New Delhi, March 20 (IANS) Former India allrounder Irfan Pathan has said that coping with pressure is the defining challenge for young cricketers entering the Indian Premier League (IPL), especially for those carrying hefty price tags.

IPL 2026 will see uncapped Indian players Prashant Veer and Kartik Sharma be under spotlight after Chennai Super Kings (CSK) snapped them for Rs 14 crore each in last year’s auction. “The biggest thing is how you handle pressure. The IPL is a tournament where you can be a hero one day, and fade away the next.

“We’ve seen so many players who earn huge money at an auction, but then don’t perform the following season and don’t even get picked again. I would want to see how a player like Prashant Veer, who has been paid in upwards of ₹14 crore, performs under pressure when given an opportunity.

“Especially in the last four overs, whether he is batting or bowling, when a breakthrough is needed and he is being attacked from both ends, how does he respond in that moment?” said Pathan on JioStar.

He also said part of succeeding in IPL for youngsters earning heavy paydays will be in how they deal with failure and bounce back in future. “If I were part of the management, I would also observe what happens after a player fails under pressure in a few matches.

“How does he regroup, rebuild, and step back onto the field with confidence? Because if I’ve invested such a big amount in a player at the auction, I obviously trust his ability, but along with that, attitude matters a lot too.”

Ex-India opener Aakash Chopra highlighted the off-field distractions that accompany the IPL’s scale for which youngsters are never trained to deal with. “What is truly unique about the IPL is something you don’t experience when playing for your state, or even for India, because there you are surrounded by established superstars you can learn from, whereas here everything feels larger than life.

“For instance, at a franchise like Rajasthan Royals, he might already be the central figure in ad campaigns and shoots, and that can make him feel, ‘I am important.’ It is not temptation, it is simply something you are constantly exposed to, fans, autographs, photos, selfies, and being at the centre of everything.

“The challenge is that players are never really trained to deal with all this. They are trained to play cricket, how to face the ball and handle pressure on the field, but not how to manage these distractions. During the IPL’s eight to nine-week window, this becomes constant and can be overwhelming, so it needs to be handled very carefully,” he added.

–IANS

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