With the dust settling on one of the most intense and exciting Test series in recent memory, the cricketing world now turns its attention to the upcoming IPL series where eight teams will duke it out to be crowned the Indian T20 Champions. The tournament kicks off on Wednesday, the 5th of April, and we have you covered with a full series preview below.
Last Season
David Warner’s team, the Sunrisers of Hyderabad took out the 2016 title with an 8 run win over tournament favourites the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Warner capped off an outstanding series with the win, plundering 848 runs at an average of 61 while Indian teammate Shikhar Dhawan chipped in with 501 runs.
The player of the tournament, however, was Virat Kohli, who produced one of the most dominant stretches of cricket in history. Kohli amassed a ridiculous 973 runs at an average of 81 scoring four hundreds and failing to reach 50 just four times in his 16 innings. Unfortunately for fans, Kohli will miss the start of the 2017 IPL season with an injury he sustained in the Australian Test series.
Indian player for Sunrisers, Bhuvenshwar Kumar led the tournament with the ball, claiming 23 scalps while Australian Shane Watson continued to defy father time with an impressive 20 wickets.
Players to Watch
The IPL brings out the most talented cricketers in the world, annually, so there’s never any shortage of star power regardless of which two teams are playing. Along with the likes of Kohli and Warner, you have a host of international Test and ODI stars that converge in India such as AB de Villiers, Steve Smith, Martin Guptill, Hashim Amla, Glenn Maxwell and Trent Boult just to name a few. de Villiers is the one I’ll be watching here, with no Kohli for the first part of the tournament, the run scorers title is up for grabs, and barring injury, de Villiers is arguably the class T20 batsman in the world currently.
TIP: AB de Villiers top tournament run scorer - $9 at Sportsbet
The contingent of West Indian T20 specialists are what makes the IPL one of the most exciting tournaments in the world. Chris Gayle, Keiron Polloard, Dwayne Bravo, Darren Sammy, Sunil Narine, Lendl Simmons and Samuel Badree will lead the dynamic stars while Andre Russel will unfortunately miss through injury
However, the most exciting aspect in terms of star power, in my opinion, is the retired greats who show they’ve still got what it takes to match it with the current players. Guys like Brendon McCullum, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Mitchell Johnson, MS Dhoni and Shane Watson are just a few of the former greats that will be suiting up this year, all of whom have dominated international cricket at stages throughout the last ten years.
For me, Mitchell Johnson is the one that I’ll be keeping a really close eye on. At 35, he could arguably still push for Australian Test selection if he wanted to, and his performance in the Australian Big Bash League stamped his case as one of the most dominant T20 bowlers going round.
TIP: Mitchell Johnson top tournament wicket taker - $34 at Sportsbet
Tournament Predictions
As with any T20 tournament in the world, the IPL is extremely hard to predict. With so many players coming and going on a regular basis due to other cricket commitments, it’s hard to get a real feel for the squads you see on paper. T20’s are also, at the best of times, complete 50/50s that can be won or lost by a single player on any given night.
However, it’s hard to look past the list of the Royal Challengers Bangalore at first glance. With a top six that, when healthy, will boast Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Shane Watson, Travis Head and KL Rahul, there shouldn’t be many occasions where they score under par. Add to that a world class T20 spinner in Samuel Badree and some quality pace options in Adam Milne, Tymal Mills and Australian Billy Stanlake, and RCB should have the pieces to go one step further in 2017.
TIP: Royal Challengers Bangalore to win IPL 2017 - $5 at Sportsbet
Another team that really strikes my eye, but doesn’t necessarily do the same for the bookies, is the Kings XI Punjab. Markets opened with them as the highest priced team to win the title at $11 (Sportsbet), but I think their list is worthy of a shorter price than that. They have proven T20 talent at the top of the order in Eoin Morgan and Martin Guptill. Shaun Marsh, Hashim Amla, David Miller and Murali Vijay are all international quality batsmen who will add to their top order depth while Wriddhiman Saha proved his worth as a gloveman/middle order bat in the Australian Test series.
Their bowling stocks leave a little to be desired, but their out and out strength comes in the quality of their all-rounders. With Victorians Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell as well as Darren Sammy in the ranks, the Kings XI will have plenty of power at the middle-bottom order, which is in my opinion, the key ingredient to posting big totals and winning T20s.
Value TIP: Kings XI Punjab to win IPL 2017 - $11 at Sportsbet
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