The IPL tournament came to an end last night and the talents we housed are geared up to make us proud by playing for their respective national sides. It’s no secret that the IPL is one of the scouting ground for selectors looking for players with specific skill sets. It becomes easy to assess a young talent’s caliber while watching him play competitive cricket with the best players in world cricket. Many of our players have been picked up by the Indian National Team over the years – Jasprit Bumrah, Ambati Rayudu, Hardik Pandya to name a few. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) recently released the squads that will play for Team India in the upcoming India tour of Zimbabwe in June-July 2016. Ambati Rayudu and Jasprit Bumrah are on the 16 man list that will head over to take on the Zimbabweans. The skipper, Rohit Sharma has been rested for the series.

Rayudu has amassed 334 runs at a strike rate of 120.14 in the 13 matches he played this season. He has been a key player for India right from the days when he was the U-19 captain in 2004. In fact, he led India to the ICC U-19 World cup semifinal in 2004. Ambati made his Team India debut in an ODI series in Zimbabwe in 2013, scoring an unbeaten 63. In 2015, he scored 124* off 133 balls in the 1st ODI against the same opposition. The upcoming tour is a great opportunity for our Mr. Dependable to continue his good form and try to cement his place in the Indian team for the future series.

The selectors have also selected Jasprit Bumrah, who with his unorthodox action, featured in all 14 matches this season and collected 15 scalps in total with an economy of 7.80. To top this he had four 3 wicket spells in IPL 9. After proving himself in India’s tour of Australia and finishing as the highest wicket-taker in the tour, he earned himself a place in India’s squad for the 2016 World T20 that took place in March – April. It’s safe to say that Boom has established himself as a bowler to reckon with both, in the International and domestic circuit.

Kieron Pollard too is picked for the first four Tri-Series matches by West Indies after a break from International cricket due to a knee injury he suffered last November. He announced his return to form with a typical Pollard innings vs KKR during IPL 9. Batting in the middle order for us, he smacked 11 fours and 16 sixes over the course of 12 innings. Another MI player selected to play for West Indies in the upcoming series is Jerome Taylor. He was part of the West Indies squad that won the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 and his time with MI helped him to further up his game.

It’s a pleasure seeing our players and young talents getting opportunities to do wonders for their national team and the players themselves will surely look to do incredible things in the games to come.