IPL teenagers and standard-bearers are going back to the basics

As the IPL turns 18 and grows into adulthood, it seems to have put away childish things.

We are seeing the fourth generation in this rapidly-evolving format. Gone are the days of manic batting, artificially promoted excitement, silly team selection and Bollywood imperatives.

Teams are more professional, better coached, and accept failure as an important aspect of success. Significantly, those born in this century have emerged as the standard-bearers, for their self-belief and emphasis on predominantly classical batsmanship.

Sai Sudharsan, Priyansh Arya, Riyan Parag, Ayush Mhatre, Vaibhav Suryavanshi combine elegance and effectiveness in a manner the pioneers didn’t think important. The likes of Yashaswi Jaiswal and Devdutt Padikkal had already shown the way.

The old-fashioned slogger still exists and is still effective, but the top three in most teams look a class apart. Slightly older but the most stylish of the lot is Shubman Gill, who, like Virat Kohli of the first generation, needs no ugly strokes when he has a range of lovely ones at his command.

As of Monday, 14 of the top 20 batters were Indians; eight were born at the turn of the century or later. Of the 15 Indian bowlers in the top 20, only two were born in the same period, suggesting perhaps that it takes longer to assimilate the craft of bowling.

Change in approach

If in the earlier editions batters discovered the effectiveness of taking the front foot away from the line of the ball and swinging through, now many have rediscovered the technique of getting to its pitch. The result has been more drives on the offside, and a hint that the future might lie in the past.

Evolution is a process. No clear line can be drawn between phases. Methods emerge as startlingly new, are imitated, then become commonplace and new methods have to be worked out.

Coaches working in tandem with talent scouts (crucial to the whole process, but not celebrated as much) are proving what critics have been saying for decades: that talent is plentiful in India, but often gets clogged up in red tape and corruption. Franchises have skin in the game, and unlike cricket boards are not served by politicians and bureaucrats.

Selection was relatively simple at the start. The best first class players were chosen. Mahendra Singh Dhoni is still playing, as are Kohli and Rohit Sharma, all of whom made their debut in 2008, the inaugural year. The IPL was billed as ‘cricketainment’ then, with a heavy Bollywood presence, and desperate attempts at remaining in the news. Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta were as important as the players.

Bowlers were seen as sacrificial lambs; spinners existed to allow batters to swing for sixes and get the commentators excited. The likes of Danny Morrison painted the mundane with the rich colours of their overexcited voices, making up in volume what they lacked in balance.

Adapting

In the second generation, players learnt to adapt. Coaches saw T20 as a format that existed independently. A.B. de Villiers became the 360-degree player, with shots that came into his mind only a moment before he played them. In the middle of the last decade, RCB had the three best batters — Chris Gayle (called the Bradman of T20), ABD (as the adoring Bengalureans called him), and Kohli — after having got it wrong in the beginning with sound, defensive players.

Then a realisation dawned — you can’t pack a team with batters alone. Bowlers came into their own. Mumbai Indians and CSK won thanks as much to their batters as their bowlers’ skill at claiming wickets. An old cliché was recalled: the best way to staunch runs was to take wickets.

The third generation had specialists — those who played only T20 cricket. Experimentation continued, catching near the boundary was raised to miraculous levels. The middle overs now belonged to the spinners, and with tricky wickets around, batters had to be watchful. Leg spinners thrived.

And now here we are — entertainment is barely mentioned, the cricket rises or falls on its own terms. Teenagers are showing the way. The earlier generations — Kohli apart — are looking outdated. The cricket is smoother, more rounded and lacks the sharp and jerky motions of the past.

The fifth generation will be known in retrospect, and will depend on which thread is followed through from here.