`TML is huge platform for city cricketers to impress IPL scouts`: Nayar

Kolkata Knight Riders’s assistant coach and Mumbai South Central Maratha Royals’s mentor Abhishek Nayar feels that the upcoming T20 Mumbai League [TML] will be a challenge to the city’s young cricketing talent as they will be up against India stars like Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer and Shivam Dube besides other accomplished players. However, the former Team India assistant coach also believes the league is a huge opportunity for them to impress national selectors as well as talent scouts of IPL franchises.  

“The [TML] league provides an opportunity because now you’re going to play against the best. So, when you perform, people will take notice. It’s an unbelievable platform for guys to put their hat in the ring and say, ‘listen, I’m good enough to play in the IPL. I’m good enough to absorb pressure and then perform under pressure’,” Nayar told Sunday mid-day ahead of the third edition of the TML, starting on June 4. He was speaking on the sidelines of one of TML’s franchises, Maratha Royals’s practice game at the Dadoji Konddev Stadium in Thane on Saturday.

“I just look at this whole league [in a way that is] more than winning and losing, like a great platform for, hopefully, some players to emerge and then go on to play for India and play in the IPL, who otherwise won’t get that opportunity,” Nayar said.

Nayar, 41, a former Mumbai captain, felt that handling pressure at the highest level is not a big deal if a player’s awareness to counter the situation is up to the mark. “You realise why people keep talking about this [pressure] when you reach a certain level, it’s what goes on between your ears. Handling pressure is one thing, but for me, the most important thing in T20 is the amount of awareness you have. Pressure is created when there’s no awareness. When there’s awareness in your brain, pressure can be handled. For me, it’s more about how much awareness you have around the pressure that results. Shreyas and all these guys can handle pressure because they’re aware of what to do in a pressure situation,” Nayar added.

This article first appeared on Mid Day