Three teams can win this tournament. One leads the argument more convincingly than the other two. Mumbai Indians under Hardik Pandya have the squad depth, the tactical flexibility, and the leadership clarity that titles require. Royal Challengers Bengaluru have momentum, belief, and a playing structure that finally matches their talent. Chennai Super Kings have experience, […]
Three teams can win this tournament. One leads the argument more convincingly than the other two. Mumbai Indians under Hardik Pandya have the squad depth, the tactical flexibility, and the leadership clarity that titles require. Royal Challengers Bengaluru have momentum, belief, and a playing structure that finally matches their talent. Chennai Super Kings have experience, […]
252 runs in IPL 2025 at a strike rate of 182.60. Those aren’t the numbers of a batter finding his feet in the competition. They’re the numbers of a finisher who already knows what he’s doing. Naman Dhir didn’t have a breakthrough season last year so much as a confirmation season, confirmation that MI’s trust […]
No superstar quartet. No reckless power hitter collection. No gamble on someone’s best-case scenario. Rajasthan Royals have picked four overseas players who do specific things reliably: Jofra Archer takes wickets, Shimron Hetmyer finishes innings, Dasun Shanaka covers two departments when the match demands it, and Nandre Burger gives the attack a left arm angle Archer […]
The Mumbai Indians have won five IPL titles. They know what a winning XI looks like. It doesn’t look like the most explosive team in the draw. It looks like the most complete one, a squad where every phase has the right player assigned to it, nobody is asked to do something they’re not built […]
Pakistan’s spin bowling problem in white ball cricket used to be the same every series: predictable, readable, expensive after over ten. Then he arrived with a googly that doesn’t look like a googly, a carrom ball that does something different every time, and the composure to bowl both deliveries in the 19th over of a […]
Sunrisers Hyderabad won the IPL once, in 2016, and came close several times after. They’ve had individual greats across every era. Warner with the bat. Bhuvneshwar with the new ball. Rashid with the spin. What they never had was all of them in the same XI at the same peak. This all-time selection fixes that. […]
Mitchell Starc, Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Pathum Nissanka. That’s a strong four if all of them are available and in form. The problem is that one of them is already confirmed missing for the early phase, and another had a modest IPL 2025. Delhi Capitals have the right overseas combination on paper. Whether it functions […]
The captains’ meeting before an IPL season is usually procedural. This one wasn’t. Ball replacement restrictions in the second innings. The Impact Player rule is getting another layer of complexity. A two-bouncer allowance per over. Stricter enforcement of bat checks and fielding restrictions. Any one of those changes demands a tactical rethink. All four together […]
Axar Patel said it out loud. The Impact Player rule hurts players like him. Not because he isn’t good enough, he is. Because the rule removes the reason teams need him. An all-rounder exists to cover two departments simultaneously. The Impact Player rule lets teams cover both departments sequentially through substitution instead. Why pick someone […]
Chennai Super Kings built five IPL titles on one thing: knowing exactly who does what and when. Fixed roles. Predictable outputs. Experienced players who had been in every pressure situation before and knew how to handle it. That system is gone. Sanju Samson is in the top order, adding the aggression they lacked. Young players […]
Nathan Ellis is the one bowler in the Chennai Super Kings’ squad who walks to the top of his mark in the 18th over without needing a plan adjusted for the situation. The yorker is his plan. The slower ball is his contingency. The wrist position that produces both from the same delivery stride is […]