5 talking points from the first week of IPL 2019
We are into the 12th season of the biggest and the most-entertaining T20 tournament in the world, the Indian Premier League. The first week has gone by, and we have already seen some hard-hitting, record-shattering performances, amidst a fair share of controversies.
The opening encounter saw two of the biggest names in world cricket, Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni, go head-to-head against each other, in what turned out to be a rather underwhelming affair. There was some discussion around the kind of pitches that should be prepared for opening encounters of tournaments as huge as this, because the opening match between the Super Kings and the Royal Challengers left fans a bit disappointed.
However, the rest of the week gave us some sensational batting performances from the likes of Sanju Samson, Nitish Rana, Andre Russell and others. There was also a lot of buzz about David Warner and Steve Smith, who made their long-awaited returns to the IPL for their respective franchises.
As usual, the season has already generated some note-worthy discussions about the sport of cricket. From R.Ashwin's mankading incident which saw Jos Buttler walking off, to S.Ravi's erroneous umpiring which saw Mumbai Indians get away with a last-ball no-ball; this year's season has already been memorable.
This year's edition of the IPL is also important in terms of its implications on the team selections for the upcoming World Cup in England. Aaron Finch, the Australian captain, has already talked about how the returns of Warner and Smith will make for some hard decisions. India's No.4 conundrum will most likely be solved by taking IPL performances into consideration, as a number of names have been flowing in the air for a while now for the said position.
Before the IPL goes into the next gear, let's take a look as to what was worth talking about during the very first week of IPL 2019.
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