Thirty—something years ago, I sat in on a father-son conversation that was fascinatingly prescient in its context. Ram Odedra was then head of the Duleep School of Cricket in Porbandar, while his son Nilesh—who would later represent Saurashtra with distinction in the Ranji Trophy—was still a teenager, and the two were severely at odds about the importance of technique in cricket.
While Ram Odedra held the old school view that without technique—the ABC of the game so to speak—no cricketer could progress very far, Nilesh was convinced that in the cricket of the future, technique would be secondary to an aggressive mental approach, especially with the bat. This was at a time the Indian Premier League (IPL) was not even a glimmer on the horizon.
Looking at where batsmanship has reached in the ongoing IPL, with the likes of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Urvil Patel, Priyansh Arya and Abhishek Sharma turning the best of bowlers into punching bags, that long-ago and far-away conversation returns to mind again and again. Have aggression, power and innovation eclipsed traditional batsmanship, or is this just the T20 face of the willow-wielding art?
Let us not forget that aggressive batsmanship has a long and distinguished lineage in Indian cricket, stretching back to the very earliest days in the form of C. K. Nayudu and Syed Mushtaq Ali. They were followed by Polly Umrigar and Salim Durani, Krishnamachari Srikkanth, Virender Sehwag—who achieved one of his two Test triple-hundreds in a single day—and Yuvraj Singh—of hitting six sixes in one over fame.
When it comes to the IPL itself, there is, of course, New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum, whose unbeaten 158 (73 balls) in the very first league match in 2008 for the Kolkata Knight Riders against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) remained the highest individual score until it was bettered by Chris Gayle’s 175 not out from 66 deliveries for RCB in 2013. That number is likely to be eclipsed too, sooner or later.
That is so because a new breed of young power hitters who dominate the modern-day IPL stage has taken the art of bludgeoning bowling attacks to levels unlike anything witnessed in the past. Part calculation, part instinct, part training and complete commitment to the task of taking the battle to the bowlers is only a part of the puzzle. As with everything in life, there is no single answer.
Intricate Web of Talent-spotting
One factor, clearly, is the vast and intricate web of talent-spotting that has evolved with the continuing growth of the IPL. Helped by the explosion of local and state-level T20 leagues, players are located and tracked right from the primary competition level onwards. With increasingly sophisticated data management tools available to scouts, teams and coaches, there is now an almost seamless integration of origins, location, video analysis and statistics with player profiles.
This pipeline, largely driven by regional-level talent spotters, quickly separates the probables that are merely good from those who have the potential to perform at elite levels of the game, at which point academies and higher-level coaches step in. Age-group tournaments act as another filter to evaluate skill sets, physical fitness and growth potential, tactical and strategic game-awareness and mental resilience, which can sometimes be the final determinant of a player’s abilities. What also helps is the scope and structure of India’s domestic cricket. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has, over the years, created a comprehensive calendar for junior and senior competitions that is the match of anything the rest of the cricket world has to offer.
The new breed of young power hitters has taken the art of bludgeoning bowling attacks to levels unlike anything witnessed in the past.
There was a time when the Australian and English cricket boards served as the template for creating talent pools from a strong competitive environment. Today, the BCCI is the one setting the pace in terms of depth and variety in its competitions and teams—be it those in the Under-17, Under-19, Under-21, India A or senior squads—both on the women’s and men’s sides. There is also the constant improvement in infrastructure and support systems where bio-mechanics and bio-kinetics are used to push the limits of potential.
Finally, what is to my mind the most important intangible in this process of creating new talent is family. Almost every story of an emerging player—and there is an ever-growing number from parts of India with no discernible cricket history or tradition, unlike the power centres of the past like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Bengaluru—is one of unstinting support and sacrifice to see daughters and sons strive towards reaching the peak of their potential.
Today, the rewards are huge, but so is the cost paid by parents, siblings and often the wider family who give up on their dreams in the hope that the most talented in their midst does not lack for assistance and opportunity in the hunt for a place in the sun.
This then is the bare-bones story from where and how this new generation of fearless stars is emerging and finding its feet at the very top of an extremely competitive environment. What is equally fascinating is the back-story of such a revolution.
One could point all the way back to 1983 and India’s unlikely win in the final of the World Cup under Kapil Dev. Or the success of Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team at the inaugural 2007 T20 World Cup in South Africa, which directly preceded the launch of the IPL. Or the record six times an Indian team has won the men’s Under-19 World Cup (2000, 2009, 2012, 2018, 2022 and 2026) and the stars who have gone on to wear senior India colours with success and distinction. Or even the many other trophy successes the women and men in blue have chalked up at international tournaments in the last 20-odd years.
However, that alone does not explain the torrent of new talent that is gushing forth on cricket grounds across the country. Somewhere along the line, a mental switch has been flipped that tells young cricketers—women and men—that their time has come. The fearlessness with which so many youngsters stride out onto to a cricket stadium with bat or ball in hand is a tangible quality, evident in the confidence with which they are able to take on the world’s best under different conditions.
So today if a Priyansh Arya or a Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has a strike rate in excess of 230 (runs per 100 balls faced), or a Prashant Veer averages 66 runs per innings in this most hectic of cricket formats, or a Prince Yadav, an Anshul Kamboj or an Ashok Sharma can rub shoulders with the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Pat Cummins, Kagiso Rabada and Jofra Archer with ball in hand, it speaks of their confidence in training, preparation and mental resilience as much as their talent.
At the same time, many of these young women and men who are exposed to fame, riches and temptations for the first time need to be handled with care and sensitivity. Mentoring in these aspects must be a critical part of their career development and growth. To generations of the past, the name of Vinod Kambli is an example, or that of Prithvi Shaw in more recent years. Success often brings along unwanted attention and easily available distractions. Learning how to cope with this facet of success is important to manage the stress of expectations on the field of play.
(Views expressed are personal)
Rahul Banerji has been an active journalist for over 40 years and was Sports Editor of The Statesman and The Asian Age Delhi Editions
