The Indian Premier League 2023 season has arrived, with 10 teams going head to head against each other, in a bid to claim the elusive trophy. Newcomers Gujarat Titans bagged the title last year, having beaten Rajasthan Royals in the final. Lucknow Super Giants, who also made their debut last season, finished third while Royal Challengers Bangalore came 4th. Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians — the two superpowers in the T20 league – didn’t perform much and only finished 9th and 10th in the table respectively.
With the broadcast rights of the IPL turning over a new chapter, the T20 league is set to witness a big change. While the Star Sports Network has the rights to broadcast the league on television, Viacom18 will air the matches on digital mediums.
In fact, the IPL would be aired absolutely free of cost on Jio Cinema across mobile networks.
How to watch IPL 2023 free of cost?
The 16th edition of the IPL will be available free of cost on Jio Cinema app and website.
As far as the title favourites are concerned, the Hardik Pandya-led franchise is arguably at the top of the list.
Having achieved the ultimate glory of winning the IPL title in their maiden appearance last year, Hardik Pandya’s Gujarat Titans will aim to replicate all the right moves they made to lift the trophy with the competition expanded to 10 teams.
Gujarat Titans was the best team in IPL 2022 for not just lifting the trophy but for executing a perfectly-planned campaign among all competitors, winning 10 of 14 league games and finishing at the top of the points table with the best outcome (20 points).
Since last year, having led Gujarat Titans to the title win, Pandya’s stature has grown with his ascendency to India’s permanent captaincy job in T20Is and even a look-in in ODIs, while their young batter Shubman Gill has established himself as a natural pick at least in two of the three international formats.
Both Pandya and Gill led Gujarat Titans with the bat, finishing with 487 and 483 runs respectively to top the charts for their side while two of the best in business, Mohammad Shami (20 wickets) and Rashid Khan (19), were their primary attacking weapons with the ball.
Even though Gujarat Titans have let go of the express pacer Lockie Ferguson, his absence should not rock the ship which also consists of Ireland pacer Josh Little, West Indies’ Alzarri Joseph, Shivam Mavi, Yash Dayal and a few more.
With PTI inputs
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