Top trends for that IPL 2024 would be remembered. IPL 2024 witnessed a lot of young India players, 200+ team scores and risk-taking abilities from batters.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 has been about aggression with the bat, resulting in more boundaries and maximums. It’s about the young generation of Indian cricket displaying their magical skills with both bat and ball. This year’s tournament has also proved that batters of the modern generation play with much more freedom.
The young generation doesn’t carry any baggage and looks to go for the big shots from the very first delivery. It has been the trend of this year’s IPL. But it could become the new normal for T20s in the near future.
A look at what has been new in this Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024
Young India players shouldering the responsibility
The IPL always provides a great stage for young India players to showcase their talent before the world. This is the best platform where they could unleash themselves to attract the attention of the whole world. However, in the last few seasons, the veterans carried their team on most occasions.
This IPL 2024 has seen a change. Young players have begun to shoulder the responsibility. For SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH), in the opening spot along with Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma has been a huge positive. The left-handed batter has smashed 470 runs in 14 innings at a strike rate of 207.04. In many cases, when Head got out cheaply, Abhishek stood in the middle to take care of the powerplay batting.
For Rajasthan Royals (RR), Riyan Parag has raised his hand to become a vital member of the middle order. After a few dry seasons with the bat, he has milked 531 runs in this IPL 2024. His strike rate of 152.58 has been quite phenomenal.
Punjab Kings (PBKS) have found two gems- Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma. Both of them have exhibited maturity in tough situations. The former ends this edition with 354 runs at a fabulous strike rate of 164.65, while Ashutosh finishes with 189 runs, striking at 167.25.
When it comes to bowling, Harshit Rana for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) has bowled with pace and aggression. Going into the finale of the season, he has nailed 17 scalps at an economy of 9.40. This emerging trend spells joy for India’s cricket team.
Read More: IPL 2024 has witnessed a deluge of 200+ totals: Is the ‘Impact Player’ rule adding more excitement?
Ability to take more risk with a lot more boundaries on offer
This season of the IPL has found the players taking much more risk with the bat. The ‘Impact player rule’ has made the batters much more brave and bold in going for the big shots. This has pushed the game towards more frequent high-scoring affairs.
Till the first qualifier of this IPL 2024, a total of 2100 boundaries have been smashed. Most of them belong to the Delhi Capitals (DC), who have nailed 229 boundaries in 14 innings. This means Delhi batters have drilled the opponents for around 16 boundaries per game. Eight of the ten franchises have smoked more than 200 boundaries each in the tournament.
When it comes to nailing the sixes, a total of 1225 maximums have been hoisted over the rope. The highest of them belong to the SunRisers Hyderabad - 166 sixes in 14 innings. That’s nearly 12 sixes per game; which again shows how brutal the batters have been in this IPL.
Except for Gujarat Titans (68), the other nine sides have hit more than 100 sixes in this edition. Along with Hyderabad, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) are the only other team to nail more than 150 sixes in the competition.
41 times, teams have gone on to break the 200-run barrier in terms of totals. That’s four times more than the last edition, with few playoff games yet to be played. The highest total in IPL history of 287 has also been registered by the SunRisers in this year’s IPL.
More focus on strike rate and phase-wise bowling
Going forward, if the onslaught of the batters continues, then the focus will grow much more on strike rates. There won’t be much attention on the average of the batters. For example, Travis Head has notched up 533 runs but that has come at a strike rate close to 200.
During RCB’s last fixture against Chennai Super Kings (CSK), the nucleus of discussion was how Virat Kohli batted. But actually, it was the small contributions from Glenn Maxwell or Dinesh Karthik that did the damage. Batters scoring 80 or 90 runs in 50 or 60 balls have less impact compared to someone scoring 30 in 10 deliveries.
When it comes to the bowling department, the limelight should be on bowlers who could bowl in various situations. The reason behind the importance of Jasprit Bumrah is the same. He could come with the new ball in the powerplay and bowl a couple of good overs. The same bowler could come and restrict the opponents in the death overs. Bumrah finishes the IPL 2024 with 20 wickets, but his economy of 6.48 is what stands out.
In RCB’s last game against CSK, Yash Dayal used the variations beautifully. Even after going for a six in the very first ball of the last over, Dayal held his nerves to carry them over the line. This just increases his value a little more going into the next IPL. It’s more about the situations of the game rather than looking at the stats blindly.
The T20 game has developed quite a lot in the two months of IPL 2024. And it’s just the beginning. In the upcoming days, there will be more shift of mentality among the batters, bowlers and also the team management.