‘Wise to have them, they can easily make the cut’ - Deep Dasgupta on prospect of including associate players in IPL

The Indian Premier League (IPL) has paved way for a lot of youngsters to display their talent, not just the locals who have benefitted from the domestic circuit, but overseas players too have taken it to their advantage. With the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 ongoing in Australia has already seen impressive performances from players of associate nations like Zimbabwe, Ireland and the Netherlands.

Former India international Deep Dasgupta is of the opinion that the domestic league in India should have atleast ‘one associate player’.

“I think Bas de Leede and Sikandar Raza should be a part of the IPL. It is wise to have at least one associate player in the squad. As we have eight players as overseas, we should extend it to nine and include the one from an associate nation. With this the know-how and the exposure will improve and I’m more than certain that 10 players at least from the associate nations can easily make the cut in the IPL,” said Dasgupta while speaking on 'BatBricks7 presents Run Ki Runneeti' on CricTracker.

"I think this should happen, Bas de Leede has been the highest wicket taker and run-getter for the Netherlands, that’s been his impact. But I want to see Raza and de Leede score against the big teams,” Dasgupta added.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands and Zimbabwe have both put extraordinary show in the first round which earned them a spot in the Super 12 stage. However, the two have not particularly been able to match with the heavyweights in the side keeping aside the Zimbabwe-Pakistan match where the former handed an upset to the Asian giant.

While the two sides go head-to-head in Group 2, the favourites are still Rohit Sharma’s India and Temba Bavuma’s South Africa to make it to the semi-finals. The Dutch and the African nation will thus play for pride in their remaining fixtures that includes the their one-off clash against each other.