for the New Zealand T20I series at home, alongside other IPL standouts – Harshal Patel, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and Avesh Khan. This is Iyer, Patel, and Khan’s maiden India call-ups.
With senior players rested, the new-look team under the leadership of Rohit Sharma will be looking to lift the team’s morale after they were knocked out of the Super 12 stage at the T20 World Cup. Amidst calls for a fresh approach and change in top management (Rahul Dravid will be replacing Ravi Shastri as the coach) inclusion of fresh faces does signal that India have pressed the reset button with an aim to do well in the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia.
So it was no surprise that Iyer got his maiden call-up on the back of a superlative IPL in the UAE that saw KKR reach the final, eventually losing to Chennai Super Kings. Post-IPL, Iyer has continued his rich vein of form in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy racking up 154 runs at 77.00 in four matches for Madhya Pradesh. With Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Suraykumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan all in the fray for the top four slot, it is unlikely that Iyer would get a look in the top order, a position where he ironically excelled for KKR. However, with Hardik Pandya rested (or dropped) and no Shardul Thakur in the squad, Iyer is the only fast-bowling allrounder in the team. In fact, he is the only accomplished all-rounder in the squad. And it makes sense why Iyer was picked as a net bowler for the T20 World Cup. And therein lies the opportunity for him.
IPL 2021: Out of the Blue, Venkatesh Iyer Blows Away the Competition
With Rishabh Pant being the lone finisher in the squad, Iyer could very well fit in that lower-order as a like-for-like replacement for Pandya. In IPL 2021, he rolled his arms over for just about eight overs, claiming three wickets for 69 runs. Overall in T20s. Iyer has 29 wickets to his name at 23.13 and there is no doubt, that he can fill in as an allrounder in Team India’s scheme of things at least for a couple of years if Pandya’s struggle with his fitness continues. Hence the reason Iyer leapfrogs the likes of Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill in the squad.
It has been a meteoric rise for Iyer, who was nowhere even in KKR’s playing XI till the first phase of the IPL. A break proved to be a boon for him and he turned his fortunes around when the opportunity presented itself. He has been making the right moves in the Madhya Pradesh cricketing circles from his under-12 days. He was first noticed when he set the Vijay Hazare Trophy on fire with his 198 for MP against Punjab in February earlier this year. One of the features that stands out in his game is his confidence. Having been good at academics, he has cleared CA intermediate exams and also took up MBA (finance), the confidence has rubbed on his game.
“When I was the director of cricket at MPCA two or three years ago, the Ranji Trophy selectors picked about 30 probables. Venkatesh did not figure in the list. I got a call from Venkatesh saying that he was in a hospital getting treatment for eight days. The Ranji Trophy trial matches were after a week or 10 days. Venkatesh said that he was fit and if he got a chance, he would make it to the Ranji team,” remembers Sanjay Jagdale, a former national selector and also a former BCCI secretary.
Harshal Patel - From IPL Purple Cap to India Cap
Harshal Patel won the Purple Cap in this season’s IPL and it is no mean feat for the 31-year-old Haryana cricketer who took quite a while to make a mark at the highest level. He made his IPL debut a long back (2012 for RCB), but it almost took him nine years to come to the party. As IPL began this year under the shadow of the pandemic in Chennai, he made an instant impact in the opening match against Mumbai Indians, picking up a five-for. This was the first such act against the might of MI which boasts of an excellent top order.
After Nine Years of Grind, Harshal Patel Finally Comes to The Party
As the IPL moved to UAE, Patel brought his purple patch to Dubai. He picked up a hattrick against the same opposition and then went on to equal the record for the most wickets taken in an IPL season. He accounted for 32 wickets which was stupendous, to say the least. The class of the cricketer was such that he overshadowed Mohammed Siraj, the latest pace sensation, in the RCB dressing room. So it was evident enough that Patel’s long grind and the purple patch would eventually culminate into a national call-up. Some even had hopes of a T20 World Cup ‘late’ call-up, which eventually did not materialise. With Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami rested and T20 specialist Deepak Chahar’s stock taking a hit, Patel could very well find himself sharing the new-ball with Bhuvneshwar Kumar against New Zealand.
Also worth mentioning is the elevation of Avesh Khan who has been around the blocks with India A setup for a while now and once again, a breakthrough IPL season sees the former India-U19 star from Indore earn his maiden call-up. Even though he was overshadowed by the likes of Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje in the Delhi Capitals setup, the bowling unit did hunt in pairs, and Khan finished the IPL season as the second-highest wicket-taker with 24 scalps in 16 matches.
Umran Malik Fast-tracked to India A setup
Nortje dominated the list of fastest deliveries in IPL 2021 early on, then came Lockie Ferguson and in just three matches, 21-year-old right-arm pacer from Jammu and Kashmir Umran Malik turned the list around, and turned a few heads as well, clocking 152.95 kmph. In the three matches he played for the Sunrisers Hyderabad, Malik rushed the best of the batters, and even though he does not have much in terms of T20 experience, he has been picked for India A purely on the basis of the potential he showed during IPL.
He has played eight T20s in his career so far where he impressed many with 11 wickets under his kitty at an economy rate of 8.53. While, in the only List A match, he failed to make an impact where he leaked 98 runs and picked just one wicket. He also travelled with the Indian team in T20 World Cup as a net bowler.
The youngster has risen through the ranks despite humble beginnings. His father owns a small fruit shop in Jammu’s Gujjar Nagar area. On his T20 debut, he picked up 3/24 against Railways which included the wicket of former India player Karn Sharma, who was beaten for sheer pace. He has taken six wickets in four games in the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy though J&K finished last in Group C.
Chahal Returns, Chahar, Chakravarthy Out
Another talking point from the selection was the return of Yuzvendra Chahal to the T20I setup and the ousted of Rahul Chahar and Varun Chakravarthy. While Chahar finds a place in the India A squad, after playing just a lone match in the T20 World Cup, that too a dead rubber against Namibia, where he returned 0/30, Chakravarthy, the mystery spinner who was the talk of the town ahead of the T20 World Cup, has been completely ignored after a rather tame campaign in the UAE. The fact that Chahal should have been part of the T20 WC squad right from the start was always up for debate,
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