IPL 2024: Five Talking Points

The season of T20 cricket is upon us, with the start of the 2024 IPL serving as a tasty appetizer to the T20 World Cup this summer. And with the 17th season of the world’s biggest T20 league, the IPL, come a few major talking points ahead of the opening match on March 22.

Will this be thala Dhoni’s farewell?

He turns 43 in July, an age where no Indian has managed to stay as relevant while being an active cricketer. Yes, we’re talking about the one and only Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who last year led Chennai Super Kings to a record-equaling fifth IPL title. Whenever this franchise has been written off, from being termed as ‘The Dad’s Army’ to facing elimination, Dhoni has managed to pull off the incredible. Take the 2021 IPL, where under Dhoni CSK won the title in the UAE while upending predictions of how they would fare after a poor 2020. Or last year, when CSK – who had finished ninth in 2022, and were hit by injuries at the start of the season – overcame the home favourites Gujarat Titans to win the IPL for the fifth time, thus drawing level with Rohit Sharma’s Mumbai Indians. Only Dhoni could have pulled that off, with the resources he had.

The big question: Will 2024 be the last time Dhoni will play for CSK? The man himself dropped several hints last year, which have led many to speculate that indeed this will be his final year in CSK yellow. While his batting has receded from the spectacular level he set when in his prime, Dhoni’s captaincy, man management and wicketkeeping remain unparalleled. The way he marshalled his men through an injury-hit 2023 IPL, the way he got the best out of the likes of Tushar Deshpande, Matheesha Pathirana and Ajinkya Rahane, and the way he had last year’s sensation Shubman Gill stumped in the final in Ahmedabad … that was pure MSD genius. Dhoni has hinted that he would want to bid farewell to the IPL in front of the CSK army in Chennai, which sets up a fascinating journey for the men in yellow. One last hurrah, then, to put Dhoni in elite IPL territory as a captain with six trophies?

Start of a new legacy at MI under Pandya?

That all is not well inside the corridors of the mighty Mumbai Indians has been speculated ever since word came about that Hardik Pandya was leaving Gujarat Titans after two seasons and going back to the franchise which made him. Pandya earned his reputation as a world-class allrounder while at MI for seven years from 2015 to 2021, and then for seasons he led Gujarat Titans, winning the IPL in his first year in charge of the new franchise and following it up with another appearance in the final last year.

Pandya is back with MI after a high-profile behind-doors deal, and that too as skipper of the franchise with five IPL titles. While this return to Mumbai has raised talk of a new legacy starting under Pandya, it does beg the question of where Rohit Sharma stands inside the dressing room. Rohit has been with MI since the 2011 season, and his appointment as captain midway through the 2013 season sparked a dramatic turnaround in fortunes as MI won the trophy for the first time that season. Rohit went on to lead MI to four more IPL titles, the most recent in 2020 when they defended their title from the previous year to become the first franchise to win the tournament five times.

However, at 36, and with the franchise owners moving on to Pandya as the new captain, where does it leave MI’s own Hitman? Rohit is the team’s all-time leading run-getter, but since 2016 he has only made it to 400 runs once in a season, in 2019, and his last IPL century was way back in 2012. Despite MI’s coaching staff openly crediting Rohit for being a legend and consummate professional, here have been murmurs of Rohit not being entirely at ease with Pandya’s return and that too as captain.

Will the MI fans embrace Pandya as leader? Will they show him as much as they have to Rohit over all these years? How will the two titans get along? Have MI put together a title-winning team? Plenty of questions indeed.

Can this be RCB’s season?

After Smriti Mandhana’s Royal Challengers Bangalore women’s team were crowned winners of the second WPL last week, fans of the franchise have at last been given reason to celebrate. Ee sala cup naamde goes the saying in Kannada when it comes to fans of RCB. This year, guys, this year, its coming home. Except that it has not.

Not once since the first IPL started in 2008 have RCB got their hands on the trophy. The captaincy has changed, the coaching staff has been reshuffled, millions and millions were spent on some of the game’s biggest names, and yet for 16 seasons all RCB fans have been dealt is heartbreak.

The sight of watching RCB play at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in front of a packed house of fans is one of the greatest experiences in cricket. But when Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle could not combine to win the IPL, what chances do RCB have in 2024?

