“You know what’s harder than winning a title? Retaining it.”
It took Hardik Pandya just 13 seconds to arrive at the crux of every multi-team sports league in an 84-second video clip published on Gujarat Titan’s social media handles 24 hours before their first IPL match. Only twice have teams defended their titles in 15 years of the Indian Premier League–Chennai Super Kings in 2011 and Mumbai Indians in 2020.
Invincibility at home, durable multi-skilled Indian playing cores and fanatical support are the major reasons why Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings have been the teams to beat in all these years. But this is probably the end of the road for the phenomenon called MS Dhoni. And Jasprit Bumrah is set to watch the IPL from the rehab ward. Time for a new order then?
This is not the IPL in its early exploratory and hesitant years. New kids on the block doesn’t mean slow off the blocks like Pune Warriors or Kochi Tuskers. In reaching the finals of their very first season, Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants had raised the stakes in what was already a tournament of fine margins. But they are not taking that headstart for granted.
“The fact that we had a good season last year is exactly that–it’s in the last year,” said Vikram Solanki, director of cricket at Gujarat Titans. “The startline is the same. There is no advantage or disadvantage.”
This story is from the March 31, 2023 edition of Hindustan Times.
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This story is from the March 31, 2023 edition of Hindustan Times.
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