IPL T20 League Original Reason Behind India's Back-to-back World Cup Wins: Guptill

Former New Zealand opener Martin Guptill called the IPL the world’s original T20 league and claimed that the tournament directly played a role in India’s back-to-back T20 World Cup wins. India became the first team to defend their World T20 title at home when they beat New Zealand in the final in March.

When one looks at the Indian squadstarting from Suryakumar Yadav, Abhishek Sharma to Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh, these are all IPL finds. Pointing this out in an exclusive interaction with Sports Today, Guptill said the tournament has taught Indian players how to peak during big events.

“I think the IPL definitely has something to play for. I mean, you look at people like Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, these guys, of course, Bumrah also started in the IPL, and without the IPL, these guys wouldn’t have had a chance, right?”

“So, you know, it’s brought some really exciting players into the game. It’s made India peak at the right time for the last two World Cups.”

“A consistent tournament all year, and then they’ve played consistently well as a team in the last few years as well, and they’ve just peaked at the right time, made the right decisions in the middle,” Guptill said.

IPL IS THE OG T20 LEAGUE

IPL came into existence in 2008 and we have seen several T20 leagues in Pakistan, Australia and South Africa among others. All followed the IPL in terms of auction style or even tournament structure.

Guptill said the IPL has allowed other leagues to grow

It’s probably the original, isn’t it? It is the very first type of T20 league to be produced. Now it has grown so many leagues. It is absolutely massive. Now it’s a billion-dollar entity, and that’s just huge.”

“I mean it’s taken over the world and by that I mean a billion people in India, they always get behind the Indian Premier League and it’s so hard to compete with that. They’ve got the population, they’ve got all the broadcasting money, they’ve got everything there.”

Guptill said he expects the IPL to continue to be the number one T20 for the next 20 years.

“So I just think it’s, um, it’s been able to develop since 2008. It’s almost 20 years, right? And look, it’s probably going to be in the forefront for another 20 years. I think it’s going to be very difficult to compete with the IPL to move as number one,” Guptill said.

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Published on:

22 May 2026 22:24 IST

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