IPL's Happy Breeding Grounds

Like past editions, the ongoing season is also witnessing several uncapped players doing well with most of them scouted from various state T20 leagues. Firoz Mirza tries to understand how these state meets have aided IPL scouts

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All of Priyansh Arya (Punjab Kings) or leg-spinner Digvesh Rathi (Lucknow Super Giants), Vipraj Nigam (Delhi Capitals) or all-rounder Aniket Verma (Sunrisers Hyderabad), have one thing in common. They were relatively unknown cricketers outside their respective cricketing circles until they made a mark for their franchises in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL).

Verma, a 23-year-old pace bowling all-rounder from Madhya Pradesh, hadn't played a single representative game at senior level before the auction while Rathi got his T20 debut for Delhi only after being picked up by Lucknow.

No doubt they were talented but they were not considered big enough to attract bidders' attention ahead of the auction. But these cricketers were in high demand when the 2025 mega auction happened in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on November 24 and 25 last year. Of course, a few of them had fared well for their state sides but it was their eye-catching shows in their respective state T20 leagues that made them the sought-after players.

Arya had come into the auction on the back of his strong performance at the Delhi Premier League where he hit six sixes in an over on his way to a century. When his name came up, both Punjab and Royal Challengers Bengaluru went after him before the former managed to snap him for ₹3.80 crore from a base price of ₹30 lakh.