 "Why players from top 2 IPL 2024 teams failed to make India's WC main squad?")
With IPL 2024 reaching its business end, the focus will be shifted to the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 in the coming days. Indian captain Rohit Sharma, along with his deputy Hardik Pandya, is expected to leave for the showpiece on Saturday, May 25, according to various media reports.
While English players left the IPL 2024 early due to their national commitment against Pakistan, the Indian players, whose team qualified for playoffs, are set to take the plane for the US after the conclusion of the IPL on May 26.
However, only one Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) player, the team that finished at the top of the points table, will board the plane for the US.
In a conversation with R Ashwin on his YouTube channel, KKR mentor Gautam Gambhir highlighted that national team selection for T20 Internationals should be based on IPL performances.
"India's T20I side should be selected from IPL performances given the quality of cricket in the league has improved significantly," Gambhir said.
"For the 50-over format, it should be selected from Vijay Hazare, and your Test side should be selected from your first-class cricket, red-ball cricket. As simple as that. Suppose you start selecting people for the 50-over format or red-ball cricket from an IPL competition. In that case, you are making a lot of shortcuts for a lot of these young players to not focus on red-ball cricket or the 50-over format, and you are walking on the edge," said Gambhir, whom BCCI reportedly approached for India's head coach job.
Also read: From Dhoni to Kohli, why skippers prefer their IPL boys in national team
Also read: From Dhoni to Kohli, why skippers prefer their IPL boys in national team
Notably, no players from IPL 2024 top two teams, KKR and SRH, have found a place in India's main squad for the T20 World Cup. But from Mumbai Indians, who finished at the bottom of the IPL 2024 points table, have four players in India squad for T20 World Cup.
So why did only one player, Rinku Singh, make it to India's squad for KKR?
In the press conference, India chief selector Ajit Agarkar said that Rinku was very unfortunate for not finding a place in India's main squad for T20 World Cup 2024.
Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma said that he made the squad combination for the World Cup before the IPL started.
"We nearly made our squad combination before the IPL began (in March). There is nobody new coming into the squad, and a lot of our players have been playing T20s before the IPL. We just had to fill in some gaps and that’s where the IPL has helped us. We knew our core group and only made a few additions," Rohit said in a press conference on May 2.
In a podcast show, India's captain said that the impact player rule was not beneficial for Indian cricket.
"I am not a big fan of the Impact sub-rule. It is going to hold all-rounders back. Eventually, cricket is played by 11 players, not 12 players. You are taking out so much from the game to make it entertaining for people around. If you look just from the cricketing aspect of it, I feel guys like Shivam Dube and Washington Sundar aren't getting to bowl, which for us is not a good thing," Rohit had said on the 'Club Prairie Fire' podcast.
So how many players from each IPL team made it to India's main squad for the T20 World Cup?
| IPL teams | Number of players | Player name |
| KKR | None | Rinku Singh as travelling reserve |
| SRH | None | Nil |
| Rajasthan Royals | 3 | Yashasvi Jaiswal (batter), Sanju Samson (wicketkeeper), Yuzvendra Chahal (bowler), Avesh Khan (travelling reserve) |
| Royal Challengers Bengaluru | 2 | Virat Kohli (batter), Mohammed Siraj (bowler) |
| Chennai Super Kings | 2 | Shivam Dube (all-rounder), Ravindra Jadeja (all-rounder) |
| Delhi Capitals | 3 | Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Axar Patel (all-rounder), Kuldeep Yadav (bowler), Khaleel Ahmed (travelling reserve) |
| Lucknow Super Gianst | 0 | Nil |
| Gujarat Titans | 0 | Shubman Gill (travelling reserve) |
| Punjab Kings | 1 | Arshdeep Singh (bowler) |
| Mumbai Indians | 4 | Rohit Sharma (batter), Hardik Pandya (all-rounder), Suryakumar Yadav (batter), Jasprit Bumrah (bowler) |
Who are the standout performers for KKR and SRH in IPL 2024?
Kolkata and Hyderabad ended the league phase as the top two teams on the IPL 2024 points table due to some fiery performances from their batters.
While Phil Salt and Sunil Narine have been the prime performers for KKR, SRH has the likes of uncapped Indian player Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head at the top.
Varun Chakaravarthy has been the other KKR bowler who stemmed the run flow with his mystery spin, but Indian team management has parted ways with the Tamil Nadu bowler after his lacklustre performance in the ICC T20 World Cup 2021, when team selection was done based on IPL performance.
Varun Chakaravarthy's performance in IPL
| Varun Chakaravarthy IPL stats | ||||||||||
| YEAR | MAT | BALLS | RUNS | WKTS | BBM | AVE | ECON | SR | 4W | 5W |
| Career | 69 | 1552 | 1967 | 80 | 5/20 | 24.59 | 7.6 | 19.4 | 1 | 1 |
| 2024 | 13 | 264 | 367 | 18 | 3/16 | 20.39 | 8.34 | 14.67 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | 14 | 316 | 429 | 20 | 4/15 | 21.45 | 8.15 | 15.8 | 1 | 0 |
| 2022 | 11 | 234 | 332 | 6 | 1/22 | 55.33 | 8.51 | 39 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | 17 | 408 | 448 | 18 | 3/13 | 24.88 | 6.58 | 22.66 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | 13 | 312 | 356 | 17 | 5/20 | 20.94 | 6.84 | 18.35 | 0 | 1 |
| 2019 | 1 | 18 | 35 | 1 | 1/35 | 35 | 11.66 | 18 | 0 | 0 |
Varun Chakaravarthy's performance in ICC T20 World Cup 2021
stats: Howstat
Varun Chakaravarthy's performance in T20Is| Matches | Overs | Maiden | Runs | Wickets | 4w | Best | |
| 2021 ICC T20 World Cup | 3 | 11 | 0 | 71 | 0 | 0 | 0/15 |
| FORMAT | Mat | Inns | Balls | Runs | Wkts | BBI | BBM | Ave | Econ | SR |
| T20Is | 6 | 6 | 135 | 132 | 2 | 1/18 | 1/18 | 66 | 5.86 | 67.5 |