IPL 2024: Predicting where each team will finish in the group stage
The 17th edition of the IPL is just a day away. The anticipation and excitement are palpable, and fans cannot wait for the action to begin. Like every season, four teams will qualify for the playoffs, with the top two sides having two chances to make the final, while the other qualifiers will contest the Eliminator.
The Chennai Super Kings enter as defending champions, having gotten past the Gujarat Titans in an IPL final that spanned three days. The Mumbai Indians, having not won the title since 2020, would also want to make a mark, while the Delhi Capitals, the Lucknow Super Giants, the Punjab Kings, and the Royal Challengers Bengaluru gun for their maiden IPL crown.
Predicting how an IPL season will go is one of the toughest gigs, given how each team has game-changers. But what fun is an IPL season without any quirky and, at times, wild predictions?
Here is a run-down of how the teams will finish post the league stages, predicting the exact position of each side. Without further ado, let's get stuck into it.
IPL 2024 Predictions
#10 Gujarat Titans
A new captain with hardly any captaincy experience. Lots of proven, if not high-profile, domestic performers. An astute coach. A side not looking as formidable on paper as some of the others in the IPL. The Gujarat Titans have been here before. In fact, they were here in their debut IPL season.
Hardik Pandya was the skipper then, and the Titans were not the favorites to win the IPL. Yet, they did, and they did so showing off the conviction rarely expected of a new entrant. This season, though, things just feel different.
For starters, Hardik is no longer around, thereby ridding them of the balance that made them so good in 2022 and 2023. Mohammed Shami, their bowling lynchpin from last year, will take no part in this IPL campaign either. If Azmatullah Omarzai is being looked upon as a like-for-like swap for Pandya, it could mean that Kane Williamson misses out, given the Giants will have to play an overseas pacer to offset Shami's absence.
Mohit Sharma, their surprise package from 2023, is also a year older and Rashid Khan arrives having just recovered from a back injury. Gill, too, has not captained in the IPL, and what effect that will have on his batting form remains to be seen.
The Titans still have plenty of quality players. The likes of David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Sai Sudharsan, Shahrukh Khan, Vijay Shankar, and Gill have proven they are capable of delivering in the IPL. Spencer Johnson, acquired for big bucks, is arguably one of the most exciting pacers going around.
But the big question is whether the Titans can deliver consistently enough and whether they can find the right balance to maximize the overseas and Indian players at their disposal. Evidence of that ilk, though, does not seem very forthcoming at the moment.
#9 Punjab Kings
It has been almost ten years since the Punjab Kings (Kings XI Punjab previously) qualified for the IPL playoffs. Since then, PBKS have had some power-packed sides, only for them to stumble when push comes to shove in the group stages.
Will things be any different in this IPL campaign?
Well, it is tough to definitively answer in the affirmative. They have several match-winners in their squad. Their batting unit comprises of captain Shikhar Dhawan, Jitesh Sharma, Jonny Bairstow, and Liam Livingstone. Kagiso Rabada and Arshdeep Singh, similarly, can cause plenty of damage with the ball.
There are a couple of factors, though, that might pull them down.
Firstly, they will be playing at a new home ground, which could either give them the home advantage they crave or lead to teething and adaptation issues. Because there is minimal evidence, it is hard to argue either way, although given how other IPL teams normally have a tried-and-tested strategy for their home games, this is where the Punjab Kings might struggle.
The other aspect is that they do not seem to have a strong enough Indian core. Apart from Arshdeep and Jitesh, none of the others are in the national reckoning. Harshal Patel, signed at the auction for a hefty sum, tends to leak runs, while Rahul Chahar has never really recaptured the IPL form that propelled him into the Indian team.
Atharva Taide and Prabhsimran Singh, after last year, are two youngsters to keep an eye on. Chris Woakes and Rilee Rossouw, meanwhile, are capable backups. In fact, Punjab’s overseas contingent looks strong, considering Sam Curran and Sikandar Raza are also in the mix.
But only four of them can play on any given day. So, choosing the right personnel for the right game will be a challenge, whereas their relatively inexperienced Indian contingent will also be tested because of the heavy lifting they will have to do.
And for those reasons, their wait for a playoff berth might just continue.
