Before umpires call ‘play’ the surround noise this time is at an amazing level. The RR and RCB sales have ignited the event with a huge bang, catching the attention of fans, sponsors and investors. This year’s IPL is cricket’s grand Diwali.
Before the first ball is bowled much background work has happened in the lead up. For the past few weeks teams were in serious prep — players in camps (Gujarat in Rajasthan, Rajasthan in Nagpur, Chennai in Abu Dhabi) with support staff going through trusted processes.
The focus was on getting match ready, technique and craft making way for match-ups and match situations. Mental conditioning experts looked to control stress. Power hitting coaches created drills to help batters send the ball 10 yards deep into the stands. The data person crunched numbers to detect trends and discover flaws. Team played intra-squad games to fine tune roles and find the best combination.
The IPL resembles a well-coordinated war operation with experts and strategists looking at challenges, options and opportunities. T20 cricket is decided by fine margins so little is left to chance.
The IPL celebrates cricket and unites us as we discuss, debate and dissect matches. The IPL is also a celebration of the current greats, cricket royalty, and it’s good to have the ageing gods (MSD at Chennai, Virat in Bangalore and Rohit in Mumbai) descend one more time from the heavens to meet their adoring fans. The IPL is superstar territory and these cricket giants, wearing numbers 7/18/45, give us immense joy and keep the commercial wheels moving.
In its 19th year, the IPL’s playbook has a reassuring sameness but team marketing and promotion dynamics demand some change, some fresh take even if it’s just optics. LSG have redesigned their logo adding a crown, garuda and an elephant to enhance its super giant identity. RR have acquired new clothes — the jersey now has blue in addition to the original pink and also features a lion with sharp claws. Wonder why because lions are already present in CSK and Kings Punjab territory and Rajasthan has not roared since 2008.
Like every other year, it’s difficult to predict which team will go the distance. The IPL is structured to ensure competitive parity (equal players’ purse, only four foreign players in the final 11) and the absence of a clear favourite adds to the thrill of the competition. RCB won last year after several close misses but for DC and Kings, two teams still searching for the trophy, it’s been a frustrating wait.
MI look the most sorted with all-round firepower (they have six players who played the T20 WC final this month in Ahmedabad, plus Rohit) but CSK are undergoing a confused reset. MSD@44 is probably in his third farewell year, his role shrinking with each passing year. Chennai respects seniority and experience and Samson’s appearance in yellow should give fans much to cheer about. And it will be interesting how CSK use Kartik Singh and Prashant Veer — two young players on whom they splurged R29 crore.
Trusted seniors too will be on test, notably Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant, two high value assets who missed recent action because of injuries. For Kings and LSG to fire, these two will have to put bat to ball.
Even before the start, an entire set of fast bowlers have been taken out by fitness issues. Harshit Rana, Akash Deep won’t play at all and Sam Curran, Josh Hazlewood, Lockie Fergusson, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc are nursing injuries. Mayank Yadav is reportedly good to go and Umran Malik too is fit and ready.
But, more than breakout player performance, the interesting thing to watch this year is how far the game itself has progressed. The batting anchor role has lapsed and teams taking the game deep is so yesterday. This is the era of fearless cricket where every ball must go, anything short of 200 is death — and 275-300 is within reach.
Till the other day it used to be Gayle, Pollard, Russell, ABD. Now it’s Abhishek, Ishan, Sooryavanshi launching rockets.