Under former South African skipper Faf du Plessis, who at 39 remains one of the fittest cricketers in the world, the franchise goes into the 17th season of the IPL with hopes renewed after acquiring the Australian allrounder Cameron Green from Mumbai Indians and adding the big-hitting English opener Will Jacks. However, as with most past seasons, the question is not whether the batting can deliver, but whether RCB have the bowlers to deliver a title.

Mohammed Siraj is the leader of the pack, but his backup is questionable. Lockie Ferguson has pace but is inconsistent; Reece Topley is injury-prone; Alzarri Joseph has played for two previous IPL franchises and struggles to get enough game time; Tom Curran brings plenty of globe-trotting T20 franchise experience but can be expensive and erratic; Yash Dayal has a tendency to go for runs; Vijaykumar Vyshak lacks IPL experience; Akash Deep has yet to crack T20 cricket; and, most worrying, the lack of a match-winning spinner stands to let RCB down once again. Can Karan Sharma, who is 36, and Glenn Maxwell be counted on to take wickets and keep a check on runs?

Fans of the men in black and red will surely have their fingers crossed once again.

How will Rishabh Pant’s return to cricket go?

Indian cricket has not been the same since that fateful night in December 2022 when Rishabh Pant suffered an accident behind the wheel on a highway from Delhi to Roorkee, in Uttarakhand. The 26-year-old has undergone plastic surgery after being left with facial injuries following the collision, which in his own words left him wondering if he would ever walk, forget playing cricket.

Pant, who has been out of action for more than 15 months, was recently passed fit to keep wickets in the IPL, and the Delhi Capitals management has confirmed that he will lead the franchise in this year’s IPL season.

In his absence last year, Delhi Capitals finished second from last in IPL 2023 and this season the management is confident of Pant making a smooth comeback. And beyond the IPL, countless Indian cricket fans are awaiting the wicketkeeper-batter’s return to competitive cricket given his exploits for India. Pant’s last match for the country was a Test match in Bangladesh in December 2022, just days before his crash. Pant has played 33 Tests, 30 ODIs and 66 T20Is for India, while in the IPL for the Delhi franchise he has amassed 2837 runs at a strike-rate of almost 148. This makes Pant Delhi’s all-time leading run-getter.

Will Pat Cummins prove worth the spend?

At the IPL player auction in December, Australian captain Pat Cummins became the most expensive signing in the competition’s 16-year history when Sunrisers Hyderabad won a massive bidding war to acquire the pace bowler for 20.5 crore rupees. Thus, Cummins’ purchase eclipsed the 18.5 crore that Punjab Kings forked out for England allrounder Sam Curran the year before.

Cummins, who in 2023 captained Australia to the ODI World Cup and World Test Championship titles by defeating India both times, went to SRH after the franchise edged out RCB, MI and CSK in a four-way contest. The 30-year-old joins World Cup final hero Travis Head at SRH, and was recently unveiled as their captain. This has caused a flutter in IPL circles given how many overseas players SRH have, and also raises the possibility of some big names sitting out.

With a 20.5 crore price tag and the captaincy, Cummins will play all matches, but who will the other three overseas players be in the SRH 11? South African wicketkeeper-batter Heinrich Klaasen has to play, given how indispensable he was in IPL 2023 while scoring the most runs for the franchise in what was a dismal overall season. As does his South African counterpart Marco Jansen, seeing how vital a role he plays with the ball and lower-order hitting. That leaves one spot in the 11, even accounting for the Impact Player rule, and four big names to choose from.

One of them is batter Aiden Markram, who was SRH skipper until Cummins was brought on board, and who skippered the franchise’s South African extension to back to back SAT20 titles. Then there is Wanindu Hasaranga, the Sri Lanka allrounder who has joined SRH for 1.5 crore at the auction, and who brings to the table plenty of experience. After him comes Head, who despite poor recent form in Test cricket remains a viable opening option, and the New Zealand allrounder Glenn Phillips who has a career T20 strike-rate of 141 and five hundreds in the format.

So are we looking at a scenario where a former SRH captain in Markram sits on the bench for much of IPL 2024? Or a proven match-winner like Phillips carrying drinks the whole season? And will Cummins prove worth the massive payday, given that of the three formats he has been the least dependable in T20 cricket?