Homegrown talents make mark: Talking point

A big plus of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which even its detractors agree, is the big impetus that it provides to the careers of young Indian wannabes from the country's domestic scene. It's been no different this season, with a clutch of new names coming up from nowhere to do their franchises proud at crucial moments.

The likes of opening batsman Mandeep Singh and medium pacer Parvinder Awana (Kings XI Punjab), left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem (Delhi Daredevils) and Debabrata Das (Kolkata Knight Riders) have shown the right temperament to shine even in the company of their illustrious teammates. It's of course premature to say whether all of them can go on to make the big league, but the IPL can at least go a long way in providing cricket as a career option for these youngsters.

Singh and Awana, incidentally, have stood out among this new crop and a closer look reveals that they have played a big hand in helping the Punjab outfit bounce back into the reckoning for a shot at the play-offs. A product of the under-19 Indian team, Singh has outscored teammates like Shaun Marsh and stand-in skipper David Hussey and now figures among the top 10 run-getters of IPL V — a list which looks like a Who's Who of world cricket.

Second crop

Awana, meanwhile, has outshone his senior partner in the new ball attack for King's XI — Praveen Kumar — and the national selectors will do well to keep him on the radar when they sit down to select the squad for Twenty20 World Cup later this year.

The pocket-sized Nadeem, who hails from Mahendra Singh Dhoni's state of Jharkhand, has been a revelation for the in-form Delhi Daredevils. In a bowling line-up heavy on pace, Nadeem provides the variety with his left-arm spin and has shown the heart to bowl in powerplays — picking up eight wickets, with a good economy rate.

In the KKR batting line-up, which boasts the likes of Jacques Kallis, Brendan McCullum and Gautam Gambhir, young Das may not have exactly set the stadium on fire, but he has shown maturity to finish tight matches. In a needle match against Chennai Super Kings at home, Das played a brilliant cameo — cracking 11 off just four balls to give his team a much-needed victory.

This is the second crop of aspiring domestic players which the IPL seems to have thrown up. The first few seasons had names like Ashok Dinda, Wriddhiman Saha, Manish Pandey, Shadab Jakati and Rahul Sharma coming up with the few sparks here and there — with Dinda, Saha and Sharma now keeping a toehold on the bigger stage of international cricket. Let's hope at least a few of the next crop can do one better.