🏆TATA IPL 2022 : A Cricket Carnival With Bat and Ball 🏏 - Page 9

me here....

waiting for the match

new captain

new start....

all the best CSK

Day 3 of IPL 2022:

Welcome to the madness (officially), Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants. In the battle of the newbies, there's a lot to look forward to: star-studded line-ups, big-name captains, superb bowling (plus brothers who have been inseparable since 2016 now in opposite XIs).

The only issue for Super Giants is that they will not be able to field a full-strength team as yet. England quick Mark Wood has been ruled out of the entire season with an elbow injury, with Australian Andrew Tye replacing him. Marcus Stoinis, Jason Holder and Kyle Mayers are also expected to be available only after the first week of the IPL due to their respective national commitments. They have to make do with the back-ups, but they do have a number of talented IPL names in Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi and Avesh Khan. Their biggest strength, however, is their opening pair of KL Rahul and Quinton de Kock.

As for Titans, Jason Roy's withdrawal may have put their plans in disarray. They have roped in Rahmanullah Gurbaz as his replacement but they do have the option to bring in Matthew Wade to open alongside Shubman Gill. Get ready to go 'wow' at their bowling attack: Rashid Khan (who has also been named the team's vice-captain for the season), Lockie Ferguson, Mohammed Shami. And with Rahul Tewatia, R Sai Kishore available to bowl when needed, they easily have one of the strongest bowling departments in the tournament. Whether Hardik will bowl or not remains a mystery, with Titans' head coach Ashish Nehra saying "in any T20 squad, I will take Hardik Pandya as a pure batter."

The one issue which could possibly be a concern for both teams is their respective middle orders. Super Giants do have Krunal and Titans have Tewatia and Miller, but these players haven't always been consistent. Titans have Hardik too, but he hasn't played since November last year.

Possible XI

Gujarat Titans: 1 Shubman Gill, 2 Matthew Wade (wk), 3 Wriddhiman Saha/Vijay Shankar, 4 Abhinav Manohar, 5 David Miller, 6 Hardik Pandya (capt), 7 Rahul Tewatia, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 R Sai Kishore, 10 Lockie Ferguson, 11 Mohammed Shami

Lucknow Super Giants: 1 KL Rahul (capt), 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Manish Pandey, 4 Deepak Hooda, 5 Manan Vohra, 6 Krunal Pandya, 7 Ankit Rajpoot, 8 K Gowtham, 9 Ravi Bishnoi, 10 Dushmantha Chameera, 11 Avesh Khan

We witnessed some rather unexpected results the other day! The hope of a women's World Cup semifinal was shattered in front of our eyes in the final ball, which tore our hearts apart.

CSK, MI, and RCB were predicted to win, but some outstanding batting and bowling from the other teams resulted in unexpected outcomes.

Expectations shattered, phantom worries dissipated, and new champions were born?!!

A new day with new expectations, we are going to witness the 2 new teams combatting to prove their worth on the field today. 😊

Let us see.....

Day 4:

Royals and Sunrisers brace for first test of revamped squads

Royals' left-handers versus Washington Sundar's offspin could be an interesting subplot.

And then there were two. By the time Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals take the field on Tuesday, all other sides would have had a taste of IPL 2022.

Sunrisers will be without Rashid Khan for the first time since 2017, but unlike a batter, a bowler can have an impact for only 20% of a innings, which might give them some respite. If fit, Washington Sundar could do a holding role with the new ball or after the power play and there's the seam trio of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan and Umran Malik who offer 12 very different kind of overs. Bhuvneshwar will search for swing at the top, Natarajan will aim for the yorkers at the death, and Malik will look to beat batters with his raw pace and trouble them with his short ball. Marco Jansen, the tall, left-arm seamer, could be a potent new-ball partner for Bhuvneshwar. The other option for that final overseas slot could be the destructive West Indies all rounder Romario Shepherd.

For the last few seasons, Sunrisers opted to load up on a top-heavy batting line-up - often with two heavyweight overseas batters at the top, but this time they're expected to open with domestic batters Rahul Tripathi and Abhishek Sharma. Then there's Kane Williamson as a top-drawer anchor, albeit coming off a long-term injury, Aiden Markram who can bat anywhere in the top five, and Nicholas Pooran who is expected to bring in the fireworks. Abdul Samad, Sundar and possibly Shepherd close out the batting, and on paper, this is a side with plenty of potential even though the bench doesn't inspire too much confidence.

Royals have plenty of positives going into the competition apart perhaps from their death-bowling options. Trent Boult can do a job with the older ball, but he is most potent while swinging the new one into the right-hander. Prasidh Krishna will likely partner Boult in the powerplay, and if they can successfully build early pressure, R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal could capitalise on it to strangle the opposition in the middle overs. How they choose to approach the death overs could be the deciding factor in whether James Neesham plays as the allrounder or Nathan Coulter-Nile.

As far as the top order is concerned, Royals have as good a unit as a team can hope for after an auction. They retained Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson, and now have Devdutt Padikkal set to bat at No. 3. Rassie van der Dussen, who has enjoyed a purple patch for South Africa in the last nine months or so, and Shimron Hetmyer, who is especially brutal against spin, are probably vying for one spot in the middle, though the decision for the first game has been taken out of Royals' hands with the former unavailable for Tuesday's game. With Samson likely to bat at No. 4, Royals have a potentially devastating top and middle order. Nos. 6 and 7 don't look nearly as imposing, and a lot of hope resides in Riyan Parag, whom the franchise bought back after a dismal 2021 season.