When Rajasthan Royals were four matches into this campaign, no one was writing a comeback story. Four wins. Four different victims. Now, things have changed a bit.
Rajasthan’s explosive start
Riyan Parag’s men were surgically dismantling every team they came across – Chennai beat Sawai Mansingh, Mumbai beat Mumbai in a rain-shortened eleven-over contest where Yashasvi Jaiswal made 77 off 32 balls and made it look almost embarrassingly easy, and then RCB chased down a target that was never really in doubt. The bookmakers have since installed them as early favourites, and how could they not? a major Canadian Online Casinos Offers Sports Betting They are currently placed as 7/2 joint favorites to finish the year as champions, the same number as Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Just as the bookies were crowning the Royals as champions-elect, Ishan Kishan arrived at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium and reminded everyone how quickly a story can fall apart. Ninety-nine runs off 44 balls – a brutal display of calculated brutality. Debutant Saqib Hussain took four wickets as Rajasthan collapsed to 159 runs chasing the target of 217 runs. The team that looked untouchable suddenly started looking mortal.
Below them in the standings, two other squads with pedigree, firepower and unfinished business felt the door was open. They haven’t had the best start to the season, but that’s why their chances of finishing in the top four at the end of the regular season are so high. Let’s take a look at them.
Mumbai Indians
Picture of Wankhede dugout on 11 April. Suryakumar Yadav, who had scored 51 against Delhi four days ago before his team still somehow lost, was sitting somewhere between disappointment and panic. Questions about Hardik Pandya, batting collapse and fielding Game against Rajasthan interrupted due to rainWhere Mumbai scored 123 runs while chasing 151 runs in 11 overs. Ryan Rickelton – brilliant on debut, 81 off 43 against KKR in a record run-chase that gave everyone exactly the wrong impression about how this campaign was going to be – now sits with the rest, with three defeats in the last three matches and no clear answer available.
One win and three losses. NRR of -0.772. Eighth place. For any other franchise, this is a problem. For Mumbai, the most decorated franchise in IPL history – five titles, more finals appearances than anyone can count – this is something deeper than a poor performance. This is an identity crisis. The team that defined the dominance of franchise cricket is now in the same category as Chennai Super Kings, which gave away 250 runs to RCB.
But here’s the thing about Mumbai in particular: they are here. Last year, one win from their first five games, everyone was sharpening their pens for an autopsy – and then something clicked. Six consecutive wins. Yadav has scored 717 runs in the campaign. Trent Boult took 22 wickets as the most dangerous new-ball operator in the competition. Final four. Eliminator win over Gujarat. What clicked was not a tactical masterclass; It was simpler and more terrifying than that. It was Jasprit Bumrah who was finding his rhythm.
Bumrah has not bowled a truly unstoppable spell yet in 2026. Not even one. He is present, quietly accurate, but not yet the bowler who can actually force batsmen to leave the field. When that spell comes – the slow ball catching the pitch, the yorker sailing into the blockhole at 145 kmph, the bouncer that soars into the ribcage out of nowhere – this team changes. The market is pure pattern recognition at 4/5.
Gujarat Titans
8 April in Delhi. One run. With Gujarat Titans needing a run off the last ball to beat Delhi Capitals, Shubman Gill scored 70 off 45 balls, and it still wasn’t enough until suddenly, just barely, the run came. A run separates a dressing room that makes believe from a dressing room that makes believe. The difference in the psychology of cricket is immeasurable – and Gujarat players walked away knowing that they would get something when they needed it most.
he wins – And she also almost missed, a ball from the fall – tells you everything about where Gujarat is at the moment. Technically fifth, two wins and two losses, NRR -0.029. Almost neutral. That’s really the number that matters most. While Mumbai is bleeding at -0.772 and Chennai at -1.532, Gujarat have essentially balanced their arithmetic in the four competitive games. In the final week of the league stage, when the decimal point can separate two teams, and the NRR decides who plays in the eliminator and who flies home, -0.029 is worth many more points than it currently appears.
The Jos Buttler-Gill axis has not burst together yet. When Gujarat spent ₹By spending Rs 15.75 crore on Jos Buttler, they were buying a typical partnership – the English destroyer and the Indian captain boosting each other’s confidence at the top of an innings. That partnership has been a lit fuse against the pace attack in Ahmedabad.
Buttler finally showed flashes of brilliance by scoring 60 off 37 balls against LSG. Gill contributed 70 runs against DC. But he has not been able to perform well in a single innings yet. When they do, and Rashid Khan is turning the middle overs into a spin web that has trapped KL Rahul at 3/17 from four overs already in this tournament – the ceiling is truly frightening. 2.75 PM, bookies are considering Gujarat as a concern. They are delayed eruptions.
