Chapter 1: What are the predictions for IPL 2026?
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You can keep up with all things IPL by watching Strategic Timeout, Info on the BBC Sport YouTube channel and BBC iPlayer. Hello and welcome to Strategic Time Out with me, Amber Sandhu, the show where we chat all things IPL. Now, it's not long to go until the 19th edition of the competition gets underway.
And here we're going to be debriefing it all from shots to stories to wickets and all the wonderful stuff.
in between and each week i'm going to be joined by a couple of fab guests this week everyone's favorite faithful quite surreal actually seeing you in person and traitors finalist for us and all joins us and a former ipl player knows the competition inside and out abhishek janjavala abhishek for us hello hello um for us we're going to come to you first now you are a massive sports fan but also grew up playing cricket you still do play as well i'm trying to anywhere
I know, I've seen you batting, actually. You've got the Stuart Broad.
Broady appreciated it, didn't he? So not too bad.
For context, Stuart Broad commented on Faraz's video of him batting, saying shot. So I think that gives you the approval, doesn't it? Talk me through some of your earliest memories of cricket and watching the IPL.
I remember playing earliest cricket is like just playing with my dad in the gully, so to speak, playing gully cricket with my cousins as well and stuff. So much fun, honestly. I absolutely loved it. And then I remember just like watching the IPL. You see all the colours of all the kits and everything like that.
You see all the stars, you see all the donies and then the pollards and all this and all that. I honestly love it. All the overseas players I used to really like watching.
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Chapter 2: How has the IPL evolved since its inception?
So it was a huge gamble.
A massive gamble, massive gamble. But the way they did it, the people they bought into the tournament, the owners they bought. I mean, you've got to give credit to the BCCI and whoever arranged it all. You've got to give them a lot of credit. They bought the right people to make it successful. They had a game plan and look at it today.
And I guess it's really special for you to look back. You played between 2010 and 2012 for three different teams as well. So you played with a lot of players, but you played under Shane Warne, didn't you, in 2010?
I mean, he was a special human, to be honest. And to be able to spend that much time with him was extraordinary. In everything he did, he had a big heart. He bagged you as a youngster. I've played under a lot of captains. I've played with among everyone you can think of, the modern day great of cricket. And I'd never seen anybody operate the way he did.
He was obviously such a character as well.
Oh, an absolute character. There must be some stories. Yeah, I know. There are some amazing stories. There are some amazing stories. I mean, to be honest, we played a lot of poker together because I used to love playing poker. So we played a lot of poker on tour.
Every evening, probably we'll have a table of eight or nine and a lot of players from different teams always joined as well because they're always touring sides and a lot of Bollywood joined as well. Because Shilpa was at that time, Shilpa Shetty was one of the co-owners for Rajasthan Royals. So she bought the whole shebang with her. The Bollywood was there.
I used to play a lot of poker with Vani in his room because he used to love playing poker. And once I remember, so I was playing on his laptop because he was sponsored by some of the poker, massive poker companies where he used to get a certain amount of money.
to spend every year just playing and i lost three and a half grand one day i was playing a hand with his money and i lost three and a half grand and honestly when i lost that hand i didn't know what to do because i thought i thought i had to pay him back now
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Chapter 3: What was it like playing in the early days of the IPL?
Proper chicken change.
I've literally lost three and a half grand and he didn't even bother.
Who was the best at the poker table?
He was. Because whenever we played, he literally, 80% of the time, he'll tell me what hands I was playing on. And not just me. Like, with a lot of other people. And, yeah, it was so funny. And there's another very funny incident we had. So, obviously, at that... You know, when you... Get access to a bit of money when you see everyone around you wearing nice watches.
As a youngster, you always want to wear a nice watch. So I bought a nice watch. A couple of other youngsters on the table had a nice watch. And one of them was wearing a nice watch. And he asked me, how much did you pay for that watch? And we were wearing the exactly same watch. literally identical, wearing the same watch. I said, mate, you know how much I paid for it.
You're wearing the same watch. But no, no, go on. Tell me, how much did you pay for that watch? I gave him a number. He said, yeah, I paid $150 because I bought them from Hong Kong. They're all fake. But I can get away with it because I'm Shane Vaughan. You can't. You know, that's what makes him so special. And these things he does, it's wild.
Yeah, that's why we love warning. You mentioned the Bollywood and the big names. That's the big appeal, isn't it, when it comes to IPL? And you say IPL was quite different then. How has it changed in your eyes? Because it has come such a long way in the last 18 years or so.
IPL was very different in the first three years. Because you had the IPL parties, we stopped after the first three years. Cricket was the prime focus. When it started, it always has been, it always will be. But those parties or the Bollywood was a lot more involved.
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Chapter 4: How did IPL change the lives of domestic players?
You had a lot more into that world, which slowly, gradually stopped because players were a lot more focused on just the matches. Because... The issue was those parties used to start at 1 a.m. And then they used to carry on until 5, 6. And, you know, and then they used to carry on until 5, 6 a.m. in the morning. And then you had a 6.30, 7 o'clock in the flight. Wow.
So I think to some extent it took a lot of toll on players and the whole lifestyle around it. You would think so, wouldn't you? Imagine that now. Imagine having to process that. You've just been partying from 1 till 6. Then you've got to... You've got to go and take a morning flight. For some reason, they always booked us in a morning flight. And we always questioned that.
Why not an afternoon flight? You know?
T20, but they wanted to test you.
They wanted to test your armour. Yeah, they wanted to. Abhishek, I love the sound of these parties. Tell me more. Can you just paint a picture? Who are the names there? I want to know, what did these parties look like? Take us back.
