Rajasthan’s Blistering Start
Just as the bookies were crowning the Royals as champions-elect, though, Ishan Kishan turned up at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium and reminded everyone how quickly a narrative can shatter. Ninety-one off 44 balls — a brutal exhibition of calculated savagery. Debutant Sakib Hussain took four wickets as Rajasthan folded for 159 chasing 217. The team that looked untouchable suddenly looked mortal.
Mumbai Indians
One win and three losses. NRR of -0.772. Eighth place. For any other franchise, this is a problem. For Mumbai, the most decorated franchise in IPL history — five titles, more finals appearances than anyone cares to count — this is something deeper than a bad run. It's an identity crisis. The team that defined franchise cricket dominance is now occupying the same bracket as a Chennai Super Kings side that conceded 250 to RCB.
Bumrah hasn't bowled a truly unplayable spell yet in 2026. Not one. He's been present, quietly accurate, but not yet the bowler who makes batters genuinely want to leave the field. When that spell arrives — the slower ball gripping off the pitch, the yorker zeroed into the blockhole at 145kph, the bouncer that climbs into the ribcage from nowhere — this team transforms. The market at 4/5 is pure pattern recognition.
April 8th in Delhi. One run. Gujarat Titans needing one run off the last ball of their chase to beat Delhi Capitals, Shubman Gill 70 off 45 balls, and yet still not quite enough until it suddenly, barely, was. One run separates a dressing room that drifts from a dressing room that believes. The difference in cricket's psychology is immeasurable — and Gujarat's players walked off knowing they'd found something when they needed it most.
The Jos Buttler-Gill axis hasn't exploded simultaneously yet. When Gujarat spent ₹15.75 crore on Jos Buttler, they were buying a specific partnership — the English destroyer and the Indian captain feeding off each other's confidence at the top of an innings. That partnership, against a pace-heavy attack in Ahmedabad, is a lit fuse.
Buttler finally showed glimpses against LSG with 60 off 37 balls. Gill contributed his 70 against DC. But they haven't clicked in the same innings yet. When they do, and Rashid Khan is turning the middle overs into a spin web that's strangled KL Rahul for 3/17 in four overs already this tournament — the ceiling is genuinely frightening. At 2.75, bookmakers are treating Gujarat like a concern. They're a delayed explosion.
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