KXIP wonder kids and their 15 minutes of fame!
The Kings XI Punjab have had a roller coaster ride in the IPL over the last five years as their position on the points table has fluctuated from being second (in 2008) to being the wooden spoon holder (in 2010). But one thing that the Punjab team has been consistent with, is the regularity with which they have thrown up young names who have caught the imagination of the IPL fraternity. Though none of them have been able to graduate and make a mark at the international level, their exploits in the IPL are worth a mention.
In the inaugural season in 2008, it was Australia’s Shaun Marsh whose consistent performance forced everyone to take notice of this dashing left- hander. Brought in at the insistence of his former Western Australia coach Tom Moody, Marsh, after sitting out in the opening four games, finally broke into the playing XI as countryman Simon Katich had to leave for national duty. Since then there was no looking back for Marsh as he racked up 616 runs in just 11 games, with the help of five half centuries and one century, at an average of 68.44 to earn the orange cap by a fair distance (Gautam Gambhir with 534 runs was second on the list). Opening the batting for KXIP, Marsh proved that the shortest version of the game can be conquered with conventional stroke play as well.
Immediately after the tournament, he broke into the Australian ODI and Twenty20 National squad before making his test debut against Sri Lanka last year. But consistency eluded him at the international stage as after a superb start he struggled to continue in the same vein. After a horrible summer at home last season, Marsh now finds him sidelined from the national side.
In the second edition, IPL moved to South Africa and KXIP continued to unearth hidden talents there. After a freak injury to West Indies paceman Jerome Taylor, the franchise was forced to look for replacement and thus South Africa’s Yusuf Abdulla got an IPL contract. The leftarm pacer, brought in for just $50000, proved to be quite a steal as he finished with 14 scalps in just 9 games at a brilliant average of 17.21. In fact, at one point of time he was the front runner in the race for the purple cap. Armed with a very well disguised slower ball, he developed a reputation of being one of the best death over bowlers in the competition.
Though his career got fast tracked by his showing in the IPL, he couldn’t replicate the success at the bigger stage. He was included in the South African squad for the Twenty20 World Cup in 2009 but didn’t get a game in the tournament. In the only two Twenty20 internationals that he played, he managed just two wickets and since then has been struggling to get himself noticed.
After a disastrous campaign in 2010 that saw them finish at the last spot, KXIP had another unknown customer performing for them in 2011. With a nondescript career with hardly any top flight cricket to boast of, Paul Valthaty, came out of nowhere to finish with 463 runs and hogged the limelight for most of the fourth edition of IPL. His innings of 120 from just 63 balls, incidentally the first century of the season, helped his side go past a challenging target of 190 set by the Chennai Super Kings. He followed it with a belligerent 75 and picked up four wickets with the ball to set up another victory against Deccan Chargers.
His ability to strike the ball cleanly earned him many admirers and it seemed that a spot in the Indian lineup wasn’t far away. But since then the script has gone horribly wrong for Valthaty. Though he soon got to play first class cricket but his performance was hardly inspiring. Even in the current IPL season, he looked very insipid before he hit the nadir and was dropped from the playing XI.
Continuing the trend this season is twenty year old youngster from Punjab, Mandeep Singh. Singh, who has also played for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the past, has come of age this season and with 359 runs from 12 games and he is the current top run getter for Kings XI Punjab. Along with his aggression at the top of the order, his mature shot selection has also impressed the pundits. In his recent knock of 75 at Hyderabad, he showed great deal of responsibility and batted till the sixteenth over to set up a match winning total for his side.
His exploits in the current IPL edition will no doubt bring his career to the fast lane and that is where his real test will begin. Singh, a former India-under 19 vice captain, will have a tougher task of sustaining his success at the higher level and ensure that he too doesn’t follow the likes of Abdulla and Valthaty into wilderness. If the statistics of his short domestic career in the four day version is any thing to go by (1074 runs at an average of 63.17), he has a wealth of potential and only needs to channel his energies in the right direction.