Indian youth to accompany IPL sides to the UAE as exclusive 'net bowlers'

The upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League, which is set to take place from September 19 in the United Arab Emirates, might throw up an unprecedented yet golden opportunity for some of India’s promising young bowlers. At least 50 of them might travel with the various IPL franchises as “net bowlers”.

Normally, local bowlers cater to the needs of the IPL players during net sessions. However, this year, the bio-security protocols agreed upon by the stakeholders will demand that the different franchises carry the young prodigies with them as part of the bio-bubble.

As of now three franchises – Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Capitals – have confirmed they are preparing a list, ranging from fast bowlers to spinners, from first-class cricketers to age-group players, from the U-19 state-level cricketers to those from the U-23 setups.

Chennai Super Kings CEO Kashi Vishwanathan told PTI on Tuesday:

"If all goes well, we are planning to take around 10 bowlers exclusively to UAE for the practice sessions. They will be accompanying the team and will remain till the tournament starts."

The Kolkata Knight Riders also confirmed that they are preparing a roster of 10 net bowlers, who are most probably set to be pitchforked into the fray by former Mumbai captain and academy coach Abhishek Nayar.

The Delhi Capitals will also include around six such bowlers in their bio-bubble. Next up are the Rajasthan Royals and the Royal Challengers Bangalore, who are on the verge of preparing a similar list out of the bowlers in their respective academies.

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While the BCCI has set the upper limit of the squad size at 24, they have not laid down any such restrictions for the contingent volume, which will, of course, vary from one IPL franchise to another.

It will be a great learning curve for the young guns, who will get to bowl to the likes of Virat Kohli, Andre Russell, MS Dhoni for close to 30 days.

Regarding the importance of spinners, a talent scout said:

"On slow Dubai tracks, it will be important that teams stack up their line-up with more spinners especially for humid conditions. You will see a lot of left-arm spinners and wrist spinners who have played a decent level cricket being included apart from the pacers."