IPL brought unknown players to Indian Cricket team: Sehwag

New Delhi: The 2018 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is less than three months away and everyone seems to be quite excited about the eleventh edition. The cash-rich league in the past ten seasons has been well known to bring unknown talent to the limelight.

Likes of Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Siraj and Rishabh Pant were able to make their place in the national team based on their performance in the IPL.

This time too, along with franchises, former players and cricket pundits are looking forward to the bunch of new talent.

Former explosive opener Virender Sehwag praised the concept of IPL and rated it as one of the best platforms in Indian cricket. Sehwag also mentioned that IPL fast-tracked the less known talent to the Indian dressing room.

"I think what the IPL did to the Indian cricket is that it gave unknown players to the Indian cricket team. If they play for their first class team, they will take at least five to six years to come and play for India. "But through the IPL, those players, who have talent and who did well - they just did well in one season and next year they were part of team India, that is what IPL did," Sehwag told PTI.

The 39-year-old also stated that the league has been one of the biggest and has attracted cricketers from around the world.

“A single player, who is playing cricket, anywhere in the world, wants to play in the IPL. So that shows that the credibility and publicity of the IPL is so big that even an uncapped player, who is a player of some other country, wants to play in the IPL."

The first encounter of the 2018 edition between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings is scheduled to take place on 5^th April at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.