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. […]
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. […]
Shreyas Iyer. Marcus Stoinis. Arshdeep Singh. Yuzvendra Chahal. Marco Jansen. The conversation about IPL title contenders consistently centres on the Mumbai Indians, RCB, and CSK. PBKS appear in the supporting conversation, mentioned as strong, acknowledged as competitive, but rarely named as the team most likely to lift the trophy. The squad doesn’t justify that dismissal. […]
Jofra Archer is bowling the new ball at Chennai Super Kings’ top order. Nandre Burger from the other end with left arm angle working into right-handers simultaneously. Both bowlers are attacking rather than containing. Both are specifically designed to take wickets in the power play rather than merely reduce the run rate. CSK’s opening combination […]
Same number of matches. 189 each. Kuldeep Yadav has 241 wickets at an average of 20.60 and an economy of 7.46. Yuzvendra Chahal has 214 wickets at 23.59 and 7.55. The economy rates look almost identical. The wicket gap doesn’t; 27 wickets at a significantly better average across the same workload is a meaningful difference, […]
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 […]