Indian Premier League: 2026 Midseason Report
- Om Brown
- May 4
- 7 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
Welcome back to my coverage of the TATA Indian Premier League! The IPL is widely viewed as the most competitive, chaotic and entertaining domestic cricket league in the world, boasting the best Indian talent as well as top international players. It is a short season with 10 squads playing just 14 matches each over a 2-month span, ensuring each season is a mad dash to the championship!
We are about halfway done with this season’s tournament and a lot has happened so far. Join me on a journey to check back in on our top storylines from the early season, as well as check in on the rest of the league!
For those of you who haven’t checked out my first piece covering the IPL, as well as a breakdown of the basic rules of cricket, click here.
All results and records are as of 10pm EST on May 3rd.
Midseason Check-In:
1. Mumbai Indians: Title Challengers, or Season-long Strugglers?:
When we first checked in on MI, they were 1-3 and had a tough time putting together quality performances as a cohesive unit. Their bowling attack was particularly struggling, as Mumbai is headlined by the best duo on paper in Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult. All-Rounders Mitch Santner and captain Hardik Pandya provide leadership and depth to the unit too. However, early in the season, the bowling was getting hit hard, though the batting wasn’t much better. The Indians have a very talented roster, so it must have gotten better, right?
Wrong. They are currently sitting in 9th place at 2-7. Bumrah has yet to find his form, taking just 2 wickets in 8 matches. Boult has bowled in only 4 matches due to his struggles. Santner and Hardik have been underwhelming as well. The batting has been inconsistent and the team hasn’t found a capable XI yet. Veteran legend Rohit Sharma is nursing a hamstring injury, and while foreigners Will Jacks, Quinton de Kock and Ryan Rickelton have all had their moments of triumph, they have each experienced the lowest of lows as well.
While the bowling has been the main issue in my opinion, the batting hasn’t inspired life in the squad either. The Indians and captain Hardik must figure out their ideal starting lineup and try to find some rhythm. The season isn’t over, but time is running out. Mumbai can certainly win all of their remaining matches and squeak into the top-4 seeds. The chances of that is slim, but with the amount of talent they have, it wouldn’t surprise me.
2. Can RCB Defend Their Maiden Title?:
At the time of my first blog, the Royal Challengers were sitting in 2nd place at 4-1. Their batting side was firing on all cylinders thanks to a fearsome top order of legend Virat Kohli, Phil Salt, and captain Rajat Patidar. RCB’s bowling attack was doing well too with fast-bowlers Jacob Duffy and Bhuvneshwar Kumar along with All-Rounder Krunal Pandya taking wickets left and right. Overall, they had a great start to the tournament with a well balanced squad.
While they have slowed down a little bit, RCB is still in second at the mid-season point with a 6-3 record. Kohli is 6th in the Orange Cap race (highest run scorer in the tournament) with 379 runs, an absurd average of 54.14 runs a game, good for 2nd out of the top-5. Salt has gotten hurt, which has given fellow Englishman Jacob Bethell an opportunity. While he has struggled in just 3 matches, he provides valuable depth and talent. At the 2026 T20 World Cup semifinal, Bethell hit 105 runs off just 48 balls. He is very talented and can strike at any moment, as can big-bodied Australian Tim David, who provides thump in the middle order.
Kumar leads the Purple Cap race (most wickets taken in the tournament) with 17. Krunal has slowed down, getting just a pair of wickets in the 3 matches since my first blog. However, the bowling attack for RCB is fearsome and Kumar has been lethal in the tournament. They compliment the bats very well and provide key balance to the team.
Overall I think the Royal Challengers are doing great. They are in a good position for the rest of the season and have the batting attack to sustain a run in the playoffs. I am excited to see how their title defense plays out.
Around the League:
Note: This will not include RCB or MI
Team: Punjab Kings
Place: 1st, 6-2
Captain: Shreyas Iyer, Batter
Outlook: Great! The sky is the limit!
The Kings have been a juggernaut this season starting out 6-0 before their recent losses to RR and GT. Iyer is looking to lead the squad back to the finals where they lost a season ago. Fast bowler Arshdeep Singh has led the bowling attack with 10 wickets while All-Rounders Marcus Stonis and Marco Jansen provide impact and depth in batting and bowling. Punjab is sitting pretty on top of the standings due to Iyer’s leadership and their strong complementary cricket. They are in a perfect spot.
