Marcus Stoinis, the Australia all-rounder has given all the credit to Indian Premier League (IPL) for accelerating the progress of his cricket career ten folds. Stoinis will play for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the 2019 edition of IPL.
However, he has had success with Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) for whom he played 19 matches, scoring 262 runs and taking 13 wickets. “For me, the IPL has literally been career-changing,” Stoinis was quoted as saying by The Age.
Stoinis said, “I first went there to Delhi (Daredevils) about four years ago, I had Gary Kirsten as a coach, I played with guys like Quinton de Kock and Yuvraj Singh. I remember having a beer with AB de Villiers after we played Bangalore.”
“It just opens up a thousand more doors and ideas you didn’t have, things you had never thought of or learned, just the way you thought about the game, Indian conditions, playing spin. People talk about the money, but what it did for my cricket, it’s accelerated my growth tenfold,” Stoinis recalled.
Stoinis also picked former Proteas captain AB de Villiers as the best in the business along with Jacques Kallis.
“I was about 24 or 25 at the time and AB was at his absolute peak and someone who I think is the best cricketer. In my eyes, it’s him and Jacques Kallis. AB’s stats might not have been as good in terms of averages, but the way he took the game forward, his innovations, all those things, they can’t be measured on an Excel spreadsheet,” he said.
“AB and Virat will be the two I’ll be spending my time with and getting as much gold as I can from them in terms of knowledge,” Stoinis said about moving to RCB.
Stoinis was included in the Australian Test squad for the two-match Sri Lanka series and is hopeful of making his Test debut in the Ashes 2019.
“The way I see it, it’s been a lifelong dream to play Test cricket for Australia, especially in an Ashes series. I feel like hopefully, the stars are aligning in terms of me making my debut against England in their home series after a World Cup. It would be pretty special. But that’s getting ahead of myself,” he said.
(inputs from cricketcountry.com)
