Indian Premier League (IPL)

[Rajkumar Sharma]

V Iyer, S Dube, V Shankar, Raj Bawa, Hangregekar are not getting used as allrounders, might be to safeguard Hardik Pandya

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Seems new version of Umesh Yadav has been launched with pace, swing, line length. Ex Indian bowling coach Arun who had a huge role in making Siraj ,a lethal bowler is doing magic with Umesh

[prasen9]

The northwest teams have started off well (Delhi, Rajasthan), with the west (Gujarat) and east (KKR) sprinkling in. But, it is a marathon. Or at least a 10k.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Shabaaz Ahmed again proved not picking him for SA A tour was unfair treatment. As he has been performing well both in domestic & IPL as an allrounder. An ideal back up for Ravi Jadeja.

[prasen9]

The batting leaders (qual: 84 runs)

KD Karthik 90 runs @205, Gill 84 @171, Samson 31 @166, S Dube 36.33 @165, Uthappa 30.33 @157, Badoni 46 @148, Hooda 39.66 @145.

The rest have been too slow or not scored enough runs. The only uncapped player here is Badoni. Let's see if he can be consistent. He was an India U-19 player and is 22 now. So, maybe coming into his own? In T20s overall, he is a tad slower. 8 matches, 33.33 @ 137. Here is a light article on the kid.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Hardik appearing to be the best skipper in this IPL. Not only performing in the ground but he is giving chances to new indian talents, reminds me of Lt. legendary Shane Warne with Rajasthan Royals franchise who used to give chances to lots of new talents in form of Niraj Patel, Ravendra Jadeja, Kamran Khan, Swapnil Asnodkar, Paras Dogra, Faiz Fazal etc.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

SKY back to back 50+ scores. Finally he is showing some consistency, hope he carries this in national colours

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Left arm pacer again hurting KL Rahul. Its not only Rahul though as the current indian team top order is highly poor against left arm pacers.

[prasen9]

Now that a few games have happened, putting a qualifying of 110 runs, here are the leaders by SR:

Shaw 40@170, Gill 60@167, SAY 120@164, Dube 28@158, Tilak Varma 40@155, SS Iyer 31@148, Pant 37 @136.

Interestingly, among the keepers, only Pant has batted at a fast clip and scored some runs. Ishan has scored a ton of runs but has been slow. The wonderful surprise, of course, is Gill. I hope he can keep this up. Prithvi again shows that he scores. Dube has been treated very badly. He was chucked out without a fair run. Interesting new comer is U-19 player Tilak Varma, who is still 19. He is a batting allrounder. Instead of the others who have been hyped and to be fair, a number of them have not got many chances, if he can keep this up, we should keep an eye on him. Seems like a very hard hitter and can bowl a bit. We need more like him.

If Shaw and Gill can keep this up, both perhaps should be in the T20 WC squad or near it.

[prasen9]

Among the bowlers, the best (qual: 5 wickets) have been:

Chahal 9.45@6.5, Kuldeep Y. 11.6@7.4, K.K. Ahmed 12.28@7.16, U. Yadav 13.2@6.6, R. Chahar 14.42@6.3, Harshal 14.66@5.5, Shami 15.16@7.6, Nata 16.5@8.25

It is great to see Kuldeep and Chahal do well. They were our best limited over pairing for a couple of years. Interestingly, Khaleel Ahmed has done very well. He has been treated badly given that we do not really have left armers. Natarajan has put his hand up this IPL and that is good to see but he has been a tad expensive. Harshal and Umesh have been great. R. Chahar seems to be the backup leggie if Chahal is hurt. Bishnoi still to hit his stride, has been economical as he usually is but failed to pick up wickets.

[prasen9]

So (after today's game) it is Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bangalore followed by Kolkata and Lucknow. Delhi, Punjab and Hyd are very close. Mumbai and Chennai, the traditional powerhouses have started with a thud.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Shivam Dube's bowling is completely Zero. He is so much well build then Pandya with good height still bowls at 120 kph without any line length. He also lacks basic aggression that a cricketer requires.

[prasen9]

Whatever. He has been batting at a fast clip scoring runs. Few others are batting as fast as him while still maintaining a 25+ average. Good for him for now. Whether it is sustainable or not, I do not know. Most possibly not. But, we will see. Had we had Kapil Dev, I would not even mentioned him. But, we have not had any pace-bowling all-rounder thus far. Venkatesh Iyer bats very well against spin but is a dud against pace. We play the T20 WC in Australia. His bowling may not be good enough. And, maybe we have better bats. My point is that he was selected by not given a fair run. Either do not select him or give someone selected a fair run.

[Rajiv]

Mumbai and Chennai, the traditional powerhouses have started with a thud.

Genuinely the team combinations are poor for Mumbai and Chennai. They spent too much on one player (with max retention - which meant smaller purse) and then scrambled to put together a squad.
Mumbai has always struggled the season immediately after a mega auction.

And IPL ,from the prepared script point of view ,Everything is directly or indirectly linked to the script and later you will see MI & CSK dramatically wining next few matches like SRH is doing now and they will make sure that all 10 teams remain in contention till the end.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

CSK still relying on old guys. They should give young players a chance. Players like Nishant, Jagadeesan, Hangregekar, Asif, Senapati deserve some chance. Rayudu, Bravo are out of form now deserve to be benched