What is the importance of IPL in National selection?

On 26th October, BCCI finally announced the squads that will travel to Australia to play all the three formats of cricket. But the aftertaste that their selection has left is quite bitter. Look, I don’t claim to be an expert - I see an in-form player, I call him an in-form player, I see an out-of-form player, I call him an out-of-form player. And the selections are based on the current forms of players. Quite simple. But this simple concept seems to be out of the grasp of selectors, who seem to change the basis of selection according to the narrative that they wanna tell and the player they wanna select. 

Same has been the case with Axar Patel, who has been nothing but excellent this season, rescuing Delhi Capitals multiple times with the bat and the ball. He’s no big turner of the ball nor does he have any mystery, but he has proved with his accurate bowling that he is as good as any. With the bat, he played a match-winning cameo of 20 off 4 balls to win the game for Delhi. For context, let’s compare Indian spinner Ravindra Jadeja, who has just 4 wickets to his name with an economy of 9.26, with Axar’s 8 crucial wickets at an economy of 6.13. The perfect like for like replacement for Jadeja was available but selectors opted to go with the out of form player.

Other nations have given utmost importance to their leagues, where they have picked players on the basis of their domestic league performances. PSL, BBL, and Vitality Blast - everywhere players who do well regularly find themselves on the national team sheet. While Haider Ali made it into the Pakistan national team after a stellar PSL season,  D'Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake and Ashton Turner are examples of players who have, at least, got the opportunity to wear Australian limited-overs jerseys because of terrific performances in BBL. Talking about Vitality Blast, Tom Banton, Saqib Mahmood, and Matt Parkinson got a direct entry into the England team after they impressed everyone in the league. 

Contrasting to the policies of foreign boards, the BCCI seem to have too many inconsistencies in their selection decision. Sometimes, they look at IPL performances, sometimes they don’t. Then what would be the incentive of a player like SKY or Axar to perform in the nation’s premier league? Is the league just a mean to mint money? Over time, this will only ruin the image and quality of IPL, which players would not give much importance to as it doesn’t help in their selection to the national team. Meanwhile, players who are performing well and deserve a chance will spend most of their time out of the Indian team.