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 […]
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 […]
Mohammed Siraj swings the new ball. Rashid Khan anchors the middle overs. Kagiso Rabada closes the innings out. Gujarat Titans have three genuine class bowlers and enough supporting options to build three meaningfully different combinations around them. The question isn’t whether GT has enough bowling quality; they clearly do. The question is which combination suits […]
Punjab Kings’ bowling plan starts with two non-negotiable selections and builds everything else around them. Arshdeep Singh owns the powerplay and the death overs. His left arm angle, yorker accuracy, and ability to generate swing in the first three overs make him the attack’s anchor at both ends of an innings. Yuzvendra Chahal owns the […]
Five teenagers. Five franchises. Five genuinely different profiles. Vaibhav Suryavanshi scored 252 runs in seven matches last season at a strike rate above 200 and is the clearest candidate to contribute immediately. Ayush Mhatre brings technical stability that most players his age can’t match. Sahil Parakh has the domestic form to justify his place in […]
Japan doesn’t have professional cricket. It doesn’t have Test status, a major domestic structure, or a history of producing players the world has heard of. What it has is a functioning T20 league at the Sano International Cricket Ground, a draft system, retained players, and in 2026, a format compact enough to concentrate genuine competitive […]
Sanju Samson scored 321 runs in five T20 World Cup innings at a strike rate of 199.37. Three consecutive scores, 97 not out, 89, and 89. That’s not a player in form. That’s a player in the form of his career. Chennai Super Kings watched their powerplay run rate stall around seven to eight per […]