15-yr-old Kabul spinner, 48-yr-old father of two: IPL 2020 auction’s youngest and oldest cricketers
Both spinners will go under the hammer at the IPL 2020 auctions on Thursday in Kolkata. Lakanwal is the youngest player on the auction list, Tambe the oldest.
Noor Ahmad Lakanwal is a left-arm wrist spinner from Kabul. He is a few days shy of his 15th birthday, but already has the cricket fraternity in Afghanistan excited about his skills.
Pravin Tambe is 48, a father of two, and a leg-spinner from Mumbai who is something of a legend in local club cricket.
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What do the two have in common?
Both spinners will go under the hammer at the IPL 2020 auctions on Thursday in Kolkata. Lakanwal is the youngest player on the auction list, Tambe the oldest.
When it comes to age, Tambe is already an IPL pioneer; he made it straight to the T20 league without ever playing first class cricket in 2013, and became the oldest player in the IPL back then at 41. Then he picked up a bunch of wickets, including a hat-trick, and found himself in the limelight.
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“I didn’t think about it…that I am 48…until you reminded me,” Tambe said. “That’s my approach. I am just as excited about the auctions as every other cricketer on the list.”
Behind the discovery of both players, there’s Rajasthan Royals. It was a Royals scout who plucked Tambe from obscurity and into the team in 2013. This year, Royals invited Lakanwal for a trial camp to assess him closely. “I am very excited because the IPL is the best league in the world and there will be many big names involved,” Lakanwal said over the phone from Kabul. “But I am also trying to keep my feet on the ground and not get too distracted by it as I have a long future in this game to achieve these things.”
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He may have a long future ahead of him, but right now things are moving quickly for the slow bowler. The Kabul boy has been fast-tracked into the Afghanistan team for the U19 World Cup scheduled in South Africa next month. That came on the back of a nine-wicket haul at the U19 Asia Cup in September.
Royal scouting
Rajasthan Royals have a reputation for thinking out of the box and forging the careers of unknown players, but the likelihood of them going for both players at this auction is slim. Yet, as T20 strategy has evolved, other franchises have also begun to see the benefits of left field choices.
If more than two teams are interested and there is a bidding battle, Tambe or Lakanwala’s prize could shoot up.
“It would be great!” Lakanwal said, laughing. “But right now I am not worrying too much about these things.”
If Lakanwal is just starting out, Tambe is looking to continue his late surge.
“I can sprint, I can field well, I was the highest wicket-taker in Kanga league (a popular Mumbai cricket club competition) this time,” he said. “The way I look at it, I have only played four seasons of IPL so far.”
Tambe has hit a bit of a roadblock since his stellar debut. In 2017, he was picked up by Sunrisers Hyderabad, but did not play a game. In the 2018 auctions, he went unsold.
Tambe came back with a T10 hat-trick in 2018—Eoin Morgan, Kieron Pollard, Fabian Allen—to serve a reminder.
Now here he is again, hoping for another chance to let it rip.
