Just past the halfway stage this Indian Premier League (IPL) season, front-runners and laggards are fairly well-defined. Given the unpredictability of the T20 format, it would be foolish to predict a winner at this stage. Teams that have invested heavily in big names, caring little about the balance and composition of the squad, are struggling. Indeed, those skewed heavily in favour of batting (e.g., Gujarat Lions) are paying the price for misreading the trend in T20: Bowlers matter. Gambhir also flummoxed rivals Bangalore when he used only his pace bowlers to defend a modest score.

Source: Mint May 03, 2017 12:11 UTC