With the Indian Premier League auction scheduled to be held on December 19, scouts from various teams made a beeline for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy venues in a bid to catch some of the younger and perhaps unknown talents in action.
Players like Amandeep Khare (420 runs, Chhattisgarh), Baba Aparajith (598, Tamil Nadu), Vishnu Vinod (508, Kerala), Roosh Kalaria (21 wickets, Gujarat), who impressed during the Vijay Hazare Trophy, had a chance to stake an even better claim.
Those like Devdutt Padikkal, who already have IPL contracts, made a pitch for regular playing time in the league. The 19-year-old Karnataka opener topped the run-scoring charts in the Vijay Hazare Trophy with 609 runs and he showed that he was in the middle of a purple patch by slamming another 580 runs in the Mushtaq Ali Trophy too.
Also read: The big talking points from Syed Mushtaq Ali T20
On the bowling front, Tamil Nadu’s R Sai Kishore had a standout tournament, claiming 20 wickets at an economy rate of 4.63.
Among the all-rounders, Harshal Patel was in fine form with both bat (374 runs) and ball (19 wickets). Karnataka’s K Gowtham didn’t make it to the top 10 of the charts, but his bowling in the last over of the final would have caught the eye of the scouts as well.
Here’s a look at the numbers:
Top Batsmen (By runs)
| Player | Mat | Runs | HS | Ave | SR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D Padikkal (Karnataka) | 12 | 580 | 122* | 64.44 | 175.75 |
| RD Gaikwad (Maharashtra) | 11 | 419 | 82* | 41.90 | 146.50 |
| SA Yadav (Mumbai) | 11 | 392 | 94* | 56.00 | 168.96 |
| HV Patel (Haryana) | 12 | 374 | 82 | 31.16 | 165.48 |
| AA Waghmode (Baroda) | 10 | 364 | 88 | 45.50 | 153.58 |
| KH Devdhar (Baroda) | 10 | 356 | 64* | 39.55 | 133.33 |
| AP Tare (Mumbai) | 11 | 355 | 82 | 39.44 | 136.01 |
| Virat Singh (Jharkhand) | 10 | 343 | 76* | 57.16 | 142.32 |
| Harpreet Singh (Chhattisgarh) | 7 | 329 | 88* | 65.80 | 146.22 |
| T Kohli (Mizoram) | 7 | 325 | 90 | 54.16 | 117.32 |
| Player | Mat | Wkts | BBI | Ave | Econ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R Sai Kishore (Tamil Nadu) | 12 | 20 | 4/6 | 10.40 | 4.63 |
| S Gopal (Karnataka) | 12 | 19 | 5/19 | 15.00 | 6.78 |
| HV Patel (Haryana) | 12 | 19 | 3/14 | 15.94 | 7.04 |
| DG Nalkande (Vidarbha) | 6 | 16 | 5/18 | 9.93 | 7.33 |
| LI Meriwala (Baroda) | 7 | 16 | 5/21 | 10.68 | 6.33 |
| SS Bachhav (Maharashtra) | 11 | 15 | 2/5 | 18.06 | 6.45 |
| Harpreet Brar (Punjab) | 9 | 14 | 3/31 | 15.92 | 6.89 |
| Mohammed Siraj (Hyderabad) | 7 | 13 | 3/15 | 13.53 | 6.60 |
| A Choudhary (Rajasthan) | 10 | 13 | 3/15 | 15.23 | 6.18 |
| T Natarajan (Tamil Nadu) | 11 | 13 | 3/4 | 16.84 | 5.84 |
All statistics courtesy ESPNCricinfo.
