Three separate decisions. All wrong. All avoidable. Opening with Gaikwad and Samson created the wrong powerplay combination for swing conditions. Selecting four seamers on a surface that rewarded spin produced a bowling imbalance that RR exploited immediately. Shot selection under pressure confirmed that CSK’s batting plan had no contingency for early wickets. Any one of […]
Three separate decisions. All wrong. All avoidable. Opening with Gaikwad and Samson created the wrong powerplay combination for swing conditions. Selecting four seamers on a surface that rewarded spin produced a bowling imbalance that RR exploited immediately. Shot selection under pressure confirmed that CSK’s batting plan had no contingency for early wickets. Any one of […]
Shubman Gill getting out cheaply is a normal T20 event. It happens. Against quality bowling, on early-movement surfaces, to exceptional deliveries. The problem for the Gujarat Titans isn’t that Gill gets dismissed; it’s what happens to the rest of their innings when he does. Their middle order has a structural gap where Sherfane Rutherford’s finishing […]
Varun Chakaravarthy bowled four overs. He took zero wickets and conceded 48 runs. Rohit Sharma attacked him in the power play before the spell had found its rhythm. KKR failed to defend 220. None of that is the real story. The real story is that Rohit didn’t look confused, didn’t look tentative, and didn’t misread […]
Rajasthan Royals have reached the IPL finals before. They haven’t won the title. The difference between those two outcomes has historically been finishing power, spin bowling quality, and squad depth at the back end of the batting order, three specific weaknesses that previous RR campaigns carried into knockout cricket and paid for. The 2026 squad […]
Rohit Sharma scored 78 off 38 balls in a chase of 220 against the Kolkata Knight Riders. Six fours. Six sixes. A strike rate that crossed 200 once he was set. It wasn’t a power hitter’s innings; it was a tactician’s innings executed with a power hitter’s results. Former cricketers watched it, and each noticed […]
Josh Hazlewood is 196cm. Reece Topley is 203cm. Kyle Jamieson is 204cm. Royal Challengers Bengaluru didn’t select three of the tallest fast bowlers in world cricket by accident. Their selection criteria have a specific logic: height produces a steeper release angle, a steeper release angle produces extra bounce, and extra bounce on Indian surfaces produces […]
Five players. All past 35. All are still starting for their franchises based on performance rather than sentiment. MS Dhoni is 44 and closing T20 innings for Chennai Super Kings. Rohit Sharma is approaching 39 and anchoring the Mumbai Indians’ powerplay with refined shot selection. Sunil Narine has 192 IPL wickets and is still the […]
MS Dhoni is out early, and the conversation about the replacement immediately focuses on wicketkeeping and batting. Both are the wrong conversation to start with. The real loss isn’t behind the stumps, and it isn’t in the lower order. It’s the twenty years of reading T20 matches that Dhoni brings to every tactical decision from […]
Virat Kohli’s most dangerous batting phase in his current form is the one that looks like it isn’t working. The first eight to twelve deliveries, assessed, blocked, rotated, and occasionally deflected, appear to be the innings of someone finding their timing. They’re not. They’re the innings of someone who has spent fifteen years of T20 […]
Ryan Rickelton replaced Quinton de Kock in South Africa’s opening position. The conversation immediately became about which batter is better, which is the wrong question. De Kock’s career numbers against spin, his international record, and his wicketkeeping flexibility none of it is in dispute. What’s in dispute is which player is ready to open right […]
The Mumbai Indians have won five IPL titles. Each one was built on the same foundation: a settled Indian core carrying the batting, a pace attack with Bumrah at the end, and enough overseas quality to cover the positions the Indian core can’t. The version heading into this season has the strongest Indian core MI […]