Indian Premier League (IPL)

[prasen9]

Bowling (qual 4 wickets):

Gopal 11.16/5.58, Chahal 13.12/6.56, Ishant 16.75/8.37, Jadeja 17.75/5.91, Chahar 19.25/5.13, Sandeep 24.8/7.83.

Rest have not taken 4 wickets or average over 25, meaning not so great in T20Is.

Interestingly, there are two leggies. Jadeja who "spins" the ball the same way. Ishant, a wicket-taker, but with horrendous gimme balls once an over or so. Chahar - just a fast start? Sandeep Sharma is the trundler who keeps doing well in domestics. He is possibly the Parthiv Patel with the ball.

[Sin Hombre]

Kohli's captaincy is ridiculously bad.

Russell goes 0 - 1 - 0 - 0 - 6 - 6 - 6 - 1 - 6 - 6 - 6 - 4 - 6 to win scoring 64 runs in 3 overs.

[prasen9]

Karthik told him to take a few balls! When 50 runs were needed in 3 overs or something like that. Russell ignored him. Good for him. Shows that Dhonism (as shown by Karthik) is pervasive among those in the Indian team. For #5-#7 or even #8, we need pure hitters. But they have to be able to at least get some runs some times. This season Rana and Uthappa are setting the table without taking that many balls and Russell is finishing. KKR's bowling is crap. They gave Prasidh Krishna to bowl the super over! He is the best we can put up?

[RohitG]

KKR main bowlers are spinners- Kuldeep, Chawla and Narine. The other available fast bowlers apart from the current playing XI were Nagarkoti and Mavi, both unfortunately injured; which prompted them to bring in Krishna. For the super over it was a choice between Ferguson and Krishna coz Andre was gonna bat. Krishna actually did his part, Delhi won because Rabada bowled beautifully and took out Russel on the 2nd delivery itself.

[prasen9]

I don't disagree with anything you said and knew it. But Prasidh Krishna has generally been blah. Ferguson has been even worse, maybe, at least given his pay.

[prasen9]

A few more matches over and some movement in the leaderboards.

Batting (qual: 130 runs):

Dhoni 156/125, Samson 70/156, Uthappa 57/140, Sarfraz 55/127, Rana 42/160, Rahul 36.5/118, Iyer 35.83/123, Pant 35.2/173.

So Pant, Rana, Samson have been the big hitters. Uthappa has done fine. The rest Sarfraz, Dhoni, Iyer, and Rahul slow. Rahul really slow.

Among those who took at least 5 wickets:

Gopal 12.75/6.37, Bhajji 13.4/5.58, Chahal 18.83/6.87, Chahar 23.4/6.15, Sandeep Sharma 24/7.64, Ashwin 24.5/7.35, Bumrah 25.2/6.75.

Good to see Ashwin battling it out. But Bhajji has had really a good IPL. No surprise to see the leggies getting wickets and keeping runs down in the middle. And, Bumrah is Bumrah.

[Sin Hombre]

All the Indian openers are the worst of the lot - Dhawan, Rohit, Rayadu, Rahane, Parthiv, Rahul. Pathetic batting from all of them.

Shaw (and likely Mayank) need to be opening for India post-WC.

[prasen9]

There was an article in CI that said that only KKR and SRH are using the PowerPlay overs at the beginning judiciously. I fully agree. The Dhoni method of keeping the big hitting until the very end and causing RRRs to rise is not a very smart ploy taken to its extreme. KKR has been using the hit first approach consistently and they have been a reasonable batting side. If they could improve their bowling, they will be hard to beat. When you try to hit in the PowerPlays, it is even better to send a bowler as a pinch hitter as KKR does with Narine. Someone like Krunal would be good there. Heck, even give Shami some batting practice and ask him to swing hard at every ball. The wicket does not matter much and the run rate boost it gives you is pure gold. If Pant is going to hit like crazy anyway every ball, send him in to open.

The pathetic batting by the Indian openers is a strategic mistake. The team think tank has endorsed that method and it is stupid. Why not take risks when the field is up rather than trying to clear the fielders when they are at the boundary?

