Cricket and more: Kohli vs Rabada, and other interesting duels to look forward to

Here are some interesting duels cricket fans would love to see:

Virat Kohli (Bangalore) vs Kagiso Rabada (Delhi)
Arguably the world’s best batsman against one of the world’s best fast bowlers. Add a little bit of animosity to that. What’s not to relish. Rabada sledged Kohli recently in South Africa, got him to double over in pain with a rib-crusher and also got his wicket a few times. Kohli being Kohli, smashed the 22-year-old across the ground and scored centuries. There will be more of this primal mano-a-mano in the IPL.


Ajinkya Rahane (Rajasthan) vs Yuzvendra Chahal (Bangalore)

The tournament offers the rare chance to see countrymen turn rivals. And a combination that tickles curiosity is Rahane vs Chahal. The former is a batsman who marries oldschool technique with new-age innovation. The latter, a chess player-turnedleg spinner who sometimes bowls at over 100 kmph, is a bag of tricks in the BS Chandrasekhar mould. Ask Glenn Maxwell, who was all ‘dhoondo re sajana’ against Chahal during the India-Australia series last year. (‘Dhoondo dhoondo...’ is how Sunny Gavaskar once described a batsman struggling to fathom a bowler.)

Kieron Pollard (Mumbai) vs Andrew Tye (Punjab)

The sheer size and hitting ability of the 6'6" Pollard makes him one of the stars of T20 cricket. Pollard’s 32-ball 60 gave Mumbai their first IPL trophy in 2013, and he remains one of their key players. He can be inconsistent, but, like Chris Gayle, there is no saying when he can explode and whoomp a game away in three overs. On the other side is Andrew ‘AJ’ Tye, whose variety and cunning have made him one of the top death bowlers in the game. He took a hat-trick last year, and two more in the Big Bash League later to complete a hat-trick of hat-tricks.

KL Rahul (Punjab) vs Lungi Ngidi (Chennai)

They are the game’s young stars. Rahul, one of the big performers for Bangalore in 2016, has switched to Punjab, giving them hopes of at last winning the trophy, and becoming famous for something other than Preity Zinta. The versatile cricketer will be a mainline batsman for the side and also its wicketkeeper. Rahul’s battle with Ngidi promises heat and drama. The 6'4" Ngidi forms South Africa’s destructive tandem with Rabada, and adds much-needed venom to Chennai’s bowling. He clocks in at around 140kmph and can bowl at the start of the innings or at its end.

AB de Villiers (Bangalore) vs Kuldeep Yadav (Kolkata)

Overshadowed by the cacophony around the Australians’ balltampering scandal was AB de Villiers’s responsibly dominant performance throughout the bitterly contested series. ‘ABD, ABD!’ Bangalore’s faithfuls chant when the South African is at work in the IPL. And with his form against Australia, it looks like he is set to give them more reasons to cheer. But if there is a hint of a weakness in ABD, it is those slow left-armers like Yadav. Some evidence of this is in the fact that Krunal Pandya, a left-arm slow bowler, got ABD on all the four occasions they came face to face in the IPL.