Bangalore were definitely handicapped by the absence of three of their heavy run scorers of last season, Virat Kohli, AB de Villers and K.L. Rahul but Hyderabad had managed to stop them last year too and this time they did it with greater ease.

Kohli is likely to miss the next few games too and that should shut up the idiots who were calling him names and questioning his commitment to India for missing the last Test match. Kohli has won more matches for India than these guys have played for their countries and to doubt the commitment of India’s skipper just to get a few brownie points back home is stupidity at its stupidest.

Every team will want to get off to the kind of start that the Hyderabad boys did, for then it is easy to keep the momentum going rather than play catch up after losing the first few games.

The Gujarat team had done brilliantly last year under Suresh Raina till they faltered in the knockout stage and this year they will want to go one better and win the trophy.

The Kolkata team did not quite do itself justice last season. This year without the explosive presence of Andre Russel, the others will have to lift their game to make up for his absence.

Gambhir leads from the front and if he hits his straps straightaway then Kolkata could get the kind of scores that puts the opposition under pressure.

Sunil Narine has bamboozled batsmen in the IPL and not many have always read which way the ball is going to turn and since pitches at this time of the year will be worn out he will have a massive role to play for the Knight Riders.

Most teams prefer to chase in the IPL but as we saw in Hyderabad the trend can turn with the team batting first winning the match and quite comfortably too.

Source: PMG