Big picture – LSG’s bowling vs KKR’s batting Lucknow Super Giants have been the best powerplay bowling side in IPL 2026. In two games, they have picked up seven wickets in the first six overs and have an economy of just 4.58, comfortably the best in the tournament. At the other end are Kolkata Knight…
Big picture – GT need middle order to fire Delhi Capitals (DC) and Gujarat Titans (GT) are in the first act of their IPL 2026 campaigns. And both teams have come to realise how much the middle matters: not only as the points table begins to take shape, but also because they have won and…
Big picture – RCB > CSK? Chennai Super Kings (CSK) arrive at a venue where the ball flies off the bat, to face a Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) side that has made a strong start at home to their title defence. This, after a bruising beginning to IPL 2026 for CSK, whose bowlers have been…
Big picture – a tale of two captains It’s been almost exactly ten years since the day Rishabh Pant and Ishan Kishan opened the batting together for India at the Under-19 World Cup final in Dhaka. In the decade that followed, one prodigious talent made his mark for his outrageous shots and chutzpah in Tests…
Big picture: MI’s dominance over DC In IPL 2025, Mumbai Indians (MI) had lost four of their first five games by the time they came to Delhi. The win against Delhi Capitals (DC), though, proved to be the turning point of their campaign. It started their six-match winning streak, and they made it to the…
Big picture – Battle of two weak bowling attacks What was common between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders’ respective opening games of the season? Both smashed 200-plus totals, only to be blown away in the chase, with bowling attacks that looked insipid. As SRH and KKR clash at the Eden Gardens, a small ground…
Big picture: Shreyas and Gill back in the T20 spotlight Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill. Two IPL heavyweights. Iyer captained two teams to the final in the last two years, winning the title with one of them. Gill is the leading IPL run-scorer since the 2020 season, and also captained Gujarat Titans (GT) to the…