Who is blowing hot, who is blowing cold… the early trends

Moments after ‘man mountain’ Tim David blasted the ball over long-off during the lop-sided Royal Challengers Bengaluru-Chennai Super Kings contest in Bengaluru, the description on the digital board read: ‘Next station: MG Road.’

Even the ball knew or was made aware of where it was heading, but CSK, given the sorry state of affairs it is in, continued a destination-less travel on the night.

It was, however, not the case with the early pacesetters — RCB, Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings — who came away unscathed from the first week of riveting action. Some teams are finding their feet while a few others are under mounting pressure to open their respective accounts in the 19th edition, whose ‘PowerPlay’ has delivered plenty of talking points.

Super Kings anything but that

CSK is once again looking like a pale shadow of the team that ruled the league with five titles. Skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad appears clueless, the bowling unit is listless, and the problems are endless after three consecutive defeats.

The most concerning part is the manner in which the Super Kings have folded, without an iota of fight in each of the losses. What is the current team’s identity and where has the so-called ‘CSK spirit’ gone? These are questions lingering in the minds of the franchise’s faithfuls, including those who donned the yellow jersey with pride.

After Ruturaj’s men surrendered meekly to PBKS in Chennai, R. Ashwin, a two-time IPL title-winner with CSK, struggled to hold back his emotions. “The Super Kings have been found wanting. It is difficult to watch from outside. Do you know what kind of team CSK once was?” Ashwin expressed pain while speaking on his YouTube channel.

“I watched the match straight from the commentary box. There were drooping shoulders by the 12th over (in Kings’ 210-run chase that ended with eight balls to spare). I felt disappointed watching that. There are a lot of inexperienced players; you could tell that from the atmosphere and body language. I felt very sad,” said the former India off-spinner.

The injuries to the talismanic M.S. Dhoni, Dewald Brevis and Nathan Ellis have compounded the issues, but the think-tank cannot escape criticism for its below-par work.

Indian stars out

CSK was not the only franchise that felt the absence of an Indian star in the opening week. Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya and Gujarat Titans skipper Shubman Gill joined the absentees list with sickness and spasm respectively.

Both were sorely missed – while MI went down to DC in Delhi for its first defeat of the season, GT was pipped by RR in a high-scoring thriller in Ahmedabad and remained winless. The sooner Hardik and Gill return to where they belong, the better it is for their respective teams.

The signs are positive for the Mumbai outfit as Hardik was cleared for selection for the away encounter against Royals in Guwahati on Tuesday (April 7).

Old is gold

At a time when a lot of ink is being spilt on fitness, old warhorses Rohit Sharma (MI, 38 years old), Virat Kohli (RCB, 37), Mohammed Shami (Lucknow Super Kings, 35) and Yuzvendra Chahal (PBKS, 35) have shown that they still have it in them to conquer the league.

Rohit Sharma.
| Photo Credit:
EMMANUAL YOGINI

Kohli got into the groove in the home victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rohit treated the Wankhede crowd with a ‘Hitman’ special in the scalp of Kolkata Knight Riders. Kohli believed that spending enough time away from the sport had done him a world of good.

“With the kind of scheduling we have had over the last 15 years, there was a risk of being burnt rather than being undercooked (he plays only one format in international cricket). So, the breaks help me mentally; I stay fresh and excited. When I come back to play, I am able to give my 120%. As long as I am physically fit and mentally excited, things will come together nicely. I want to keep performing and putting in the work for the team,” Kohli said.

Shami and Chahal, currently not part of the national set-up, have made the ball do the talking. The veteran pacer sent out a strong message to his former employer when he delivered a devastating spell of 4-0-9-2 in the triumph over SRH in Hyderabad.

Mohammed Shami.
| Photo Credit:
R.V. MOORTHY

As for Chahal, the wily leg-spinner remarkably did not concede a four or a six during his three-over effort in the boundary-laden CSK-PBKS clash. This was after the tweaker led a splendid bowling performance in the defeat of Titans in New Chandigarh.

Kings batter Shashank Singh expressed his admiration for Chahal’s cricketing smarts. “Yuzi is a very smart guy. When you talk to him about the pitch, he tells you how exactly it behaves. We obviously trust him because he is very smart. When he is bowling, he uses those angles and stuff,” Shashank said of the experienced campaigner.

The 200-run barrier

Despite good bowling acts, the runs keep flowing in a tournament that heavily favours the willow-wielders. The batters, in general, are in eleventh heaven – 11 matches into the 19th edition, the 200-run mark has already been breached 11 times.

On five occasions – twice in Bengaluru and once each in Mumbai, Chennai and Ahmedabad – both teams involved in a match got past the 200-run barrier.

PBKS head coach Ricky Ponting was of the opinion that IPL enthusiasts greatly enjoyed watching run-scoring sprees. “Hopefully we get good pitches across the country. I think that is what the fans want to see; they want to see a lot of runs being scored. To me, that is one of the reasons why the Impact Player rule was brought in. It has probably made batting easier than ever for some of the boys,” Ponting said ahead of PBKS’ season-opener.

Baffling calls

Poor squad construction and baffling calls made while deciding the make-up of the match-day XII have forced some teams to be one-dimensional.

For instance, when SRH’s bowling pack was crying for a match-winner, the franchise decided to bolster its already-stacked batting department with the ₹13 crore capture of Liam Livingstone. With regular skipper and pace spearhead Pat Cummins unavailable until at least the middle of this month, Sunrisers are enduring a tough time with the ball.

It must also be mentioned that there seems to be competition among a few sides to find out which team is making the worst decisions!

While Super Kings replaced an injured player with another injured player – Spencer Johnson has come in for Ellis but will be match-fit only towards the end of April – LSG ended up playing Capitals without its lead spinner, Digvesh Rathi. Then there is KKR, which is struggling to find the right balance after being informed that Cameron Green is not allowed to bowl now.

The sides at the top end of the points table have hugely benefitted from the dazzling displays of some of their young batting guns.

Impact Player

DC’s Sameer Rizvi has lived up to the tag of ‘Impact Player’ so far, bagging back-to-back Player-of-the-Match awards after being substituted in. The 22-year-old bailed Capitals out of trouble against Super Giants with a measured knock in Lucknow, before steering his team to a businesslike victory over MI on its own patch.

Sameer Rizvi.
| Photo Credit:
R.V. MOORTHY

“I worked on all my weaknesses. I used to have problems facing fast bowlers, so I worked on that aspect throughout the year. The hard work is paying off now, and I am batting well. It is true that when a batter is in his zone, he sees the ball differently compared to others. But I try to play according to the situation,” said Rizvi.

Following the departure of Sanju Samson, who had been the face of the franchise, the trio of Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Dhruv Jurel has stepped up for RR. So has Devdutt Padikkal for Royal Challengers with successive half-centuries. For PBKS, Priyansh Arya and Cooper Connolly have produced a match-winning knock each, much to the delight of skipper Shreyas Iyer and Ponting.

Cooper Connolly.
| Photo Credit:
SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

As we enter the ‘middle overs’ of IPL 2026’s ‘first innings’, there is a lot of excitement in store.