The month of April and May marks the Peak of Indian summer. For the two months, India is battered by heat waves and rising temperatures but for Cricket lovers, it is the peak of entertainment for a couple of months with a festive season of Indian Premier League, where the top quality players around the world compete against each other in a high octane tournament.
IPL is too big to be ignored and with every passing year, it is becoming bigger if not better, Many experts and fans are divided by their opinions on the status of the league and its impact on the game. With top IPL teams owning teams in other T20 leagues like SA20, Major League, CPL, and ILT20 expanding the T20 cricket to 12 months, ICC finding it difficult to keep bilateral series relevant in International Cricket.
Here are five reasons that IPL is doing more harm to Indian Cricket than good when it comes to International Cricket and ICC events.
1. Insignificant To Domestic Cricket In India
The IPL is slowly becoming the tournament where the BCCI looks when picking the national side instead of performances in domestic tournaments like the Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy, and the Irani Cup as the cash-rich league has become a gateway for the Indian players to get into the team, as many Indian players purely focus on doing well in the IPL rather than playing well for their domestic side.
For Example, Dinesh Karthik was selected for the T20 team on the back of his performance in the 2022 Indian Premier League though he was not much active in domestic cricket, On the other hand, Ajinkya Rahane got called up to the Indian team for the WTC Final following an impressive performance in IPL 2023, whereas Sarfaraz Khan, Baba Indrajith and Abhimanyu Easwaran has consistently performed for their domestic side could make into the Indian setup, putting a question mark on selectors, where the domestic performance of the individual not being rewarded.
2. The Trend Of Picking Players For The National Team In Either The Test Team Or The ODI Team
No doubt performing in the IPL requires needs high skill set and talent, but it is a different ball game as compared to Test or even ODI matches. There needs to be a real balance between other formats of the game and T20.
Ishan Kishan has represented India in 14 ODIs and 27 T20Is but is yet to make his Test debut, but was allowed to make it into the squad for the World Test Championship final following his form in white-ball cricket, as Indian selectors failed to go with specialized test wicket-keeper as back up for KS Bharat.
Similarly, Suryakumar Yadav was awarded the opportunity in the ODI team, following his exploits in T20 cricket, where the bat could not make an impact for the side, as he dismissed three consecutive golden ducks in the last ODI Series against Australia in India.
3. Many players Are Getting Injured During IPL
It’s no surprise that a majority of the players injured this season are from India due to packed International Schedules, as the players try and push harder to keep their place in the team, as far as the Indian Cricket Team is concerned.
Top Indian players like Shreyas Iyer, Rajat Patidar, Prasidh Krishna, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah, and Mukesh Choudhary were injured even before the start of the Indian Premier League 2023. Meanwhile, KL Rahul, Washington Sundar, and Jaydev Unadakat were a few top professionals who got injured during the season, which put a halt to India’s hopes in the ICC events, as Indian players are often prone to injuries due to tight schedules, which in turn affects Indian players performance in big events.
4. Losing focus on Test Cricket
Many Indian Cricketers fancy their chances of playing in the shorter format of the game rather than being willing to test their skill sets in the purest form of cricket. With the kind of money and attention their grab from the people during the cash-rich league, they tend to focus more on IPL rather than the real deal Test Cricket.
With players focusing on white-ball cricket, they fail to make a transition to red-ball cricket, with batters finding it hard with their shot selections and the bowlers failing to get the right line and length that is required for test cricket.
India star all-rounder Hardik Pandya too gave up on test cricket following his injury in 2018, as he has not shown any aspiration to play for the country in the longer format of the game, as he focuses more on the white-ball format of the game.
5. Flat Tracks And Smaller Boundaries Making It Batter Friendly Game
Indian batters bash bowlers all across the park in Indian Premier League, as the pitches in IPL offer almost nothing to the bowlers with no real assistance for the pacers and spinners, batters use the conditions to score tall scores in the IPL, which they could not replicate against high-quality opponents, especially in the overseas conditions.
Many Indian batters attack the bowlers in Indian conditions which is evident by their stellar performances in IPL but it seems that when they travel abroad they find it difficult to adjust to seam and bouncy tracks, where they fail miserably on overseas conditions and more to the fact smaller boundaries in Indian stadium making it easy for the batters, with the mistimed shot making it into the boundary which is not the case in Australia and England.