The Indian Premier League (IPL) is arguably the biggest T20 league in the world and from a player’s perspective, it also happens to be one of the toughest leagues in the world. The quality of cricket in the cash-rich league forces the Indian selectors to consider IPL as a benchmark for selecting players in the Indian team. IPL has been the reason for many players finding a spot in the national squad. While for a few, it has been a reason for their removal as well.
In a number of instances, a lot of Indian cricketers have had a poor IPL season and ended up getting overlooked for the Indian team. One bad IPL season can endanger many players’ spots in the national squad. Let’s take a look at 5 Indian players for whom IPL form is important to stay in Team India:
#5 Washington Sundar
The past few months have been a roller coaster rider of someone like Washington Sundar. After his superb Test debut at the Gabba, he played some phenomenal knocks against England in the recently concluded Test series. He was decent with the ball during the T20I series against England barring a couple of bad spells.
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Ravindra Jadeja is a certainty in the XI and will be expected to replace Sundar in the squad whenever he does come back. Ashwin and Axar’s forms over the last 12 months have been good as well. This means that Washington will need to be at his best during IPL 2021 in order to retain his place in the Indian team.
#4 Kuldeep Yadav
Kuldeep Yadav hasn’t been at his best for a really long time and IPL 2021 might just be his last opportunity. Once known as India’s “spin-wizard”, Kuldeep needs to make the most of this season. Even the best of the best players from various teams struggled to pick him in 2018, but by early 2019 when batsmen started to pick him. He hasn’t been the same bowler since Moeen Ali hit him for 27 runs in an over back in 2019.
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The chinaman wasn’t even a regular for KKR last time around. KKR preferred Varun Chakravarthy over him and the latter came out all guns blazing. Kuldeep was just a pale shadow of himself in the recently concluded ODI series between India and England as well and if he fails in the upcoming IPL season, then his comeback to the Indian team will be doubtful.
