Paul Valthaty

This edition of IPL prolonged its resistance for nearly 8 weeks but produced a champion which showed us an essence of flamboyance in their cricket. Throughout we witnessed some emerging out of the shell, some had eyes with deep pools of true potential, some survived with pressure strangling their necks and for some hopes were gutted.

IPL has been a stage to produce budding talents and this time it just raised the bar. The onus was on the unnoticed players to pull up their socks for the surmounting pressure game. The classy Passat winner Paul Valthaty caught the eye with some breath-taking innings. There was vivacious enthusiasm and he plunge into action to acclaim credit from the legend Sachin. Rayadu and Manoj Tiwari were the others among the batsmen to float in this growing garland. Both were vibrant, dynamic, electrifying and exuberant. While Rayadu had the gargantuan experience of Sachin at the other end, Tiwari achieved excellence beyond par by bringing his lame Ranji experience into play. Producing such talent with incredible batting was expected but IPL-4 brought about a variety of bowling talent too. With the perplexing spin by Iqbal Abdullah to straightening leggie in terms of Rahul Sharma to speeding talent through S. Aravind and Varun Aaron, selectors have their task cut out. Rahul Sharma gets the nod ahead of everybody as he is more aggressive, economical and a strike bowler. With so many part-timers getting their off spin to assist, leg-breaks and googlies seems to exhaust. Rahul Sharma becomes a serious contender and if he cherishes, the next Anil Kumble is on. Two other players had to be Badrinath and Gayle. Badri is an unsung hero and with such an Indian middle order, he has to admit he was born at the wrong time. But still proved age in not a factor and his herculean experience will come into play in the West Indies tour though he has played only 2 test matches. Gayle brought in a storm in India that shook the Carribean Island. He never bothered to even see IPL but once he got his call at 3am, he ensured others did at least while he is playing. He is too good a batsman to be missed out from International arena.

Though the flops are less in number, they have raised some serious concern all around the globe. Fatigue an usual phenomenon played its part and bludgeoned the best in the business. Issues were raised when Gambhir opted to play with injury for KKR and demanded rest for WI tour. Gavaskar slammed him and urged selectors not to select such players skipping an Indian tour. Soon, county vs country propped up and it’s not only us but for the authoritative persons to believe strong in international cricket. Believe it or not, Sachin looks retired from ODI’s and his decision to skip the test series is a shocker. TV viewership too went down and the Australian journalists had something to write about this summer. The question here stands tall, are we underestimating West Indies, if so history is about to repeat itself in terms of humiliation.

Tags: Ambati Rayudu, Cricket, IPL, Manoj Tiwari, Paul Valthaty, Rahul Sharma