It’s the time of the year when all the fans of Indian cricket are not supporting the same team, the time of the year when most of the country spends the evening sitting in front of their television sets, and also a time when the ‘Men in Blue’ are donning jerseys of 8 different colours – yep, the Indian Premier League is back.
And before IPL 2019 kicks off in Chennai on Saturday, 23 March, Quintees reveal their wish list for the upcoming season.
- Badshay Ray: This IPL, I want KKR to lift the title. Also, I want Yuvraj Singh to perform really, really well. And if he hits six sixes (in an over) then nothing like it.
- Yash Jha: Five players – Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Kedar Jadhav and Hardik Pandya – I hope for these five players to play with a bubble wrap around them as many times as they take the field during this IPL. Because if anything is to happen to any of these five players that hope of lifting the World Cup, come mid-July, will probably take a huge dent.
Aside from that, one player who has been subject of much debate – one MS Dhoni. I hope to see him play exactly the way he did one year ago. A lot of talk these days about how MS Dhoni can't hit the ball, how he struggles to rotate strike – you go back one year, MS Dhoni in that title-winning campaign for Chennai Super Kings: 450 runs at a strike-rate of 150, his best IPL season as a batsman. If he is to replicate that again, a lot of these needless murmurs around the Indian team, and its preferred choice of wicketkeeper-batsman, will be shut.
- Sushovan Sircar: I wish that none of the matches at Eden Gardens are washed out by the Norwesters in Bengal called Kalboishakhi, because every IPL at least one match is washed out by the rains. So I hope KKR get to play all their games at a packed Eden Gardens and win all of them. And the second thing I want is for people to not have the IPL tune as their ringtone.
- Malavika Balasubramanian: My wish for this year's IPL is that CSK win, obviously, but also that CSK get to play all their seven home games at Chepauk for one time. At least this season they should be able to do that.
- Udayan Sinha: This IPL I would really like to see Rishabh Pant performing well.
- Saundarya Talwar: This IPL I really hope Delhi Capitals don't end at the bottom of the league table. That's my basic expectation.
- Rajesh Pal: This IPL, I'm more concerned about the World Cup. I think some players should be rested after 8-9 matches. Instead, the uncapped players should be given a chance.
- Sumit Josh: Time out from Strategic Timeouts. If T20Is don't need them, even IPL can do without it.
- Abhik Deb: Steve Smith and David Warner are coming back. I want them to be in good shape before the World Cup because Australia is my dark horse for this World Cup, and I really want these two players to fire.
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