Team: Sunrisers Hyderabad
Place: 3rd, 6-4
Captain: Pat Cummins, Bowler, Australia
Outlook: Hot bats = winning streaks
Captain Pat Cummins has returned from his back injury and has anchored the bowling. However, SRH’s real strength is their batting. Abishek Sharma and Henrich Klaasen are 1st and 3rd in the Orange Cap with 440 runs and 425 runs, respectively. Ishan Kishan and Travis Head have also provided key innings recently and have come to form. The Sunrisers’ season will come down to how well they bat, and so far they have been great.
Team: Rajasthan Royals
Place: 4th, 6-4
Captain: Riyan Parag, All-Rounder
Outlook: Great start, recent scuffles
Rajasthan started out 4-1 and are in first place, but have hit a bit of a cold spell, knocking them down to the last playoff spot. They did, however, just execute a great chase of the Kings, handing them their first loss of the season. Parag has hit a stride as well, registering 90 runs in a loss vs. DC, his second highest total in the IPL. If he can continue to bat like that, it will take pressure off Jofra Archer (2nd in Purple Cap, 15 wickets) and the bowlers.
Team: Gujrat Titans
Place: 5th, 6-4
Captain: Shubman Gill, Batter
Outlook: Starting to come around, can we hit a stride?
GT has had back-to-back dominant wins vs. RCB and CSK, and a close one vs. PBKS. A big part of why they are within striking distance of the playoffs is Gill. The Indian National Team Test and ODI captain has led his team perfectly during those victories. Gill is 7th in the tournament in runs with 378 in only 9 matches. Sal Sudharsan (last year's winner) is 5th with 385 while Jos Buttler is 10th with 335. On the bowling side, South African Kagiso Rabada has taken 16 wickets and is 2nd in the running for the Purple Cap, while Indian Mohammad Siraj (11 wickets) and Afghan Rashid Khan (11 wickets) round out a fearsome trio. Pradish Krishna isn’t as well known as the three aforementioned bowlers, but has claimed a whopping 12 wickets in only 7 matches.
Team: Chennai Super Kings
Place: 6th, 4-5
Captain: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Batter
Outlook: Up and down, can we stay in the hunt?
Gaikwad and wicket-keeper Sanju Samson form a great opening duo and have led CSK to a 4-2 record in their last 6 matches. All-Rounder Shivam Dube packs a punch in the middle of the order as well. Anshul Kamboj is tied for 1st in the Purple Cap at 17 wickets. Chennai may not have the most talented team, but they have been putting together a solid middle of the season after starting off 0-3.
Team: Delhi Capitals
Place: 7th, 4-5
Captain: Axar Patel, All-Rounder
Outlook: Still in this thing, keep the faith
KL Rahul is the currently 2nd in the Orange Cap with 433 runs at a 54.12 average. South African Tristan Stubbs has an astounding average of 54.75 as well. Spinner Kuldeep Yadav has 7 wickets while premier Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc returned from injury and took 3 wickets in one match. The end of April wasn’t kind to Patel and his Capitals, as they had two blowout losses sandwiched between a close loss to PBKS. They will hope that May is better.
Team: Kolkata Knight Riders
Place: 8th, 3-5
Captain: Ajinkya Rahane, Batter
Outlook: Don’t call it a comeback!
After starting out 0-5, the Knight Riders have won 3 straight contests against RR, LSG (by super-over) and SRH. Overall, they have put together nice performances, especially from the bat of Rinku Singh. Expensive All-Rounder Cameron Green has also figured things out and is starting to live up to his costly ₹25.20 Crore ($2.7 million) price tag. While they still have a lot of work to do, KKR is showing some fight and in a short and volatile tournament like the IPL, they could possibly make some noise, or at the very least, play spoiler.
Team: Lucknow Super Giants
Place: 10th, 2-6
Captain: Rishabh Pant, Wicket-Keeper Batter
Outlook: Pain
My hometown team is on a 5-game losing streak and I can’t even tell you why. Pant, Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, and Nicholas Pooran on paper make up a great top and middle of the order, but the trio of foreigners, especially Pooran, have been maddingly inconsistent. Bowler Prince Yadav is 4th in the Purple Cap race though with 13 wickets, and Moshan Khan just claimed 5 in one match vs. KKR. Aside from those highlights, it’ll take a miracle for us to climb into the playoffs.
Final Thoughts:
So far, the IPL has been great in 2026, and I expect the chaos to continue all tournament long. Check in around the end of the season to see how my top stories panned out and how the standings unfolded. Be sure to look out for my playoff preview around then as well. I hope my American audience learned some new things about cricket, while I hope my international audience got caught up on the nitty-gritty details of how IPL is shaping up around mid-season! See you in a couple weeks!
If you want better highlights of matches, team breakdowns, and anything else IPL related, go to the league website, or ESPNcricinfo.
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