So you really want to get me into trouble. Yes. With all my ex-teammates and my friends. That's what we're here for. I mean, see, those parties were amazing because as I mentioned earlier, you got in road to the Bollywood because your Shah Rukh Khan is there. The Hrithik Roshan is there. All the biggest name you can imagine, Salman Khan.
I mean, you can name anyone from the Bollywood who were absolute mega stars. They were there for those parties.
So I guess the IPL tested your resilience in a different way.
It did.
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Chapter 5: What role does Bollywood play in the IPL experience?
Yeah.
And how hard you could travel.
If you could see the ball after. It was a lot of fun, though. It was a lot. No one complained. No one complained.
Oh, God. Is it swinging in or out?
I can't see.
So obviously those parties, as far as we know, don't exist anymore. But the big change is, of course, the money being one of them. The money that goes into this tournament, let's just be honest, is ridiculous.
You have players just wanting to play franchise cricket now, don't you? Because of the money.
I'll take you back to 2006-2007 when the IPL started in 2007-2008. A player who played every single tournament at the first class level would make 10 to 12 grand a year. I'm talking pounds. Which was okay money in India. Yeah. But it was not a life-changing money. But when IPL came, players got...
taste of a different world majority of them went and lived in a five-star hotel for the first time learn to eat different cuisines they put themselves out there in a different way they had to learn a lot of different things table manners this that these small things which you weren't taught when you're playing domestic cricket because domestic cricket was never given any sort of importance in Indian cricket it was all about India if you're not playing for India you're a nobody
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Chapter 6: How do player auction pressures affect performance?
And hence, you can see how Indian cricket has grown in the last four or five years and winning two back-to-back T20 World Cup. It just shows you that the amount of money and time and effort has been invested in that.
They are the powerhouse when it comes to cricket. There is no doubt about that.
It's the way they win tournaments, the fashion they win games. They don't win them by slight margins as well.
These are blockbuster games. These are blockbuster finishes that we're seeing.
What would you say is the biggest change that you've seen in the standard and in the playing that when you played in the IPL as to what it is now?
I think the ball striking. I know it for certain because when we were playing, Our team goal would be to try and get to 160 to 170 and 8 out of 10 matches, you would win if you get 160, 170. If you get 160, 170 now, you're losing 9 out of 10 games. It's not enough, is it? And the strike rate, even the batting strike rate, 125 was a very good strike rate. It was acceptable. 130 was exceptional.
Now, if you're striking at 130, you're not getting picked in any of these IPL sites. So that's how far the game has come. That's how much the game has evolved in the last 5 or 7 years.
Very much a batsman's game now, I believe.
Well, we were talking about this, weren't we? That it is those pitches, I'm sorry, are just made for batters.
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Chapter 7: Who are the standout players to watch in IPL 2026?
It's just from the price tag. Did you see that happen?
No, I don't think they put that reliance on them because at the end of the day, see, at what price you get picked in the auction, it has nothing to do with you. So you cannot go to a youngster. If you are somebody like, say, Quinton de Kock, who's gone sold for, say, 200,000 this year. He's gone for the base price.
And he's got young cricketers who have not even played international cricket, who are uncapped players playing for 1.4 million. Obviously, Quinton Leacock, that kid has nothing to do with anything in this process. It's all to do with the franchise and what they think the value is of the player. But if you're Quinton Leacock, you're definitely sitting there and thinking.
Especially someone who knows the tournament so well. This is not right.
Out of curiosity, what sort of is that split? So if someone gets sold at an auction, how much of that money goes to the player?
Everything. Every single penny. Apart from the taxes you've got to pay in whichever country you're from. But every single penny goes to the player.
Faz, were there any names for you that really stuck out? Who's looking fairly strong for you in terms of squads?
To be fair, I think obviously Mumbai Indians are looking quite strong, as always. But they always do, every year.
They're one of the big dogs, aren't they? Was it five titles? Yeah. The same with Chennai as well.
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Chapter 8: What factors determine the favorites for the upcoming IPL season?
But he will be under immense pressure to keep his captaincy if he doesn't win.
I definitely think Pandya will take that pressure into his stride and absolutely love it. But I know some players handle pressure in different ways, have certain superstitions. So I was wanting to ask you, Abhishek, in the changes, did you ever see any certain superstitions that you thought, oh, it's a bit strange?
And the first proposition you see with players is their spot, where they sit. Because everyone comes in and they pick their own spot and then they don't want to move, especially in the home matches. And then, what colour grip? That's so, so important for every player. So you grip on the bat? The bat's the handle, the grip, colour. It's a massive superstition for players.
Did they want it sort of matching maybe the kit?
No, nothing to do with that. It's just that, you know how it happens, that I used to play with a yellow grip. Okay. And one day, I mean, my grip was completely worn out and I couldn't find a yellow grip. I was absolutely livid with myself that I didn't have enough yellow grips in my kit bag. And one of my friends had a white grip and I'm like, you know what? Who cares?
I'm just going to get the white grip, put the white cone on. And I got 100 that game and never ever played with any other color. So, you know, these sort of things. And superstition comes from that.
What was sort of the biggest change that you've seen from superstitions one player might change into another?
I mean, I used to be fascinated by watching Saurav Ganguly put his bad grip because he used to have a very, very thick grip at the first time. I mean, he used to put five or six grips, which I never could hold the back. Yeah, literally that fat. And then he has this...
habit of cutting a strip into like such small pieces and putting them in different places in the grip where only he could make sense of those things which for everyone else it was weird to hold that grip because it was just up and down it was lumpy it was just weird but for him it works for him it works so you see that with so many players I mean Chris Gale's bat you can't lift Chris Gale's bat
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