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This is a positive sign that the South African batsman is still hungry for runs and that his retirement from international cricket has not resulted in him losing his love or his passion for the game. The Royal Challengers Bangalore will only benefit from this as they will be looking to correct another dismal season. The Royal Challengers Bangalore have been chasing the Indian Premier League title without any success and a lot of questions have been pointed out as to why this is the case....

Indian Premier League sets a perfect platform for the youngsters to deliver and catch the eyes of the selectors. It is through this platform that players like Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah made it to the team and cemented their spot after consistent performances. It’s a fresh season and we have yet again seen a few youngsters showing some promising character and are likely to get a call up in the national team if they remain consistent in their performances....

But there’s one thing that hasn’t changed and that’s RCB’s luck. The Virat Kohli-led side have simply not been able to get past their opponents despite being in winning positions. Meanwhile, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Chennai Super Kings, and Kolkata Knight Riders have emerged as strong contenders as they’ve been playing some consistent cricket. David Warner currently holds the Orange Cap while despite RCB’s slump, Yuzvendra Chahal is the leading wicket-taker. In the week gone by, there were a lot of moments to capture....

In case you didn’t know… Just before the IPL, the Sri Lankan board had announced that every Sri Lankan player would have to take part in the domestic ODI tournament to be in the midst of match practise before the World Cup. However, the domestic fixtures clashed with the IPL. Hence, it was reported that Malinga wouldn’t play for Mumbai Indians for the first six games. But things changed as the board said that the Sri Lankan fast bowler could play both the tournaments if he could manage the workload....

All the eight franchises paid a total of ₹140.30 crores at the auction, where 62 players earned contracts among different teams in the season. Australian pacer Pat Cummins became the second-most expensive player in the auction history when Kolkata Knight Riders bought him for a mammoth ₹15.5 crores. The Indian Premier League (IPL) has been growing year after year, with many all-rounders showcasing their talent both with the bat and the ball....

The 27-year-old was very happy to have dismissed a batsman of Virat Kohli’s stature in their clash against the RCB on Saturday night. In the 12 innings that the two have faced off against each other, Sandeep Sharma has dismissed the RCB skipper 7 times while the latter has been able to score only 68 runs. Virat Kohli’s wicket sucked all the momentum out of RCB’s batting innings as they only managed to score 120-7 in their 20 overs....

Miller, who made his IPL debut in 2012 for Kings XI Punjab, announced his arrival with a 38-ball century against Royal Challengers Bangalore at Mohali in 2013. He has been prolific with the bat for Punjab, scoring 1850 runs in 79 matches at a strike-rate of 138.78. He also led the franchise in six matches during IPL 2016. Unfortunately though, Punjab lost five of those matches, which led to Miller being replaced by Murali Vijay for the rest of the season....

David Hussey’s claim comes against the backdrop of Shubman Gill’s dismal outing against the Rajasthan Royals on Saturday. He played 19 deliveries, scoring just 11 runs. The right-hander looked completely lost with his placement and perished while trying to force the pace, a pattern seen throughout the season so far. However, speaking at the post-match press conference, David Hussey waxed lyrical over the youngster, calling him a ‘star player’. Hussey stated that Shubman Gill’s class will soon trump his poor form and he will be back among the runs....

“It’s always a great feeling to play along with MS Dhoni. I’m looking forward to working with him again towards a common goal – this time to win the trophy for the Chennai Super Kings. He (Dhoni) understands the game really well, is street-smart and thinks ahead of the game and I feel that’s very important for a captain, especially in T20. That’s what makes him a great skipper. Look forward to exciting times with CSK”, Harbhajan told the franchise’s official website....

The England wicketkeeper-batsman led from start to finish as the hosts won the contest by four wickets to move to 10 points in the 2018 IPL points table, thereby keeping alive their chances of progressing to the playoff stage of the tournament. While Suresh Raina’s 35-ball 52 powered CSK to a decent total of 176, it was overturned by the Royals who had Buttler to thank for yet another brilliant knock....

