Ajinkya Rahane is opening in one match. Finn Allen is the next. Sunil Narine promoted to exploit field restrictions. Angkrish Raghuvanshi appears at positions that change based on conditions rather than capability. Rinku Singh is arriving in the middle overs against spinners who have already identified exactly how to dismiss him. This is KKR’s batting […]
Ajinkya Rahane is opening in one match. Finn Allen is the next. Sunil Narine promoted to exploit field restrictions. Angkrish Raghuvanshi appears at positions that change based on conditions rather than capability. Rinku Singh is arriving in the middle overs against spinners who have already identified exactly how to dismiss him. This is KKR’s batting […]
Sanju Samson is already at CSK proving his worth. Ishan Kishan is in the conversation. India’s white-ball setup isn’t holding a space open waiting for Rishabh Pant to rediscover his best form. The selectors watched him return from his accident, supported his recovery, and gave him time. Now they’re watching performances with the same analytical […]
Nicholas Pooran. Aiden Markram. Rishabh Pant. Mitchell Marsh. These are not average IPL players. These are match-winners with individual records that justify their franchise price tags. Lucknow Super Giants have them all in the same eleven and are still producing inconsistent results that a squad of this quality shouldn’t accept. The problem isn’t talent, it’s […]
300-plus runs in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy at a strike rate around 160. An average close to 49 in List A cricket. Batting higher up the order and influencing matches in the first fifteen overs rather than surviving in the last three. Anukul Roy has spent years in the IPL ecosystem, including time at […]
Sanju Samson at his best is one of the most exciting batters in T20 cricket. Sanju Samson at his most Samson, instinctive, aggressive, occasionally reckless, almost always spectacular, is also one of the most nerve-wracking. CSK have built five IPL titles on the exact opposite of reckless. Measured. Structured. Dhoni-calibrated. These are the words that […]
Both captains. Both in their early seasons of T20 leadership. But the comparison stops there. Shreyas Iyer’s Punjab Kings look like a team that has been briefed on every scenario before the toss. Ruturaj Gaikwad’s CSK looks like a team discovering what their plan should have been in real time. The difference isn’t experience; Gaikwad […]
Every returning fast bowler’s story sounds the same until it isn’t. Came back, bowled a few games, broke down again. Kartik Tyagi has been through that cycle. What makes this IPL return different isn’t the fitness bulletin or the domestic performances; it’s what he actually changed during the layoff. His running mechanics were rebuilt from […]
Gujarat Titans defended 160. Not 130. Not 145. One hundred and sixty, a total that requires one or two wickets in the powerplay to create the pressure that makes a modest total feel like a mountain. Prasidh Krishna took wickets when he finally bowled. The problem is when he bowls. Introduced too late. Used in […]
The pattern has already appeared once this season, and it will appear again. Gujarat Titans build a dominant position, the top order fires, the powerplay produces, and the total feels set. Then the middle order arrives and the innings contract. The 45 they should add becomes 25. The 185 becomes 165. The match that felt […]
Five matches. Three wickets. An economy of 9.36. That’s the entire Mumbai Indians chapter of Arjun Tendulkar’s IPL career. Not because he’s not good enough to contribute more, but because he was never going to get the chance to find out at a franchise with Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, and Hardik Pandya occupying the roles […]
Adam Zampa didn’t skip the IPL. The IPL skipped him. He was “not really on the radar”, his words, not a journalist’s characterisation. That admission from one of Australia’s best T20 spinners reveals more about IPL auction dynamics than it does about Zampa’s quality. The IPL prioritises mystery spinners, death-over specialists, and batters who bowl. […]