Welcome to the still slightly too early IPL power rankings list.
We have had enough games to make very uneducated guesses on who is doing well and who isn’t. This isn’t a points table, it is a vibes check based on record, strength of opposition, closeness of games and whatever else we make up.
Welcome to the IPL Power Rankings.
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RCB (Previous Ranking: 1)
Last week: RCB beat MI easy. But went down to RR, though still played well at times. Not much to be concerned about.
Batting: RCB actually have the highest run rate of all teams in the league. They have a lot of guys scoring around two runs a ball, with Rajat Patidar looking awesome. Romario Shepherd hasn’t batted much. Jitesh Sharma’s form is something worth keeping an eye on.
Bowling: Krunal Pandya’s form seems to be back, and that is a huge plus. Josh Hazlewood is actually back, also good. They need Rasikh Salam fit, and the less they bowl Romario Shepherd and Tim David, the better.
Next: v LSG (Apr 15), v DC (Apr 18, afternoon game)
Road ahead: RCB should at least be able to go 1-1 in the coming week, but with Punjab and Rajasthan looking in great form they’d not want to be left behind in the race for the top two. They’re 2-0 at home so far.
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PBKS (Previous Ranking: 4)
Recent record: W v SRH, N/R @ KKR
Last week: Punjab pulled the game back after conceding 105/0 in the powerplay, thanks to Shashank Singh’s surprise spell. Against KKR, Xavier Bartlett was hooping it around everywhere before rain ruined it.
Batting: They chased down 219 & 163 at home and 210 at Chepauk. It will be fascinating to see PrabhArya’s intent in the first innings when they aren’t limited by a target. Shreyas has two important knocks, as does Cooper Connolly. The lower middle order hasn’t seen much action yet.
Bowling: Arshdeep Singh is at 16 wides and a no one ball from his 14 overs. He’s going at 10.6, which is a bit high even for a fast-scoring league. However, every other bowler seems to have had a moment, even Shashank. The attack is not fully in form yet, so promising signs.
Next: @ MI (Apr 16), v LSG (Apr 19, night game)
Road ahead: Mumbai should be a tough game, but on current form may not be. Punjab can potentially go 2-0 the next week. That sets them up really nicely.
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RR (Previous Ranking: 5)
Last week: RR crushed Mumbai in a rain-curtailed game, and were pretty convincing for most of the RCB clash. But SRH’s debutants gave them a jolt at 9/5, though they made another 150 runs to not hurt their net run rate as badly.
Batting: The top three have been in sublime touch – all of them are in the top ten run-scorers, plus Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is an outlier on strike rate too. But with Jofra Archer at No.8 and Ravindra Jadeja not being a great death overs hitter, their batting depth can be a worry. And eventually, they’ll need their skipper to stand up with the bat.
Bowling: They have probably been the best performing attack of the season so far statistically. The overseas pace duo is spicy at the top, and Ravi Bishnoi is getting loads of poles.
Next: @ KKR (Apr 19, afternoon game), @ LSG (Apr 22)
Road ahead: They have some time off now, which isn’t a bad time to regroup after a big loss. After that, they go on the road. Getting 2 in 2 is still a realistic outcome looking at their quality.
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GT (Previous Ranking: 6)
Last week: We were worried about the road games, but Gujarat went 2-0. They beat LSG comfortably, and a big reason for that was that they choked the flow of runs in the middle overs. DC was obviously a coin toss game that could have gone either way.
Batting: Is Jos Buttler back? His last two fifties have looked very sublime; he hit lots of fours in Lucknow and cleared the ropes multiple times in Delhi. Shubman Gill has been amongst the runs too, and Washington Sundar got his first IPL fifty last week. They lack power, but Phillips has barely faced a ball.
Bowling: Pace is pace yaar, say the Gujarat Titans as they use it in every single phase of the innings. Prasidh Krishna looks in superb form with his impact in those middle overs, and we might have to ask if Rashid Khan is back too. Ashok Sharma’s pace is exciting. It’s actually Kagiso Rabada that has been their most expensive seamer so far, and Mohammed Siraj has been hot and cold.
Next: v KKR (Apr 17), v MI (Apr 20)
Road ahead: They play their next two games at home, so you would expect them to at least be 1-1. They did beat MI at this venue the last time on a black soil wicket.
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MI (Previous Ranking: 3)
Last week: MI bowled first in both games, did not get a single powerplay wicket and got smashed around the park. They lost too many wickets against RR, and could never really keep up with the required run rate versus RCB.
Batting: On paper, this batting lineup looks good, on grass it isn’t working. I am worried about their ceiling. Can Rohit Sharma and Ryan Rickleton get them 70+ run powerplays consistently? Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav get stuck versus spin, and you never know which version of Hardik Pandya turns up on a given day. Sherfane Rutherford is a great hitter at the end, but they have to give him more of a platform as he likes to be set first.
Bowling: Shardul Thakur has 5 wickets, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult and Deepak Chahar have two between them. And Shardul is going at more than 13 an over, while Mayank Markande has zero wickets at an economy rate of 15.2. Yes, nobody can hit Bumrah even now. But for a bowling lineup of big names, they might need to take more than 3.5 wickets a match.
Next: v PBKS (Apr 16), @ GT (Apr 20)
Road ahead: Mumbai have an interesting schedule, a home game against a strong team and an away one versus a side on the rise. But they just have to start winning, so 1-1 is still poor for them.