CSK have won three titles so far and have played 8 finals in the IPL. They won the title in IPL 2010, 2011 and 2018, and the last one came after a two-year absence from the league. CSK are the only team to have defended the title in the history of the tournament. On that note, here is a look at three reasons why the winners of the 11th edition are well-placed to defend their title in IPL 2019....

Both teams are known for entertaining the fans. This year RCB have added a lot more depth to their squad with the purchase of a few exciting players while CSK decided to retain most of their players from last year. Despite RCB having some quality players in their bench this season, it still looks like CSK might walk away with the win. Here are three reasons why the defending champions are likely to overcome Virat Kohli’s side in the season opener....

Expected Combination: Parthiv Patel, Virat Kohli, AB De Villiers, Indian Batsman, Moeen Ali, Marcus Stoinis, Washington Sundar, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj and Yuzvendra Chahal Royal Challengers Bangalore are a case of utter curiosity. They have two of the best batsmen of the world in Virat Kohli and AB De Villiers and still seem to find a way to underwhelm. After the 2018 auction, RCB seemed to possess a relatively balanced team for the first time in their history....

Before and after the suspension, CSK had one major difference; compromising agility on the field for experience. The 2018 auctions saw them investing in players with huge amount of experience despite most of them being on the wrong side of 30. The result was for everyone to see. They did not rely on any single player and had multiple match winners in the XI. The 2019 season saw them becoming the first team to reach the playoffs, but the prolonged lean patch of the batsmen did hurt them in the later stages of the league....

This does mean that we can expect the squads of each franchise to have a very different look once the 2019 IPL season does come around, with many big-name players up for grabs. With all the focus being placed on the players who have been released, little attention has been directed towards the players who have been retained and how the squad of each franchise currently looks ahead of the IPL auction....

Although T-20s used to be touted as the format for youngsters in the past, players like Mike Hussey, Matthew Hayden, Jacques Kallis and Sachin Tendulkar went on to prove that age is not the benchmark to play and succeed in this format. If a veteran player has the ability and skill to play in such a format, success is almost guaranteed for him. IPL 2019 is turning out to be very interesting in those regards....

Chennai Super Kings are a bit short on confidence, losing five out of their last seven matches. Though they have a superior head-to-head record against Delhi, it doesn’t really matter on the matchday, especially in a Qualifier. Delhi need to punch above their weight in order to go past Super Kings. Chennai, on the other hand, would be gunning to take on Mumbai Indians in the IPL final by beating DC....

A few experienced players like Lasith Malinga, Yuvraj Singh did find homes but many others like Manoj Tiwary, Angelo Mathews, Dale Steyn etc. did not find any takers. Young cricketers like Prabhsimran Singh and Prayas Ray Berman surprised many when they went for huge bucks but is a good indicator for Indian cricket as the younger generation will get motivated to perform well. Let us see what is the average age of the players in each of the 8 IPL teams and which IPL 2019 franchise has the youngest squad....

Last year, however, Delhi silenced the critics by reaching the playoffs for the first time since 2012 – finishing third – to finally give the capital something to cheer about. This was largely due to a fantastic transfer policy, with the team focusing on the right fit rather than big names. Under the tutelage of Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly, Delhi finally lived up to their potential. The top four of Shikhar Dhawan (who was traded in for three players), Prithvi Shaw, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant delivered, and there was also some fantastic bowling from Kagiso Rabada, Chris Morris, Ishant Sharma and Amit Mishra....

On being asked about who could be the Most Valuable Player in IPL 2020, Aakash Chopra observed that it is likely to be an all-rounder while naming Hardik Pandya and Andre Russell as the primary contenders. The renowned commentator opined that KL Rahul and Virat Kohli are the primary candidates to emerge as the top run-getters of IPL 2020. He also picked Yuzvendra Chahal as the probable highest wicket-taker with Kuldeep Yadav and Sunil Narine as the other contenders....