Sedate Dhoni, berserk Kohli: A wishlist for IPL 2018

Summer is here and the IPL – now in its eleventh season – is upon us. Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals are back. Steve Smith and David Warner are back home. The DRS is set to make its IPL debut, and R Ashwin may try some leg spin.

Here’s a wishlist for what promises to be an enthralling season:

1. Dhoni bats in the top five for CSK

No cricketer is as cherished by his franchise, and by their passionate fan-base, as MS Dhoni is in Chennai. His powers may be on the wane, especially in T20 cricket, but don’t dare mention that to the waves and waves of fans decked in yellow who have nothing but adoration for their dear thala.

The thought of Dhoni coming in at No. 6 or 7 and piloting the run-chase – possibly ending the game with a six – still gets the pulses racing, but here’s wishing for an avatar that comes in at No. 4 or 5 and sets the pace, preparing a platform for the launch at the death. And who knows, maybe he could be there to finish games too!

2. Nagarkoti and Mavi run red-hot for KKR

The most eye-popping sight from the recent U-19 World Cup: two Indian fast bowlers, namely Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Shivam Mavi hurtling to the crease and firing 145kph thunderbolts at one hapless Australian batsman after another.

Neither may get a consistent run in the IPL – what with KKR’s depth in bowling stocks – but just for one evening, what would we give for these two insurgents to flatten a powerful batting line-up? Speed, zip and carry, from its youngest proponents.

3. An IPL dominated by leg spin and googlies

Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Rashid Khan, Imran Tahir, Karn Sharma, Amit Mishra, Sandeep Lamichhane, Mujeeb Zadran, Zahir Khan… even R Ashwin has been practising leg spin of late.

Few disciplines have as much risk inherent in them as wrist spin, and T20s can be even more unforgiving on bowlers who are trying to attack with each ball. Which is reason enough to hope for these bowlers to succeed: tossing it up, hoodwinking the batsmen in flight, and nabbing them with a stumping or a nifty caught and bowled.

4. R Ashwin – the tactical mastermind

The mind says that R Ashwin will be a relatively safe captain, trying his best to propel a historically underperforming side to the playoffs.

The heart wishes that he go for broke: altering the line-ups in every game, upturning the batting order, opening the bowling with himself, surprising us with imaginative fields and making every opposition captain wary of his next move. Let’s hear it for a new version of Ashwin, one imbued with Shane Warne’s inventiveness and Martin Crowe’s tactical smarts.

5. A new champion

There is some rule that apparently says Mumbai Indians will win the IPL every other year (2013, 2015, 2017). So maybe they’ll take a break from winning this time. Chennai Super Kings should make the playoffs and Kolkata are likely to be a major force once again. Sunrisers too have had their taste of glory and Rajasthan Royals, we remember, were the inaugural champions.

Which leaves Kings XI Punjab, Delhi Daredevils, and Royal Challengers Bangalore – the first a perennial underperformer, the second a perennial non-performer and the third perhaps the only team led by Virat Kohli to not win a major title. It’s high time, people. It’s high time these three teams raised the bar.

6. Low-scoring thrillers

Just once in a while, to spice things up, wouldn’t it be fun to have some bowler-dominated games this IPL? Maybe a pitch with some seam and bounce, where one team is bowled out for 60 and then manages to restrict the opposition to 59.

Or even better, a dustbowl, like the final day of a Test match, with close-in catchers throwing out appeals every other ball. Rashid Khan at one end and Shakib Al Hasan at the other as batsmen tie themselves into knots searching for the elusive single. What fun.

7. A dream Bumrah over

At some stage of the IPL – hopefully, in the playoffs – Mumbai Indians will have to defend two or three runs in the last over. Which is when Jasprit Bumrah will send down six magic deliveries – straight yorkers, wide yorkers, slower ones, low full-tosses – and pull off a triple-wicket maiden. Or so we wish.

8. Kohli goes berserk

There is little doubt that Virat Kohli will set the IPL alight with a string of impressive scores, shepherding the Royal Challengers’ innings and launching towards the death. But once every few games, especially when batting first, one year for him to free himself of all strategy and seek to smash every ball out of the ground.

Perhaps he would fail. But boy, think of what we could be in for if he pulls it off. A 20-ball hundred? A nine-ball fifty? The possibilities, my dear friends, are most mouth-watering.

Sidvee is a writer and blogger based in the USA