Senior Indian opener Wasim Jaffer feels that IPL is nowadays a more important than Ranji Trophy. He believes Ranji Trophy success can lead a player only to the India A side, but to get into the Indian side, a player needs to perform in IPL too where the best players feature.
The former Mumbai opener and present Vidarbha batsman Jaffer told Superstar, “Nowadays, the challenge for the youngsters is to adapt to all three formats. The IPL is also very important to get into the limelight. No matter how much runs you score in Ranji Trophy, if you are not playing the IPL, it is hard to get noticed.
“It is not like before where you scored 1,000 runs and you are in the reckoning. If you score those many runs, you might only end up playing for India A. But to get into the Indian side, you need a stage like the IPL, where you perform against the best players and get noticed.”
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Jaffer added that IPL is the great platform for the youngsters to understand the bigger stages of the game and also hopes a good future for his nephew Armaan Jaffer, who recently hit a triple century in the 2018/19 Col CK Nayudu Trophy.
The 40-year-old senior first-class cricketer said, “Players like Prithvi (Shaw), Shubman (Gill) have got that stage where they are noticed and they also understand what it takes to perform in the big stage and what more they need to do. I hope that’s what Armaan does.”
After scoring 84 and 45 in the previous game against Rajasthan U-23, the Mumbai U-23 batsman Armaan played a triple-century knock on Friday against Saurashtra U-23 as he remained not out on 300 off 367 balls (26 fours and 10 sixes).
Speaking on Armaan’s present form, his uncle added, “This season, he has started with a bang and that is expected from a good player anyway. Getting straightaway into the side will be hard because Mumbai played so well in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. There are so many young players like Prithvi, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Aditya Tare, Siddhesh Lad, they have got a strong middle-order, so it is going to be hard to break into the side. So, it is better to score big runs at the U-23 tournament and then wait to break into the Ranji Trophy side. I am very happy that he is exactly doing that. That’s the best way to knock on the door.”
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The 20-year-old batsman Armaan recently made his return to the cricket after recovering from the knee injury, which had forced him to miss out the whole last season. Though he was lucky to avoid the surgery, he had to face the one-year rehab which his uncle believes a frustrating situation but needs to understand this important thing.
Wasim Jaffer said, “He is lucky to have avoided a surgery, but his rehab literally took him a year. That’s not easy to take. Sometimes it is upsetting to sit out the whole year and watch contemporaries do well. It can be frustrating but I think he understands that if you are injured, there is not much you can do. All you can do is to undergo rehab and try and return as early as possible. If he can score runs and break into the Ranji squad, all other things like the IPL contract will follow. He needs to be in the Ranji side and establish himself.”
“Unfortunately he did not start his first-class career well. He played three games but could not get many runs. But the injury obviously put him on the back foot. He missed out on first class and U-23 games. He could not get into the IPL auctions. Basically, he missed out on every form of cricket. That was upsetting for a youngster.”
