"Cricket has tremendously shifted post-IPL" - Arun Dhumal credits league for India's all-format success

Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Arun Dhumal opened up about the significance of the tournament in Indian cricket. He said that the league has given a lot of talent to the Indian team and is one of the main reasons behind the team’s success in all three formats.

Ever since IPL came onto the scene, it has completely changed Indian cricket. The league has provided a platform for a lot of young players to showcase their talent and play with some of the global superstars of the world of cricket.

IPL no doubt has given a lot of exposure to youngsters and made them battle-ready as they have no nerves about playing in front of huge crowds in international cricket. Over the years various young players have made a mark in the league and have become household names in Indian cricket.

The likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, and other various superstars have broken through the IPL and are now the backbone of the Indian team. In every season, some new face has showcased the talent and the league purely defines the title “talent meets opportunity”.

Arun Dhumal believes that IPL has been hugely successful in finding new players for the Indian cricket team. While highlighting the rise of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rinku Singh, he hoped to get some new talent this year as well.

Arun Dhumal also highlighted the growth of IPL, saying that it has made all three formats more competitive as after the inception of the league, cricket has been different. Speaking to PTI, he explained:

“IPL has done a phenomenal job as far as the identification of new boys is concerned. We have seen, that every season you will have very talented youngsters coming in like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh. They have then played for India also, so that way IPL has turned out to be a great tournament for the young talent and hopefully this season is going to be no different.

“Definitely IPL in the last 15 years has become the second most important league in the world, it is the second most valuable league.You can imagine how cricket has tremendously shifted post-IPL, we have seen Test matches yielding more results, ODI’s becoming more competitive.

“Some two decades back 250-300 used to be a good score now you have 400 happening regularly, we all celebrated when Sachin scored his first 200 in an ODI game and after that there has been so much that has come, and thanks to this T20 format and this IPL coming into play.”

Will work out the schedule for the rest of the tournament – Arun Dhumal

The IPL 2024 will begin on 22nd March but so far schedule of only a few matches has been revealed. Arun Dhumal said that they will be working out the schedule for the rest of the tournament and added that Dharamshala will get many games. He added:

“As and when that comes, accordingly we will work out the schedule for the rest of the tournament, hopefully, we will get a good number of games in Dharamshala also.”

Arun Dhumal also talked about the ongoing Test between India and England, saying that it’s a historical Test as Ravichandran Ashwin and Jonny Bairstow are playing their 100th Test and James Anderson is approaching his 700 wickets. He claimed:

“The final Test of this series is taking place here and we are lucky that it’s going to be a historical Test given it’s Ashwin’s 100th, Bairstow’s 100th and most likely Anderson will get 700 wickets and it’s starting on a day when Sunil Gavaskar scored 10,000 runs so it’s historic in that sense also,” he concluded.