OG T20 league IPL reason behind India’s consecutive World Cup wins: Martin Guptill

Former New Zealand opener Martin Guptill has called IPL the original T20 league in the world and claimed that the tournament has directly played a role in India’s consecutive T20 World Cup wins. India became the first team to defend their T20 World Cup crown at home as they outplayed New Zealand in the final in March.

If one looks at the Indian squad, starting from Suryakumar Yadav, Abhishek Sharma, and all the way to, Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh, are all finds from the IPL. Guptill pointed out to this fact in an exclusive interaction with Sports Today, and said that the tournament has taught the Indian players how to peak during big events.

“I think the IPL definitely has something to play for. I mean, you look at guys like Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, these guys, obviously, Bumrah started out in the IPL as well, and without the IPL these guys, India wouldn’t have had their shot, right?”

“So, you know, it has bred some really exciting players into the game. It’s made India peak at the right times for those last two World Cups.”

“A consistent tournament throughout the year, and then they’ve played consistently well as a team throughout the last few years as well, and they just peaked at the right time, they made the right decisions out in the middle,” said Guptill.

IPL IS OG T20 LEAGUE

IPL came into existence in 2008 and we have seen multiple T20 leagues come up in Pakistan, Australia and South Africa among other countries. They have all followed IPL when it comes to the auction style or even the tournament structure.

Guptill said that IPL has allowed the other leagues to grow

I guess it’s the original one, isn’t it? It’s the very first sort of T20 league that was made. It has grown so many leagues now. It is absolutely massive. It is a billion dollar entity now and that is just huge.”

“I mean, it has taken over the world and I mean a billion people in India, they are always going to get behind the Indian Premier League and that is so hard to compete with. They have got the population, they have got all the money for the broadcasting, they have got everything there.”

Guptill said that he expects IPL to continue being the No.1 T20 league for the next 20 years as well.

“So I just think it is, um, it has been able to develop over, since 2008. It is nearly 20 years, right? And look, it is probably going to be at the forefront for the next 20 years as well. I think it is going to be very hard to compete with the IPL to sort of move ahead of that as the number one,” said Guptill.

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