IPL Final Match KKR vs SRH: No India T20 World Cup player in IPL final shines spotlight on selection criteria

No World Cup players featured in IPL final

The game which has become the showpiece of Indian cricket’s calendar takes place on Sunday, at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. But the Indian Premier League (IPL) final between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) will not feature a single player who is part of the 15-man India squad that leaves for the T20 World Cup in the USA and the Caribbean on May 25.

Let that sink in for a minute. Seven of the 10 leading run-scorers in this season’s tournament are Indians. Of those, only Virat Kohli and Sanju Samson will be flying to New York. Ruturaj Gaikwad, Riyan Parag, Sai Sudharsan, KL Rahul and Abhishek Sharma are not even among the four reserves.

On the bowling front, with the exception of Pat Cummins, the SRH captain, the top 10 wicket-takers are all Indians. But from the top five, only Jasprit Bumrah has made the World-Cup cut. Harshal Patel, who leads the way with 24, Varun Chakaravarthy and T Natarajan will all be watching from afar. Avesh Khan, in fifth place, is only a reserve.

This begs the question: What exactly is the selection criteria for such tournaments? In days gone by, players’ form in bilateral matches was a big factor. But now, with the international schedules so packed, few teams play their first-choice XI in white-ball cricket outside of the World Cups. Other countries have the luxury of judging players based on their displays in several franchise leagues. Indian players are not permitted to take part in any T20 cricket outside the IPL, so that avenue of assessment is closed as well.

Rinku Singh’s omission from the main squad and selection as a reserve was a sign that no credence is given to bilateral games. Otherwise, there is no justification to drop someone who averages 89 and has a strike-rate of 176 in T20Is. So, in effect, the IPL is the only time — outside of the T20 World Cup — that Indian players come up against full-strength opposition. And in 2024, they have been found wanting.

The opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal are one of the biggest concerns. Both scored IPL centuries, but each had just one other score in excess of 50 all season. Suryakumar Yadav waxed and waned, Shivam Dube’s form tailed off, and only Rishabh Pant’s form offered some encouragement.

Read: IPL 2024 Final Live Score Updates

Had he not been in a class of one as a seam-bowling all-rounder, Hardik Pandya’s awful IPL would have resulted in the chop. And while Kuldeep Yadav bowled beautifully at times, Mohammed Siraj and Ravindra Jadeja were distinctly average. Yuzvendra Chahal took 18 wickets, but had statistically his worst IPL season since 2018.

In three of the last four T20 World Cups, Kohli batted like a genius while others floundered around him. The greatest batter of his generation is once again in prime form, and millions of Indian cricket fans will hope that the out-of-sorts support cast doesn’t let him down again.

In exclusive arrangement with RevSportz