IPL Talking Points: “Rishabh Pant Deserves India Call-up for T20 World Cup”

A quick look at the IPL stats will show you that Indian players are dominating this year.

At the time of writing, Travis Head is the only foreign batsman among the top 11 run-scorers and the top three wicket-takers are all Indians. However, this is not uncommon.

There are only three foreign batters among the top 12 IPL run-scorers of all time (David Warner, Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers) and three foreign bowlers (Dwayne Bravo, Sunil Narine and Lasith Malinga) among the top 11 wicket-takers.

In the initial days after the first edition in 2008, most franchises struggled with a lack of depth among Indian players, but years of IPL cricket have steadily improved the overall quality.

It has now gotten to the point where some teams are selecting more than just three foreign players for games, and we are now frequently seeing uncapped Indian players making match-winning contributions.

A number of foreign stars have taken the tournament by storm over the years, but make no mistake: one of the main reasons it is the biggest T20 competition in the world is the success of the local players.

It’s also a good time to be in shape: May 1 is the upcoming date for international teams to announce their preliminary squads for the T20 World Cup.

So who are the runners and riders charging towards the finish line – and who are failing?

Pants to win the T20 World Cup gloves battle?

India will probably have to make the toughest decisions, especially at the top of the rankings. Legends Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have shown that they are still at the top of their game in the T20 game.

Yashasvi Jaiswal got off to a terrible start but a timely century against Mumbai Indians means he is also likely to head to the Caribbean. It’s tough for Ruturaj Gaikwad, but I’m just not sure there’s room for him.

As far as power hitters go, Shivam Dube’s outstanding form for CSK has greatly improved his chances, which could be bad news for KKR’s Rinku Singh, who hasn’t quite hit his stride yet.

Then there is the wicketkeeping situation. Jitesh Sharma started the tournament at the top of the queue but only has a top score of 29 for the Punjab Kings so far. KL Rahul is always an option but if India take him, Kohli and Rohit, they could be short of power.

Ishan Kishan is another option, but he didn’t get a central BCCI contract this year and seems to have fallen out of favor, which brings us to a Rishabh Pant.

I wrote in my first article that Indian voters have a big decision to make if he takes off, and that’s exactly what happened.

Pant looks like he’s close to his swashbuckling best again and needs to go to the World Cup in my opinion. He has played every game for Delhi and is ready.

Stoini’s century increases Australia’s chances of selection

As for England, you would say it hasn’t been a great year for our players out there so far and it will be fascinating to see who Rob Key picks for the Pakistan series and the T20 World Cup.

Sam Curran may have bowled his way back into the team and with Ben Stokes unavailable and Jamie Overton potentially out injured, England could use his all-round ability.

Jonny Bairstow’s lack of runs and drops for Punjab is a major concern. However, given his experience and versatility in the batting order, I still believe he should be on the plane.

Travis Head is a real eye-catcher for Australia after his hardly believable ball hits in the power play. Nobody will be looking forward to bowling against him in the West Indies.

Marcus Stoinis has been left off Cricket Australia’s central contract list but, oddly enough, is still likely to make the squad and he should do so after an impressive century for Lucknow against CSK in Chennai.

Most people would be surprised if Glenn Maxwell wasn’t there too, even though he himself gave up for RCB.

The really interesting one is Jake Fraser-McGurk – do Australia want to take a risk and put him on the 15 even though he hasn’t played a T20 international yet? Without a doubt he is an X-factor player and with Maxwell in the doldrums I would take him.

Pitch imperfect?

After all, you can’t write an IPL column these days without mentioning astonishingly large sums of money. Teams have now scored 266 or more points four times!

While most of us are happy about a high score, it has been noticed that a number of strong voices in the cricket community have expressed concerns that the balance between bat and ball has shifted far too much in favor of the batsmen.

I have to say I agree and the main issues are the accuracy of the pitches and the short boundaries in India. The problem with the boundary size cannot be solved so easily in some stadiums, but it can be solved with the playing fields.

It’s striking how little help the spinners get, which is a shame because one of the best parts of watching cricket in India is that the batters have to counter against quality spin.

I never thought I’d say this, but I hope the pitches get more tired and worn in the second half of the season and those wild hitters slow down a bit!

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