Saturday, March 28: Bengaluru v Hyderabad (6pm UAE)
RCB begin the new season in new territory – as the defending champions. That should provide them the freedom to play without pressure. Virat Kohli will make one of his rare appearances on the field and will be itching to have a go.
However, their middle order of Rajat Patidar and Devdutt Padikkal still does not exude confidence, they are without last season's bowling hero Yash Dayal, while Josh Hazlewood is also not available.
Sunrisers, too, have a big hole in their squad with captain Pat Cummins unavailable due to injury. That weakens both the bowling and batting with the former continuing to be a major headache for the franchise.
They do have the most devastating batting in the tournament, bolstered by India’s World Cup heroes Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan, along with Travis Head and Heinrich Klaasen. But bowling might concede whatever the team scores.
Prediction: RCB to win by less than 20 runs or four wickets.
Sunday, March 29: Mumbai v Kolkata (6pm)
Mumbai have the best core of local players in World Cup winners Suryakumar Yadav, Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah. Three out of these recently won another world title. Spin looks a bit thin and will need pacer Trent Boult to be available throughout.
Kolkata, meanwhile, have a dynamic batting set-up that includes Finn Allen, Rinku Singh and Sunil Narine. But captain Ajinkya Rahane is a weak link. Plus injury to pacer Harshit Rana and unavailability of Matheesha Pathirana has weakened their fast bowling considerably.
Prediction: Mumbai to win by more than 30 runs or five wickets.
Monday, March 30: Rajasthan v Chennai (6pm)
Rajasthan have an impressive overseas pace attack and some amazing local top-order batters in Yashasvi Jaiswal and teen prodigy Vaibhav Suryavanshi. But they have made a mess of the captaincy, placing Riyan Parag in the skipper’s seat even though there are other more experienced Indian cricketers in the side. The injury to Sam Curran a big blow.
Chennai possibly made the trade of the decade by getting in Sanju Samson. The wicketkeeper batter was the star of India’s T20 World Cup win, and should consider himself in line to take over from the great MS Dhoni at some point. Shivam Dube is in deadly form with bat while they have an abundance of quality seam and spin options.
Prediction: Chennai to win by over 30 runs or five wickets.
Tuesday, March 31: Punjab v Gujarat (6pm)
Punjab came within six runs of winning the title last year which would have been two IPL trophies in as many years for captain Shreyas Iyer. A well-settled bowling attack led by double World Cup winner Arshdeep Singh and the most balanced batting line-up in the league.
Gujarat, on the other hand, don’t have a particularly threatening batting or bowling attack. Does not help that their captain Shubman Gill was removed from the national team just before the World Cup. Top-order batting looks conservative and they have very few T20 specialist bowlers. Do have the quickest Indian bowler – uncapped Ashok Sharma.
Prediction: Punjab to win by over 30 runs or five wickets.
Wednesday, April 1: Lucknow v Delhi (6pm)
Lucknow are one of the few teams whose entire batting revolves around two overseas players – Aiden Markram and Nicholas Pooran. That restricts the options for captain Rishabh Pant who also has the task of proving himself in white-ball cricket after slowly getting pushed away from the national limited overs set-up.
Their local bowling group is tremendous but fast-bowlers Mohammad Shami, Mayank Yadav and Mohsin Khan are regular fitness concerns.
Delhi, captained by the in-form Axar Patel, have all bases covered after adding some fine names to the squad in local seam-bowling star Aaqib Nabi and Sri Lankan star batter Pathum Nissanka. Even without Mitchell Starc, Delhi have the bowling and batting balance to get the job done
Prediction: Delhi to win by four wickets or over 20 runs.
Thursday, April 2: Kolkata v Hyderabad (6pm)
Even with injuries to their quicks, Kolkata have a well stocked pace attack which includes promising young local bowlers such as Kartik Tyagi, Vaibhav Arora and Umran Malik – once the fastest bowler in the country. Their batting will rely on the evergreen Sunil Narine, an in-form Finn Allen and India star Rinku Singh – which is not the most feared of batting line-ups.
Sunrisers will be banking on their turbo charged batting to target scores in excess of 250. But without Cummins and a proper spin attack, Hyderabad look very vulnerable with the ball. Batting will have to score well above par every time.
Prediction: Kolkata to win by four wickets or less than 20 runs.
Friday, April 3: Chennai v Punjab (6pm)
Chennai dominated early contests between the teams but Punjab have held the upper hand in recent times, winning six of the last seven contests.
But this time, it is a new Chennai franchise that has binned their long-standing template of relying on veteran players. The addition of Samson in particular could revitalise the fortunes of a once dominant force.
Punjab, however, still have a more balanced team. They had no reason to alter the core of the team that served them so well last season and revolves around proven local talent, led by the inspiring Shreyas.
Opener Priyansh Arya with the bat and seamer Arshdeep Singh with the new ball could settle the contest.
Prediction: Punjab to win by five wickets or more than 30 runs.
