A few months ago, when Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar excused themselves from the Twenty20 World Cup, it appeared that India might just be heading towards humiliation. They had lost the ODI World Cup earlier last year, with all their greats present, so what could youth alone do without experience?

In the event, India won the Twenty20 World Cup. They made a similar decision before the Commonwealth Bank Series in Australia this year, dropping Ganguly and Dravid - again, the side won the tournament.

And now, in the Indian Premier League, we have just seen just why those two decisions were sensible ones. India abounds with young talent. Beyond the men who won us that T20 World Cup and the Commonwealth Bank Series, we have discovered players we had never even heard of before. Many of them are clear India prospects.

At the same time, we have watched some of our stalwarts suffer. Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly have tried valiantly to assert themselves in this form of the game, and have had some success, but they haven't, so far, shown the same comfort in T20 cricket as they have in other forms. Even when Dravid, in a superb losing effort against Kings XI Punjab a couple of days ago, struck VRV Singh for a classy six over extra-cover, there wasn't a sense of injustice at his exclusion from the shorter forms of the game. Instead, there was poignancy. What a player Dravid has been, what service he has provided for Indian cricket - one almost wishes he could be above all this.

The Young Ones

Everyone thought that the Chennai Super Kings' stand-out performer would be their most expensive player, MS Dhoni. Instead, it's MS Gony who has impressed. Gony plays in the Ranji Trophy for Punjab, but wasn't picked by Kings XI Punjab for the IPL. Chennai picked him instead, and, at the time of writing, he's fourth in the IPL wicket-takers list.

The man looks like a fast bowler. With all due respect to Ajit Agarkar and RP Singh, when you start sprinting in to bowl, you want to be imposing. You don't want a batsman, dashing for a quick single, to even contemplate the option of crashing into you. Indeed, if Harbhjan Singh ever slaps you, you want him to bounce off and miss ten matches because of a broken hand.

Besides looking the part, Gony bowls the part: he has pace and accuracy, he generates good bounce, and he seems to put a bit of thought into his bowling. He is a big find from the IPL, and c Dhoni b Gony may well be a feature of international scorecards soon.

Gony will have competition from other new faces. Vijaykumar Yo Mahesh has been a revelation for the Delhi Daredevils, coming on to bowl after Glenn McGrath and Mohammad Asif have shown their mojo, and more than holding his own. Ashok Dinda of the Kolkata Knight Riders has elicited words of praise from Ricky Ponting, and has bowled at an economy rate of 5.9 so far - the best among bowlers with five wickets or more. Among the spinners, Piyush Chawla, for long on the fringes of the national side, has been a revelation with both bat and ball, and Pragyan Ojha has shown immense promise.

Other peripheral players who have seized their moment in the spotlight include Shikhar Dhawan, Abhishek Nayar and Ravindra Jadeja, while Prasanta Saha, Mahesh Rawat and Uday Kaul have been impressive behind the stumps. Before the IPL I assumed that if MS Dhoni had a bad run, Dinesh Karthik was the only serious option we had, and we'd have to keep rotating between these two. That is no longer the case - Saha, especially, seems to be a hell of a batsman as well. While there is no pressure on Dhoni's place at the moment, competition is good.

Competition

Before the IPL, every player effectively had just one buyer for his services. If Punjab, for example, was to ignore Manpreet Singh Gony, the procedure of playing for another state would be cumbersome, and he'd face local politics there as well. That is no longer the case, as talent can cross state borders much more easily, as Gony's case demonstrates.

Similarly, the IPL provides greater opportunities to players from lesser states. Consider Swapnil Asnodkar, ignored before this because he plays for Goa, who made a stirring 60 on debut for the Rajasthan Royals. Asnodkar may not be an India prospect, but his journey should inspire other players from small states. The fierce competition between the IPL franchises guarantees that they are constantly hunting for new talent, which improves the prospects of men like Asnodkar. The profit motive of the IPL teams has a far better shot at unearthing new talent than the best intentions of the BCCI selectors. So hurray for the IPL, because of which we now greedily eye an abundance of riches from which future Indian teams will be chosen.

Amit Varma writes the blog India Uncut.