What’s Cooking in IPL 2026 and who will finish the dish?

Ashok Namboodiri

There is something cooking halfway through the IPL 2026. Gujarat Titans and Kolkata Knight Riders have won all their last three matches, beating stalwarts like Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Punjab Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad In fact, they are the only two teams to have won all their last three outings.

If you analyse the first 23 matches of the 47 matches played so far, nearly 50% of the innings notched up scores of 200 or more. However, things seem to have calmed down quite a bit in the last 24 matches with that percentage dropping sharply to one third. If you compare this with the first 47 matches of the 2025 edition of the IPL, the results are even more startling. In the first 23 matches of 2025, the number of 200 or more scores is only one third. In the next 24 matches, that number drops to just one in five matches.

Quite clearly, there is a “settling down” that happens as the league progresses. One hypothesis is that the 2026 edition saw an explosive start with a template that sees unbridled aggression in the powerplay overs and then a willingness to maintain the run rate in the middle overs. And now with the pitches slowing down, there is a drop in the run rates. But a careful look at the points table shows that Gujarat Titans is now level with Rajasthan Royals and lower only on account of the net-run-rate. One would not associate the Royals batting flamboyance with that of the Titans and yet here we are.

Chennai Super Kings have had a poor start, and a bit of a stop-start run in the last few matches, but they are at the 6^th place and will fancy their chances. Kolkata Knight Riders was a team almost written off with analysts pointing to a zillion issues facing them, but they seem to have found their Midas touch.

In last evening’s match, the GT bowlers did extremely well to restrict Punjab Kings with Jason Holder taking 4 for 24 and ably supported by Kagiso Rabada and Mohammed Siraj. Holder went on to win player of the match for his efforts. If you look at the Punjab bowling, they also did well with Arshdeep Singh back among the wickets and Vijaykumar Vyshak bowling his heart out. In the day match, Varun Chakaravarthy seemed to have found his mojo back with a haul of 3 for 36 and was named player of the match. Kartik Tyagi and Sunil Narine also bowled exceedingly well with two wickets apiece. Go back to the CSK versus MI match and you see Anshul Kamboj with 3 for 32 and Noor Ahmad with 2 for 26.

Match number 42 with GT playing RCB also witnessed an exemplary effort from the bowlers with Arshad Khan getting 3 and Rashid Khan getting 2 wickets. For RCB, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar scalped 3 wickets for 28 runs.

It does look like the bowlers have found some of their mojo back and that the contests are becoming more even now. Teams at the middle of the table must fancy their chances and with four weeks to go, complacency would be the worst sin. What’s cooking, therefore, is a reset. And like any good dish, the final outcome will depend not on how it started, but on how well it is finished.

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