Test match-esque IPL 11 craving. Wait, what?

Let me put it out there at the outset. I love the IPL! There are no two ways about that. Fabricated or not, there’s no denying that you get to see some of the finest pieces of cricket in abundance over the course of 50 days. For a cricket fan, the IPL is gold! But as they say, nothing is perfect, and this tournament is far from perfect. Keeping all the moral issues aside because I’d like to conveniently ignore them anyway, one of the problems with the IPL has always been the uneven contest between bat and ball, and it’s quite obvious who gets the raw end of the deal here.

Over the last 3 years or so, I have come to realize that I love the “purest” form of the game by a long margin, owing to some nail-biting, pulsating, riveting, and (insert adjective of your choice) test match cricket. I have also come to realize that I love the longest form of the game for reasons more than one, and one of those is the equal contest between bat and ball. Of course, they do have their fair share of unfair contests, but more recently, test matches have proved why cricket is meant to be a fair contest between the two Bs of the game that we so love.

So, as the 11^th edition of the Indian Premier League beckons, I’m extrapolating my love for test cricket and one of the many reasons I love it to my balm of excitement. One of my wishes this year is to see some parity in the battle between ‘balla’ and ‘gend’, in addition to my 11^th straight wish in a row of seeing KKR lift the trophy (I just had to slip in my favorite team somewhere). But how is the IPL going to attain the parity that I wish to see this year? I don't have an answer.

The big blow has already come in the form of the two best bowlers in the world getting ruled out the tournament even before it begins. Mitchell Stark and Kagiso Rabada gave it their all in their recently concluded “sandpaper” series. They gave so much, that they ruled themselves out of the IPL. Having said that, I think there are enough and more out there who can ensure that we see a test match-esque IPL this year, keeping all the quintessential elements of T20 cricket intact. Did I actually say test match-esque?