Sharing The Dressing Room With World-Class Players Has Been Massive For Youngsters - Ajit Agarkar Speaks About The 'Incredible' Impact Of IPL On Indian Cricket

Former India pacer, Ajit Agarkar speaks about how the Indian Premier League has helped shape Indian cricket producing a factory of young talents and making them ready for the international level.

Ajit Agarkar mentions that the major benefit the youngsters gain while playing in the IPL is that they get to rub the shoulders with the best international cricketers, in their own dressing room or playing against.

Agarkar asserts that while spending time with the finest international players, both Indian and overseas, along with the pressure they face during the IPL, the youngsters come out as better, and calmer players when they make their international debuts and ready to take on the world.

“Oh, incredible! I don’t think there’s anything that’s made the difference; we don’t want to compare things but since the IPL has come in, I’ve been a part of the IPL – people you’ve played against, you share the dressing room with them, you can see the new guys that come in the team almost look ready,” Ajit Agarkar said on Star Sports’ show Select Dugout.

You could see the results; series win in Australia with six or seven players injured: Ajit Agarkar

The 43-year-old Ajit Agarkar asserted that the advantage the national team has gained from the IPL has never been more pronounced than in the past few months. India won their second Test series in Australia at the start of the year.

However, this time they missed and kept losing their first-choice players – most worrisome was the absence of the fast bowlers which got injured one by one – such that only Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane were the only two Indians to play all the 4 Tests.

However, youngsters in Shubman Gill, Washington Sundar, T Natarajan, Shardul Thakur, Navdeep Sain, and Mohammed Siraj, all playing their first overseas Test tour, in the shadow of a now-legend youngster, Rishabh Pant, made telling contributions to register a historic Test series triumph, and they all looked at home.

Few more debutants in Axar Patel, Prasidh Krishna, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, and Krunal Pandya made scintillating starts to their international career in the home games against England.

“Everyone that comes in and the quality has increased, playing day-in-day-out with world-class players, sharing the dressing room with them. It has been massive! You could see the results, a couple of series wins in Australia in these time – half the team wasn’t there in the previous series; six or seven players missing due to injury,” Ajit Agarkar asserted.

Also Read: IPL 2021: Rohit Sharma Didn’t Say Much As Even He Struggles To Face My Bowling In Nets, Rahul Chahar Reveals Mumbai Indians Skipper’s Advice Against KKR