IPL Dispatch: Captains' Meeting Becomes All-Indian Affair; Dhoni's Viral Six Gives CSK Bowler Grief

With three days to go for the start of a fresh Indian Premier League (IPL) season, all 10 captains congregated in Mumbai on Wednesday (March 25) for the pre-2026 edition meeting with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). A variety of issues were reportedly discussed, including ball change after 10 overs of the first innings and the match-day training guidelines.

As regular Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Pat Cummins is recovering from a back injury, stand-in captain Ishan Kishan represented the franchise and thus, all 10 men leading the sides at the start of IPL 2026 happen to be Indians. Fitting, in a way, considering the league's penchant to showcase homegrown talent and also given the number of foreigners pulling out at the last minute.

With that, let us take a look at some of the other major talking points from the IPL 2026 build-up in the past 24 hours.

Making Playoffs Not Good Enough For Goenka

Lucknow Super Giants owner Sanjiv Goenka has made it clear that anything short of the title won't cut it for the team. Speaking on JioStar’s ‘IPL Today Live’, Goenka said: "For any sports team, until you win, you don’t receive the same level of respect or affection that comes with lifting the trophy. Yes, we’ve made the playoffs twice, but that’s clearly not good enough. You win some, you lose some, but we have to win our first trophy.”

The billionaire businessman also shared his thoughts on the big-moolah sales of Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, taking to social media platform X. Goenka wrote a series of tweets, taking off from the surging valuations to extrapolate about India's sports economy as well as the trajectory of women's cricket.

CSK Bowler Trolled After Dhoni's Viral Six

Like most recent IPL seasons, MS Dhoni's practice session videos are again taking social media by storm before the tournament begins. This time, it's a powerful lofted drive over covers for a six that's gone viral.

At the receiving end is Mukesh Choudhary, in more ways than one. The seamer not only got hit for a maximum on the field, but also had to face the trolling of trigger-happy users off it. Some commenters suggested that anybody could hit Choudhary for a six, while others questioned the depth of Chennai Super Kings' bowling attack. As always, the real picture will be painted once the action actually begins.

Rishabh Pant's T20 Batting Under Scanner Again

For someone who seems too rapid for Test cricket, Rishabh Pant's middling displays in the T20 arena have time and again befuddled viewers. The swashbuckling southpaw's record-breaking price tag of INR 27 crore only seems to have complicated matters by adding more pressure on him.

Former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis feels Pant is "always on the edge" when batting in the shortest format. Du Plessis said on JioStar: "When I look at his game, I feel he has too many options in his head. He feels like he can hit a six off every ball to any part of the ground. But in T20 batting, you still need a method.

"With Pant, I feel he is always on the edge. When you watch him play, you feel he can get out at any time because it is almost frantic at times." He added, "For me, it is about his first six balls. When I look at him, he is almost like a highlight player. I want him to be more of a high-impact player in terms of what he can give in his numbers.”

The Impact Player Question

At the IPL captains' meeting on Wednesday, most skippers reportedly expressed their reservations on the contentious Impact Player rule. Introduced in 2023, the strategic rule continues to divide opinion till date and according to a PTI report, the topic was discussed at length by the leaders of all 10 franchises in the meet.

"Majority of the captains gave their inputs on the Impact Player rule and expressed their reservations even though the BCCI has extended the rule till 2027. They were told it can only be reviewed after the 2027 edition and not before that," an IPL source was quoted as saying in the report.

In the recent past, Delhi Capitals' spearhead Axar Patel has openly said he does not like the rule. "I don’t like this rule as I am an all-rounder myself. Earlier we used to pick all-rounders for this role (batting and bowling). Now the team management goes with a particular batter or bowler, they say why do we need an all-rounder?

"...rules are rules. We have to follow them. But personally I don’t like it,” said Axar in his opening media interaction ahead of IPL 2026.

KKR Bring Saini In For Rana

In a like-for-like replacement, seamer Navdeep Saini on Wednesday was drafted in for the injury-ridden Harshit Rana in the Kolkata Knight Riders squad. Both Saini and Rana have represented India and play for Delhi in the domestic circuit. Rana sustained a ligament injury in his right knee during a warm-up match of the ICC T20 World Cup, that India won.

He underwent surgery, which needed an extensive rehabilitation process, resulting in the pacer missing the World Cup, followed by the upcoming IPL season. His replacement Saini has claimed 23 wickets in 32 IPL matches (average of 42.34 and economy of 8.88) played so far, apart from 23 wickets in international cricket for India. He will join KKR for INR 75 lakh.

Meanwhile, left-arm medium pacer Kulwant Khejroliya has replaced fellow seam bowler Prithviraj Yarra in the Gujarat Titans squad. Khejroliya has previously featured for GT, KKR and Royal Challengers Bengaluru. He will join GT for INR 30 lakh. An injury to Yarra prompted the change.

Elsewhere...

The Pakistan Super League's 2026 edition will kickstart a couple of days before IPL. The marquee domestic event on the Pakistan cricket calendar is bearing the brunt of the war in Iran, with the oil crisis leading to no spectators, no opening ceremony and a truncation to two venues instead of the original six.

Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Mohsin Naqvi said it wouldn't be right to have 30,000 fans attending cricket matches every day while the government is asking the public to stay home. “We decided that as long as this crisis is ongoing, we will not have crowds at matches," he said. "This was a difficult decision, but it needed to be made.”

In New Zealand's Christchurch, meanwhile, wicketkeeper-batter Connor Esterhuizen hit a 33-ball 75 as South Africa defeated the Black Caps by 33 runs in the decider to clinch the series 3-2. It was Esterhuizen's second successive fifty and he was named Player of the Match as well as Player of the Series for his starring role in his debut international series.