Varun

 The last team we will discuss about in the IPL Team Review is Rajasthan Royals. Rajasthan Royals has had a roller-coaster IPL journey. They won the inaugral season in 2008 and then qualified for the playoff next time in 2013, missed out on playoffs spot because of loosing to MI in a high-voltage game at Wankhede and then again qualified to Playoffs in 2015 and crashed out of the tournament after loosing against RCB in eliminator. Then they faced a 2-year ban and then made a comeback in 2018. The 2018-21 phase was a dull one as they qualified only 1 time for playoffs and that too narrowly. Then, they changed their strategy after 2021 IPL and adopted an analytical approach towards, team-building, scouting and style-of-play. They were the most consistent team in 2022-24 IPL with their worst performance being a number 5 finish in the 2023 season. Ahead of the 2025 IPL Mega Auction, they retained their batting core of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson, Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer and Dhr...

 The next team we will discuss about in the IPL Team Review is Punjab Kings. Punjab Kings is unarguably the most underperforming franchise in the history of IPL with only 2 playoffs appearances in 17 seasons and the team failed to win the trophy in both the seasons as well. Over the years, the Punjab Franchise have changed their captains, coaches, support staff members. players, jersey colours, logo and even renamed themselves as Punjab Kings in 2021 which earlier used to be Kings  X1 Punjab. But, the one thing that remains constant is group stage elimination. This time around PBKS went to the 2025 mega auction with a huge purse of 110.5 Cr with an intention to build a team from the scratch. They have a coach-captain combo of  Ricky Ponting and Shreyas Iyer. This duo had also revived the fate of Delhi Capitals in the 2019 season and turned an abysmal Delhi team into a top-notch cricket team. Can this duo do the same with Punjab Kings in 2025? Let's find out. We will do...

 The next team we will discuss about in the IPL Team Review is Delhi Capitals. Delhi Capitals' journey in IPL can be divided in 4 phases: 2008-2012, 2013-2018, 2019-2021 and 2022-2024. Capitals were a consistent franchise in the 1st phase with 3 playoff appearances in 5 seasons and narrowly missing out in 2010. The 2nd phase is the dullest phase in the history of this franchise with 0 playoff appearances in 6 consecutive seasons. The 3rd phase was the revival phase where Ricky Ponting as a coach revived the franchise with players like Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Marcus Stoinis and Shimron Hetmyer alongside veterans like Shikhar Dhawan and R Ashwin. They came close to title 2 times but failed to win it. The 4th phase was a phase of misfortune where DC struggled with fitness issues of key players over the 3 seasons which saw them missing out narrowly 2 times for the playoffs berth in 2022 and 2024 while finishing at the bottom in 2023. This t...

 The next team we will discuss about in the IPL Team Review is Kolkata Knight Riders. Kolkata Knight Riders is the 3rd most successful team after MI and CSK with 3 titles. They were a top-class franchise during 2011-2018 with 2 titles and 4 other playoff appearances in 2011, 2016, 2017 and 2018. Then they became inconsistent in the 2019-2023 phase before again peaking in 2024 and winning  the tile in a dominating manner. In the 2025 IPL Mega Auction, they tried to buy back most of the players of their 2024 squad and managed to buy many of them. How does the KKR squad look for the 2025? Let's find out. We will do  a phase-wise analysis of batting and bowling of KKR 2025 squad members for the last 3 seasons of IPL and find out the strengths and weaknesses of KKR. Squad: Playing 11: Rahmanullah Gurbaz(wk), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russel, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Vaibhav Arora, Spencer Johnson Impact Player...

 The next team we will discuss about in the IPL Team Review is Lucknow Super Giants. Lucknow Super Giants is among the 2 new teams introduced before 2022 IPL in order to expand the league. They had good 2022 and 2023 season where they qualified for playoffs as the number 3 team on the points table before loosing  in eliminator and getting knocked out of the tournament. They were having a good tournament in 2024 as well as before flattering around in the later half of the tournament which led to a fallout between the then captain KL Rahul and Team Owner Sanjeev Goenka. The game against SRH at Uppal where the Head-Abhishek duo thrashed LSG bowlers all around the park will always be remembered  as the turning point of the franchise. After this match Goenka scolded KL Rahul publicly which sparked a controversy and fans  as well as critics debated about whether Goenka's behaviour with  KL was appropriate or not. After lot of discussions and disagreements, LSG and KL ...

 Well, tomorrow is a big cricketing day for India as well as New Zealand as both the times are going to lock horns with each other in the all important Champions Trophy  Final in Dubai starting from 2.30 PM IST on 9th March, 2025? So who looks better: India or New Zealand? Let's find out. India has been bossing ODIs since 2023 with just 2 bilateral series losses since the start of 2023 along  with winning Asia Cup 2023, being the runner's up in 2023 WC and now reaching the finals of Champions Trophy 2025. The best thing about 2023 WC and 2025 CT is that the team has remain unbeaten till final, while India lost the all important 2023 WC Final at Motera on 19th November, India will be hoping to win the CT 2025 Final tomorrow. While, New Zealand is a team which is not rated as high as teams like India, Australia, England and South Africa but they always punch above their weights and are one of the most consistent teams in World Cricket especially in ICC Tournaments, when it ...

 The next team we will discuss about in the IPL Team Review is Gujarat Titans. Gujarat Titans is just a 3 year old franchise and it had a dream debut season for any team ever. They were written off by almost every cricket expert just after the 2022 auction and then GT went on to win the IPL in 2022 with best win percentage by any team in a single season of IPL with 13 wins out of 16 games. They almost replicated the same performance in 2023 but  ended up loosing the final to CSK on the last ball in a rain-affected nail-biter  at Motera. But the biggest shock for the franchise and its fans came when the then captain, Hardik Pandya decided to leave GT and go back to Mumbai Indians. This is the most controversial trade ever in the IPL History. After Hardik and GT parted ways, Shubhman Gill was announced as the new captain of Gujarat Titans and the team finished 8th in the 2024 season among the 10 teams, thus having a disappointing season. GT went to IPL 2025 auction to ...