India's strongest under-25 playing XI
IPL has produced some exciting talents in the domestic circuit. It has discovered some skilled players from the small town of India. Since IPL, India has shown some tremendous transformation in the international cricket.
Even though it is played in T20 format, India won the 2011 ODI World cup, rose to No.1 in Tests and became one of the strong contenders for the upcoming 2019 world cup, all thanks to Indian Premier League.
Approximately for almost 2 decades (1990-2010), batting was the main strength of Indian cricket team. But since IPL, India can proudly say that they do not depend on batting anymore. Fielding standards have been grown rapidly.
As Yo-Yo test became mandatory for selection in the team, players are spending valuable time in the Gym. India can now name around 10 fast bowlers who are good enough to play in the First XI of the Indian team. That's the success of Indian Premier League.
IPL helps the Indian youngsters to share the dressing room with world-class players. And half of the players in the Indian line-up gets leadership qualities, as they are leading some of the IPL Franchise. But the greatest success of IPL is its ability to produce youngster with high standards of cricketing skills.
Here is the best possible Under-25 XI of Indian cricket. These players have been picked based on this year IPL performance and recently concluded India's A tour.
Openers: Prithvi Shaw and Sanju Samson
The first opener of this team will be India's under-19 skipper Prithvi Shaw. He had enjoyed a great IPL with Delhi Daredevils after being asked to open in place of Gautam Gambhir. Although he didn't convert his starts into big scores, he played some good knocks. Some of the cricket experts already started comparing him with Sachin Tendulkar. This teenager also played some wonderful knocks in List-A and First Class matches of the recently concluded India A tour of England.
Sanju Samson will partner Prithvi Shaw at the top of the order in this Under-25 side. He is just 23 and he already has some fruitful experience in IPL. This Keralite youngster was in tremendous form in this year IPL and had smashed Chris Woakes and Umesh Yadav out of the park in one of the IPL matches, where he scored century. Even though he was selected in India's A Squad, he missed the series after he failed in the Yo-Yo test. The elegant right handed batsman is one of the many contenders of the India's wicket-keeper position as well.