Six takeaways from the opening game of the IPL 2023
Gaikwad begins as he’d like to carry on
Years from now, if someone looks up the numbers for the 2022 IPL season, they’ll conclude that Ruturaj Gaikwad had a decent year, scoring 368 runs. It may not have compared to his Orange-cap-winning exploits in 2021, but it was still the most runs by anyone in Chennai yellow. It’s only when you do a deep dive that you’ll see that Gaikwad made just 35 runs in his first five knocks of the season. His batting clicked into place only when Chennai first played the Gujarat Titans, and he smashed 73 from 48 balls. Later in the campaign, he would make a 49-ball 53 as well against Hardik Pandya’s side. Some players just find their groove against certain opponents, and Gaikwad feasted on Gujarat’s otherwise formidable attack to the tune of 92 from 50 balls. The rest of his teammates managed 78 from 71 deliveries. In a World Cup year, with a reserve batsman’s slot very much up for grabs, Gaikwad knows the value of a strong IPL season.
Tireless Rashid a Difference-Maker Yet Again
In the six seasons that he has played the IPL, Rashid Khan has been, by a considerable distance, the competition’s most consistent bowler. Though he has never won a Purple cap or taken more than 21 wickets in a season, 112 wickets and an economy rate under 6.40 told their own story. Rashid is also a cricket machine, whose workload would make most of our heads spin just to imagine it. Since December, he has played 11 matches in Australia’s Big Bash League, another ten games in the SA20 tournament in South Africa, a couple of cameos for MI Emirates in the IL T20, and then 11 matches in the Pakistan Super League. In between all this, he played for his country as well. So, did Rashid seem fatigued when tossed the ball in the IPL 2023 opener? Tiredness? What’s that? He bowled his four overs for 26 runs, starting with the final over of the Power play with Chennai romping along. The two wickets he got, Moeen Ali and Ben Stokes, were both crucial, given how effortlessly both can clear the rope. He rarely rips the leg-break, but his control and awareness of the batsman’s frailties are second to none among present-day leggies.
Is this the Dhoni Farewell Tour?
Since he moved on from international cricket nearly four years ago, MS Dhoni hasn’t had a great time of it with the bat in the IPL. He has scored just one half-century in the last three seasons, and the strike-rate has been a pedestrian 117. More importantly, for someone whose reputation was built on the hitting of stupendous sixes, there were just 20 across those three years. But for Indian cricket fans, Dhoni is not just a player. He’s an emotion, an inspiration, the man who brought home two World Cups and a Champions Trophy. It was little surprise then that many of the stands at the Narendra Modi Stadium – Gujarat’s home ground, lest we forget – resembled a sea of yellow with Dhoni in town. It was even less surprising that the loudest roar of the night was reserved for the 118th ball of the first innings, as Dhoni launched Josh Little deep into the stand at square leg. The man is so inscrutable that no one will really know if this is his last season, but the seven balls he spent in the middle with the bat hinted at better things to come over the next few weeks.
Gill has Found the Colour Purple at the Right Time
Shubman Gill had scored 14 half-centuries in half a decade of IPL cricket. In three of those seasons, including last year with Gujarat (483), he topped 400 runs. But the strike-rate was 125, which is nothing to shout about in this era. But since he’s been given a consistent run in India’s white-ball sides, Gill has been a man transformed. Back in 2010, Virat Kohli edged out Rohit Sharma and several others to get a World Cup berth because he struck form at an opportune time. It’s next to impossible to imagine India going into the World Cup without Gill now, and this first innings of the IPL did nothing to douse the excitement over what is a truly special talent. One shot alone, an effortless loft over extra-cover for six, was worth the price of admission, and he seems to have so much time to measure and play his shots. With no David Miller in the XI, Gujarat needed both solidity and quick scoring. Gill gave them both, and ensured that the chase never got out of hand.
Does Chennai have the bowling to take down strong sides?
When Chennai last won the IPL in 2021, Deepak Chahar took the new ball, and Ravindra Jadeja was one of the five bowlers used. The rest of the cast was Josh Hazlewood, cornerstone of Australia’s T20 World Cup win later that year, Dwayne Bravo – the highest wicket-taker in IPL history (183) – and Shardul Thakur, who took 55 wickets in the four years he spent with Chennai. Contrast that with the line-up today, and it’s hard to escape the feeling that there’s little for an opposition to fear. Chahar can be a handful when there’s swing or movement off the pitch. Jadeja took just five wickets last season, and is now mainly used to dry up runs in white-ball cricket. Mitchell Santner has just 10 wickets from 13 IPL outings. Rajvardhan Hangargekar, one of the stars of India’s Under-19 World Cup win in 2022, took three wickets, but his spell was pockmarked by the inconsistency you expect from someone with so little big-time experience. Tushar Deshpande went for 51 in the 3.2 overs he bowled. Ben Stokes won’t be bowling, and Moeen didn’t on Saturday. Worryingly, there isn’t a proven match-winner on the bench either.
Teams Will Need Time to Work Out the Impact Player
No matter how gifted a strategist you are, the impact-player concept is going to take time to master. Gujarat were almost forced into their change by the knee injury to Kane Williamson. Sai Sudharsan didn’t do badly either, scoring a 17-ball 22 and adding 53 at nearly 10 an over with the in-form Gill. On the flip side, Chennai took out Ambati Rayudu and brought on Deshpande. He went for 4 fours and 4 sixes, and managed just 5 dot balls. There are few captain-coach combinations whose wealth of experience comes anywhere close to that that Chennai have with Dhoni and Stephen Fleming. That their impact gamble misfired so badly should tell you just how hard it’s going to be for teams to get to grips with the idea.