Fertile ground for the fast men
Indian fast bowlers were in big demand at this year’s auctions, which also showed IPL’s contribution to encouraging the country’s pace talent
KOLKATA: Of the seven Indians who went for ₹10 crore or more at the 2022 IPL auction, five are fast bowlers—Deepak Chahar, Harshal Patel, Shardul Thakur, Prasidh Krishna and Avesh Khan. Patel, the highest wickettaker last season, moved to Royal Challengers Bangalore for ₹20 lakh in 2021, but will now earn ₹10.75 crore, almost 54 times his previous salary. Krishna—bought for ₹10 crore by Rajasthan Royals—too will be 50 times richer than he was at Kolkata Knight Riders. Barring Thakur and Chahar, the others made their India debut in the last 12 months, Khan playing his first match a week after becoming the most expensive uncapped player in IPL after Lucknow Super Giants picked him for ₹10 crore.
These are phenomenal bids for fast bowlers who, from one point of view, have just made the international cut. Even three years ago, seven fast bowlers were paid at least a million dollars at the auction, but only one was Indian. That has risen to five. How did India arrive here?
Put this leap of faith down to demand and supply. Even after Kapil Dev, India’s bowling fortunes largely hinged on spinners with the odd fast bowler making an impact abroad. Quality names kept popping up though, and more frequently in the late 1990s and early 2000s— Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Irfan Pathan and S Sreesanth. Up to the 2007 T20 World Cup though, India barely needed six or seven pacers per year. With the launch of IPL in 2008 though, the demand for quality Indian players went through the roof. Franchises started tapping the domestic circuit, sending scouts across the country scouring for talent, preferably unique in action or impact.
Jasprit Bumrah was discovered by Mumbai Indians that way. Another thing IPL started providing in the next years was coaching heft in the form of retired internationals. With the likes of Anil Kumble, Shane Bond, Prasad, Zaheer, Lakshmipathy Balaji, and later Lasith Malinga, taking up mentoring roles, knowledge started to get passed on. The next generation, as a result, started getting better at the start rather than brushing up skills on the go. And a support system of fitness coaches, physiotherapists, masseurs, nutritionists and psychological mentors meant an uncapped player started getting the attention that until some years earlier was available only in the international circuit.
This has in turn benefitted Indian cricket, especially in the last two years. Staring at a tricky transition phase amid the pandemic, at a time the International Cricket Council (ICC) has scheduled World Cups in different formats every year, the need to build deeper reserves has never been this acute. “It’s going to be the norm for at least 1-2 years. So, it’s important to have a very good pool of fast bowlers so that we can afford to field different teams for different formats,” former India bowling coach Bharat Arun said while stepping down after the T20 World Cup last year. “It will not only help in understanding different talents that are available but it keeps our bowlers mentally and physically fresh.”
Leading to Test success What makes this effort significant is that it comes on the heels of a silent pace revolution that helped India win Test series in Australia and England. “We had one of the best spin attacks in the world so it was about creating another force that could complement our bowling that could suit all conditions,” said Arun.
Those wins bear out his assessment. The Gabba wouldn’t have been possible without Rishabh Pant’s courage, but India couldn’t have set up that series without T Natarajan or Mohammed Siraj, always on the fringes due to the ‘A’ games but picked largely because of the platform provided by IPL. Not just selection, backing too matters at every level. Siraj, the story goes, wasn’t even a regular starter at RCB. “In 2018, I had my worst year for RCB,” Siraj said recently. “Any other team would have dropped me, but Virat (Kohli) showed support and retained me. The entire credit goes to Virat bhai. Whatever I am today, the confidence in my bowling and everything, it wouldn’t have been possible without Virat.”
Not all fast bowlers go on to play and win Tests in England like Siraj, but some like Chahar realised early they could play for India in the shorter formats if they did well in IPL. “When I changed my action to gain speed, I struggled with my state team,” Chahar had said during the 2019 home series against West Indies. “I found that my road to entering the Indian team was very difficult. If I had to take the Ranji route, then I would have had to play more matches, play a whole first-class season, and play Duleep Trophy. But if you do well in IPL, then you can quickly play for India. So I decided to concentrate on white ball cricket,” he said.
Slowly and steadily, more reliable pacers started emerging, catering to all formats for India.
Half of the top 10 wicket-takers in the 2008 IPL were Indian. Last year, that count was 8-2. They are fitter, craftier, better equipped to handle pressure and always in the batters’ face. Most of this wouldn’t have been possible without the grind called IPL.