Kolkata: Vaibhav Suryavanshi is just 13. He made his Ranji Trophy debut this year under controversial circumstances when two squads were announced for the same game by the strife-torn Bihar association. But there was no doubt about his talent. Even more after Suryavanshi hit a hundred for India under-19 in September. Now, he is the youngest ever uncapped Indian in IPL auction. When his father Sanjeev spoke to HT just before the Ranji debut, his aim was clear: “Bas ek IPL contract chahiye, zindagi badal jayegi (just an IPL contract and his life will change).”

It remains to be seen if that dream comes true in the next two days. But the pluck required to sign up for the IPL auction this early into his career points to the changing perception of uncapped players for cricketers at the grassroots level. The lure is twofold — a handsome contract that’s easily better than Ranji pay and a chance to audition for the national team. Not all IPL contracts lead to India selection, but that trend has been on the rise for a while.

Take the current Australia tour where Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy have been handed debuts in the Perth Test. Reddy made his domestic debut in 2020 but only after making a splash in the 2024 IPL did his career accelerate. A Delhi pace bowler, Rana’s career is curiously resembling that of Jasprit Bumrah, making his IPL debut before his senior domestic debut, all due to the Kolkata Knight Riders scouting system that picked him as a replacement for Rasikh Salam in 2022.

Bumrah is the original poster boy of this uncapped-player-to-riches story but a steady stream of success stories thereafter built the belief that investing in unknown players could pay off long term. There was Ruturaj Gaikwad, who is the only uncapped Indian to have topped the IPL run charts. And till date, Yash Thakur is the only uncapped Indian to get an IPL five-wicket haul. Not every big payout has made sense. Krunal Pandya was not always bang for the buck given the whopping ₹8.8 crore Mumbai Indians shelled out for him in 2018. Pawan Negi was a dud after Delhi Daredevils bid ₹8.5 crore for him in 2016. Sameer Rizvi could barely justify his ₹8.4 crore tag last year.

Among those mishits emerged a few revelations too. Mayank Yadav became the first player in IPL history to win the Player-of-the-Match award in his first two matches, for Lucknow Super Giants in the 2024 edition. He has played just one first-class match, is extremely injury prone, but can surprise with his pace by repeatedly breaking the 150kph barrier. International debut expectedly came in October, due to a breakout season in IPL as an uncapped player.

Of similar trajectory is Abhishek Sharma’s career, though he has been playing domestic cricket for a longer time. Not until the 2024 edition — he aggregated 484 runs at a stunning strike rate of 204.22 — could Sharma persuade the selectors to give him a chance. His T20I debut came in July, two months after IPL. More incredible is Rahul Tewatia’s story —languishing in IPL for five seasons till he went from 9 off 18 balls to hitting five sixes in the final over to help Rajasthan Royals chase down 224. Two years later, he landed a ₹9 crore bid from the newly formed Gujarat Titans as designated finisher.

That 2022 auction was also indicative of the rising profile of uncapped Indian players, increasing to 98 from 72 in the 2018 auction while the total pool had expanded from 187 to 237 players. Thirteen players landed contracts of ₹4 crore or more in 2022, up from five players in 2018. The number of uncapped players at the minimum salary of ₹20 lakh also rose from 34 in 2018 to 52 in 2022. This time, the uncapped pool alone has a staggering 318 Indian players.

And while a rule change has allowed MS Dhoni, Piyush Chawla, Mohit Sharma, Vijay Shankar and Karun Nair to qualify for lower base salaries, these numbers underscore the eagerness of uncapped players to prove themselves at the highest level while ensuring a more secure financial future.

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