[Atithee]

Prasen—finally, someone who agrees with my theory. I feel we should send bowlers with decent skills to use long handle upfront to swing like crazy, at least in T20. It makes no sense for someone to eat up precious overs to settle down. Shami, Kumar, Jadeja, Krunal, Hardik, Pant are all capable of deploying this strategy but we will never do it.

Where better than IPL to try it out. But, what do we do? Rehabilitate Warner, Smith, Stokes, etc. IPL is evil in my eyes for losing competitive edge in Indian cricket. It has greatly helped other countries but I’m hard pressed to find even a couple of new talent that has made a huge difference for India.

I don’t care at all about IPL but I feel for Kohli. It’s not a good state of mind just before World Cup. It’s surely taking a personal toll on him especially after Gambhir openly questioned his captaincy despite a poor IPL record.

[prasen9]

The problem with the likes of Shami is that they may miss a few balls and not connect. But, worth trying. The best type of player to send here is someone like say Axar Patel. We can use his long hitting to get a few runs. He is also somewhat capable of a batsman to not keep missing altogether. He will either hit out or get out. Hardik we need as the finisher and he is a pacer who may need a bit more rest especially if India is bowling first. Pant is ideal to send out as opener in LOIs. Maybe Ravinder Jadeja too. Kumar, I have not seen him hit big. But, with instructions to hit and swing at everything he perhaps could develop as an opener. We tried Chetan Sharma with great success. Then, when Sehwag came, we did not need that. Then, Dhawan was supposed to be that person. Now, he has mellowed down. If we have to have a proper bat. That should be Prithvi. In T20s, at least. In ODIs, I do not know if I would sacrifice a proper bat but I would send in Axar to get some runs on board. Among the proper bats, Rana, Sampson, and Uthappa are choices.

[PKBasu]

The semi-retired Harbhajan Singh is having a helluva good IPL so far this year. 3/20, 0/30, 2/17 and 2/15 in his 4 matches so far: an economy rate of just 5.13, and 7 wickets for 82 (an average of under 12)!

[prasen9]

Hey, Bhajji would make a hell of an opener in T20s! Not a very useful bat but can be sacrificed to get some cheap runs fast.

[Sin Hombre]

Current Bhajji will be called for chucking outside the IPL.

[prasen9]

He has gone back to his old action? I thought he had "fixed" his action and that was when his effectiveness decreased. I do not watch much of IPL except parts of a couple of KKR games. So, guy back to his old tricks? Why are they not calling him? This is bad for Indian cricket.

[prasen9]

Where better than IPL to try it out. But, what do we do? Rehabilitate Warner, Smith, Stokes, etc. IPL is evil in my eyes for losing competitive edge in Indian cricket. It has greatly helped other countries but I’m hard pressed to find even a couple of new talent that has made a huge difference for India.

New talent take time to develop. One is Pant. And, the second is Bumrah. He came to the limelight in the IPL. The next-gen Sarfaraz, Gill, etc. will take time. Sarfaraz if he figures out it is important to get fit.

The value of playing Warner, Smith, Stokes, Russel, etc. is immense. First, it prevents our bowlers becoming domestic dadas and then failing abroad. We know how they do against better competition. Second, it makes people like Pant, the young Bumrah, Gill, etc. mentally strong. They know that if they can get the wickets of de Villiers, Kohli, and Hetmeyer, then they can get anyone in the world out. Confidence. And, the realization that they are this close. That will make them take themselves seriously and put that extra effort. Third, as a professor, I know first hand: expertise comes out of exchange of ideas. Our players have gotten tips from the likes of Ponting, Smith, Warner, etc. as Warner has gotten tips from Sehwag, etc. This exchange of ideas is a win-win.

The IPL is like trade. Everyone wins. I hate the artificial quota of four overseas players. Our junior players get in too easy. I want a minor league IPL in the smaller towns. Teams can sign junior players and develop them. Let any team hire any number and play any number of players from abroad.

Besides, the IPL is not the only show in town. Every country has its PL and players from abroad. It is not as if Warner and Smith would not be rehabilitated in some other league or elsewhere. I am glad that they are playing in India.