Majority of current generation of Cricket freaks might not have heard the name of Rajinder Goel. Rajinder Goel was a left arm orthodox spinner from Haryana. Goel played first class Cricket for staggering 26 year during 1958-1985. Rajinder Goel took 637 wickets in Ranji Trophy, which is still a record for highest number of wickets at Ranji.
Great Sunil Gavaskar said this about Goel “He is the one bowler whom I have really dreaded facing in my life”. It speaks about greatness of Goel as a bowler. Rajinder Goel however was never picked for India. Apart from his fellow cricketers, selectors and few more selected people, nobody could ever see genius of Goel and his name has reduced to and limited to record books only.
Now juxtapose this with Ravichandran Ashwin. Ashwin started his IPL stint with Chennai Super Kings (CSK). He had an outstanding IPL in 2010 and basis that he was picked for national side. Ashwin’s Test wicket tally has gone past 250 in just six years after he made his debut and he is all-time fastest to reach 250 wicket’s landmark.
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So imagine if IPL existed during the playing period of Rajinder Goel, things might have been different for Goel. It can’t be said whether he would have made a career for national team but at least the whole nation must have seen what Goel was up to. Arguably he would have meted out with better justice.
Rajinder Goel here has been taken as a one case and for sure there have been many such names in Indian Cricket.
This is where IPL has been doing a great service to Indian Cricket. It has become a great launching platform for budding and talented cricketers.IPL has made things lot more transparent. National selectors cannot take IPL’s heroic lightly; after all whole nation is watching.
Other day when Sanju Sampson and Rishabh Pant were decimating Gujarat Lion’s bowling attack; the real winner was this very essence of IPL. Today if we watch and adore Sampson, Pant or MI’s Nitish Rana, the whole credit goes to the platform called IPL. Otherwise possibly all of them would have remained obscure Ranji/First class players only.
Take the case of Rishabh Pant. Most of us know Pant now essentially for this swashbuckling knock of 97 against GL. Little do we realize that Pant has just scored a triple century and a 48 balls century during 2016-17 Ranji season.
Thanks to this IPL heroic, Pant is knocking door for a permanent place in national team at the age of 19.
Rishabh Pant is tipped as natural successor of MS Dhoni. In case of Dhoni, world only came to know about prowess of Dhoni, when he scored that hurricane ODI century at Vijag in 2004-05 against Pakistan after making his international debut for India. Dhoni was 23 ½ years of age at that point in time. Had IPL commenced a decade back, Dhoni in alllikelihood could have struck big at the age of 19-20, like Rishabh Pant did.
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Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, Manish Pandey, Mohit Sharma are few players, who were catapulted immensely by IPL.
Ravindra Jadeja first came to limelight post his stint with Rajasthan Royals under Shane Warne. He was later nurtured by Dhoni for IPL team CSK. Jadeja broke in to India’s ODI and T-20 side first, primarily because of his performance in IPL. Today he is a match winner for India, not only in ODI and T-20 but in Test matches as well.
No doubt that apart from the immense entertainment value, IPL is doing a great service for Indian Cricket.
At last few words for those who already have cemented place in Indian squad; let’s be on your toes as IPL has created serious competition in form of Pant, Sampson and Nitish Rana and IPL will continue to do so. Complacency has no place any longer and margin for error is very less.