#8 Delhi Capitals
All eyes, undeniably, will be on captain Rishabh Pant as he makes his long-awaited return to competitive cricket. And that could reinvigorate a Delhi side that fell woefully short of expectations in 2023.
Things, however, have started going wrong even before the season began. They bought Harry Brook at the auction, hoping he could be their middle-order enforcer. Lungi Ngidi, alongside Anrich Nortje, was billed as one of their key fast-bowling weapons. Neither of them will be available. Nortje, too, has not played much cricket after suffering a stress fracture in 2023.
The burden, unsurprisingly, will fall on Australian pair David Warner and Mitchell Marsh. As the years have gone on, though, the former has not been as consistent as he once was. He is still a match-winner, mind you, but there will be immense pressure on him.
As for Marsh, he is now an all-format player for his country. His stock has only risen in the past few months, but that does introduce the possibility of burnout, especially given he has had his run-ins with injuries previously.
The Indian contingent, comprising Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, and Prithvi Shaw can be match-winners on their day. But none of them has performed enough to be classified as a mainstay. Tristan Stubbs, who will most likely fill in for Brook, is also largely untested in the IPL.
Thus, the Capitals season could come down to how their three big batting guns fare, and how their spinners (Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav) perform. On paper, Axar and Kuldeep can lay claim to being the best spin-attack in the IPL; the latter, in particular, bowling as well as he has perhaps ever done.
But apart from that duo, things do not look very promising for the Capitals. And while the individual ability of these stars will take them past teams, it might not be enough to sustain their top-four challenge.
#7 Lucknow Super Giants
LSG, since they arrived in the IPL, have done relatively well, making the playoffs on both occasions. Thus, that is the least they would expect this season too. But can they do it?
KL Rahul, as captain and their best batter, will have a pivotal role to play. This time, though, that role will apparently be in the middle order. That does give the likes of Devdutt Padikkal (acquired through a trade; more on that later), Kyle Mayers, and Quinton de Kock freedom to tee off while offering Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran more support towards the end.
These overseas players, though, are in patchy form. Pooran has turned things around but the same cannot be said of Stoinis, who was omitted from the Australian team that faced New Zealand lately.
Quinton de Kock also did not set the world alight in the SA20, averaging less than 20 and striking at less than 125. Mayers was in decent form during the BPL, but the IPL will be a different kettle of fish altogether.
LSG have a new coach at the helm (Justin Langer replacing Andy Flower), with Gautam Gambhir also having departed for newer pastures. Their fast-bowling attack is also in transition, given they traded off Avesh Khan.
Mark Wood, due to concerns over his workload, was pulled out by the ECB, and there is uncertainty over when (or if) David Willey will join the squad, leaving Naveen-ul-Haq and Shamar Joseph as their overseas pace options.
They have plenty of all-rounders, though, and that gives them options. Add to that Ravi Bishnoi’s leg-spin, and the Super Giants have a side that will keep other franchises honest.
To make the playoffs, however, they will perhaps need a little more than that. And after two relatively successful seasons on that count, this is where they might come unstuck.
#6 Kolkata Knight Riders
Last season, KKR had to make do without their regular skipper Shreyas Iyer. So, they will be chuffed to know that he will likely be their starting captain this time. Gautam Gambhir has also returned - as team mentor - and his knowledge and nous will come in handy for a side that seemed a little bereft of ideas in 2023.
Rinku Singh, post an extraordinary campaign last season, is now an India regular in T20I cricket, and is showing no signs of slowing down. Andre Russell, back in the West Indian fold, has been striking the ball well, while Sunil Narine is bowling as tidily as ever. Nitish Rana and Venkatesh Iyer, two vital cogs in this KKR wheel, also had good domestic seasons.
And…KKR splashed out the better part of ₹24 crore to bring Mitchell Starc on board. The issue, though, is that Starc’s acquisition did not give them much wriggling room elsewhere, and that is a concern because if Starc breaks down, they do not have any clear-cut alternative. The lack of experience, in particular, sticks out.
Their batting also tends to blow hot and cold. Gambhir will most likely have them playing a fearless brand of cricket, and that comes with its caveats too. Thus, there will be days when they blow teams out of the water and cast themselves as contenders.
Those days, though, might not happen often enough to materialize into a playoff berth.