IPL reaping rewards for India

One of the key motivations for wealthy Indian businessmen to create the Indian Premier League was to establish an environment where more young Indian players were exposed to international cricket and the best players in the world.

They are starting to see the fruits of this now.

The likes of Virat Kohli have grown up in the IPL and see themselves as peers with the best in the world, rather than worshipping the ground they walk on. They are no longer the culturally shy Asian cricketers of years past.

The Indian batsmen have more than done their job in this series against Australia, scoring more than 400 in every first innings to date.

What is more amazing is that Virat Kohli was the only batsman to tour here in 2011. The team at the time was full of legends such as Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, and Sachin Tendulkar.

But this is a better performed group, and they could be on the cusp of an even better period.

As individuals and a team they seem to have learnt how to fight. They haven’t been able to turn that into victory yet, but they will be even better prepared next time around.

In football codes, they say ‘you have to lose a grand final to win one’, and in many sports you can see the lessons learnt in tough losses lead to future champion sides. This is what we are witnessing with the Indian cricket team.

Yes, they would love to have the pace depth that Australia have, but for them to come to Australian pitches and do what they have done with such a young team, inexperienced in Australian conditions, they are looking great for the future.

Australia should be very wary come 2018.