Former head coach Ravi Shastri has said the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 will help the selectors to figure out potential future leaders of Team India. The tournament kickstarts from Saturday and it’s going to be exciting with addition of two new teams in Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Gujarat Titans (GT). At the same time, the league will also witness a few young players leading their respective franchises for the first time.
While the likes of KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant have prior experiences of leading IPL teams, all-rounder Hardik Pandya and batter Mayank Agarwal will be in the captain’s role for the first time.
Shastri, who is making a comeback in commentary after 7 years, feels that selectors will be observing these young leaders closely in IPL 2022. While addressing a presser organised by Star Sports network, he said,
“India will be looking closely at the newcomers who will be captaining teams — whether it is Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya. I know Rishabh over the last few years, he has got one hell of a cricket brain.”
“It is a great opportunity for selectors to see how these youngsters captain their sides because India will be looking for a solid captain for the future. Rohit is still around for the next couple of years but after that, they will look for a good white-ball captain and here is the opportunity,” he added.
The IPL has been offering the platform for raw talents, helping them to flourish and explore new challenges. Shastri cited the example of all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer, who made a dynamic debut in the second-half of the previous season and soon made it to the Indian T20I set-up.
“That is the beauty of the IPL, it produces players out of nowhere… Before the start of the season, you might not have seen a player, but after the season, everyone will take a name you have not even mentioned earlier. Last IPL we saw Venkatesh Iyer, no one had heard of him and by the time it got over he was in the Indian team. So, you expect the unexpected,” he said.
