IPL 2024: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant the cynosure and for good reasons

The buzz of anticipation is unmistakable, the air pregnant with possibilities and promise. Not for the first time, the lead-up to a new season of the Indian Premier League has been high on drama, exacerbated by the overwhelming success of Season 2 of the Women’s Premier League.

In a significant change from the past, however, Season 17 of the IPL will not be so much about the promise of tomorrow as the performance of today. For the first time in a long while in what is touted as the toughest T20 league in the world, the cynosure will be Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant, and with good reason too.

The first signs of sweeping change were ushered in at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday night with a name change. Having played for 16 seasons as Royal Challengers Bangalore, one of the eight original franchises will henceforth be Royal Challengers Bengaluru, a change that reflects the new spelling and pronunciation of the city where the team is based. Whether that will bring about a change in fortunes is uncertain – after all, Smriti Mandhana’s team went all the way with the old name, the old spelling – but the die has been cast.

Over the next eight weeks, the IPL will throw up exciting new talent like it always does, but that will primarily be a footnote. The T20 World Cup is a little more than two months away and midway through the IPL, India will have to announce their 15 for the same. Many of those places have already been filled, with injuries more than form the most likely deterrents. There are still a few berths open and the race to fill those slots will be intensely competitive, but even that is unlikely to deflect attention from the established order.

Why Rohit? After all, he has already been named the captain of the T20 World Cup squad, right? Right. But for the first time in more than a decade, Rohit will not be the captain of a team he has led to five IPL titles. For the first time, a designated Indian skipper will play under someone else. How will that dynamic play out? Will Rohit be able to put his personal disappointment aside and slip in as mentor to Pandya? And how will the younger man maximise Rohit’s wisdom and experience and explosive batting while trying to retain his own style of leadership?

If that is intriguing on many counts, then so is the Kohli situation. The former Indian captain ceased to be the RCB skipper in 2022, the transition smooth with Faf du Plessis slipping seamlessly into the hot seat with Kohli by his side as trusted companion and close confidant. This IPL will be vital for Kohli from a personal standpoint. He is returning to competitive action for the first time in more than two months, having missed the five-Test home series against England for the birth of his second child.

Kohli, like Rohit, only returned to the T20I fold in January after more than 14 months in the wilderness in the clearest indication that both were in the reckoning for the World Cup this summer. His returns in the two matches against Afghanistan weren’t outstanding though as always, he was sensational in the field. There have been whispers about how Kohli’s style of batting might run into a tartar on the slow, low tracks that are expected to be laid out in the US and the Caribbean. The first four weeks of the IPL will therefore be massive from a Kohli perspective; all he can do is stack up the runs and make the task of the decision-makers that much harder.

The IPL will also welcome back the irrepressible Pant, more than 14 months after a terrible road accident from which he was lucky to emerge alive, let alone unscathed. Summoning all his fortitude, positivity and resolve, the 26-year-old has defied predictions and recovered a lot faster than anticipated. He will need time to hit his straps because this long away from the game won’t be easy to come back from. Now officially re-established as the captain of Delhi Capitals, Pant will have to balance the twin responsibilities of looking after himself as well as his mates; it’s not a task that has fazed him in the past and there is no reason to believe it will do so now.

With Pandya having moved from Gujarat Titans to Mumbai Indians, Shubman Gill has been presented with the chance to show off his leadership skills. Another exciting prospect in a season that promises more excitement than the entire past put together.