Indian Premier League (IPL)

[prasen9]

Virat had the talent and worked very hard.

KKR did nothing to improve the team. When you win, you cannot just rerun the same team. People get old. You got to think how to get better. Manish Pandey at this point is not the solution. Moeen for Spencer Johnson. At least.

Someone tell Raghuvanshi that he needs to start taking responsibility and playing some longer innings while not slowing down if he wants to get ahead of his peers Abhishek, Parag, etc.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Ramandeep & Rinku should bat above 5. 3/4 overs towards end can't make them proper T20 players. KKR so much confident with Russell and Narine that they are forgetting others who are much better then them, as now every franchises has figured out their weakness.

It seems Ashwini Kumar has got cutters as his primary weapon. Could be lethal in slow, sluggish tracks...a shorter format material.

[PKBasu]

Shreyas is proving to be a very good captain. Last year, he led KKR to the IPL title, and this year he is leading Punjab Kings with success so far.

[PKBasu]

Interesting that the pitches are beginning to help bowlers more, after the belters in the first week. It does seem to be a deliberate policy of the IPL management to make the balance between bat and ball more equal. Yesterday, the Bangalore pitch was exceptionally green -- offering a lot of support to the fast bowlers, with someone like Sai Kishore also able to generate turn and bounce. And today, KKR's faster bowlers got decent support from the pitch in defending 200/6 -- quite comfortably with an 80-run win.

[prasen9]

After three or four matches, these are the impact/match leaders.

Sai Kishore, Kuldeep, Shreyas, Sai Sudarshan, Khaleel (4), KL Rahul (2), Asutosh Sharma(2), Siraj, Hardik, Digvesh Rathi, Arshdeep.

Good to see Siraj and Arshdeep bowling well. Hardik is also back in form. Khaleel seems like always turns up and does his part - at least in some matches in the IPL. Don't know if he has genuinely improved or he is good at this level but will fail in the international stage.

Divesh Rathi is the new leggie who had a few good matches. Let us see if the can continue. Sai Kishore is possibly blocked in this format because he cannot bat. The other spinner is Kuldeep.

Most of the batters have actually not had good games and/or not been consistent. Sudarshan, Shreyas have been fine. Rahul and Asutosh have done fine in two matches too with the former playing an incredible innings. Let us see if they can continue.

Pant is in a terrible rut. He was bad in the T20I WC too. He should be just played in tests. Maybe as a backup in ODIs ... but not in T20Is.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Does any of these spinners have capability to take wickets in SENA in test format ? Sai Kishore is not a new name, he is good in shorter format

[prasen9]

Does any of these spinners have capability to take wickets in SENA in test format ? Sai Kishore is not a new name, he is good in shorter format

Most possibly not. No spinner has the capability to take wickets in SENA in test format. Perhaps only Kuldeep has. In essence, even if they do, it is useless. Because SENA countries doctor their wickets against us and leave 10cm grass on it, etc. We need high quality spinners who are top-quality batters. We will choose them as batters and then if it spins they can extract some wickets.

[PKBasu]

CSK is looking lost and old. MSD should finally call it a day. It has become painful for his fans to see him struggle with the bat. Delhi Capitals (led by Axar) are unbeaten in 3 games, and Gujarat (led by Gill) are close behind with just 1 loss in 4 matches (it was nice to see Washington Sundar grab his batting chance, although Gill has little faith in his bowling; I always found it amazing that he had any success as a test spinner!). SRH and MI are the other teams in the doldrums.

[Kumar]

Sai Kishore is one of the best players in T20 format.. Gettin klassen out is a big feather in the cap.. the fact that he could not even get chance in the IPL had been very disappointing. Even with GT, he rarely bowled the past IPL season. Lot of TN players get selected to CSK team and they rarely get to play.. after couple of years of warming the bench, they appear to lose confidence..

Sai kishore has the fastest 50 in the TNPL, so no bunny with a bat even though his numbers are putrid.

[prasen9]

Delhi, Gujarat, Bengaluru, and Punjab are in that order on the top of the table.

KKR, LSG, and Rajasthan are the next rung.

Mumbai, Chennai, and Hyderabad are the worst three in the lowest rung.

Shardul Thakur and Vaibhav Arora are doing reasonably well after the top three: Siraj, Arshdeep, and Khaleel (along with Hardik).

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Some of these "only IPL performers " can throw out longer format domestic performers in upcomming India A tour of England.

Karun Nair should have played county instead of warming in bench in IPL if he had intention to make test return.He might get omitted from discussion in selection of test squad

[prasen9]

Not a chance. Selectors have time and again chosen on the basis of IPL and don't really care for county form. He would have had to do something super exceptional in county cricket to shine. Besides, IPL is tons more money. Why should Karun Nair pay out of his pocket to play test cricket? Expecially when even when he performed the selectors are biased against him. Giving up sure money and future financial security for playing county cricket would have been stupid.

[Kumar]

Why is Ashish Nehra not getting a whole lot of recognition for being indian team coach?

I think chandrakant pandit is one of the best coaches in domestic (three ranji trophy wins leading relative unknowns Vidharbha and Madhya pradesh)and Dada’s ridiculous age restrictions policy to spite Ravi Shastri has ruled him out of running for indian coach..

[Rajkumar Sharma]

New pace bowling talents is fully bulldozed in this IPL season, not a single one is looking impressive for international level.

[PKBasu]

Delhi Capitals stay unbeaten after 4 games. Quite extraordinary to see one of the bottom teams of last year so strong under new leadership this year. Axar is doing well as captain, and KL Rahul is performing a lot better without the burdens of captaincy. Their bowling hasn't really been tested: Starc has been reliable, as has Mukesh, while the 3 spinners (Kuldeep, Axar and leggie Vipraj Nigam) are very good. RCB had a more potent attack in Bhuvi, Hazlewood and Yash Dayal, followed by Krunal, Suyash and Livingstone -- but they had too few runs to defend today.