IPL 2026 has started in full swing, and so the team and fans have started their rivalry and predictions. Ex-KKR player Piyush Chawla has predicted his Top 4 of this season. According to him, the Mumbai Indians, Punjab Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Kolkata Knight Riders.
All teams have played their first games amongst which the Mumbai Indians, Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore has won their first respective games, whereas the Kolkata Knight Riders have lost their first game at Wankhede.
In a spectacular display of power-hitting, the Mumbai Indians successfully chased down a daunting 221-run target to defeat the Kolkata Knight Riders by six wickets in Match 2 of the IPL 2026 at the Wankhede Stadium. By securing the win with five balls to spare, the Mumbai franchise famously snapped a 14-year streak of losing their season-opening fixture, a jinx that stretched back to 2012. KKR has failed to bowl well in their opening game, missing their major players like Harshit Rana and Pathirana. Whereas MI easily chased down the total easily in a splendid game by Rohit Sharma. Whereas PBKS chased down a formidable total thanks to Cooper Conolly, who recently wasn’t going through a good form in T20I but the team believed in him and upgraded him at 3, and he played a great knock under pressure. Vijaykumar Vyshak was commendable with bowling, taking 3 wickets, and giving credit to Shreyas Iyer for guiding him.
Royal Challengers Bangalore, the defending champions, started from where they left off at home ground. Hazlewood was missing, but that didn’t affect them as Duffy stepped up on his IPL debut, scalping early wickets. In the run chase, the chase master himself, Virat Kohli, stood tall along with Devdutt Padikkal and demolished the opposition, showing what they're gonna be doing this year. Their next match is against the Chennai Super Kings.
Kolkata Knight Riders had a great batting display, but they couldn’t breach Wankhede's third time as MI broke the first match loss curse. KKR's bowling has been heavily weakened due to the absence of major bowlers, although Kartik Tyagi looked in good shape on the day. Rinku Singh’s captaincy too looked a bit topsy-turvy on not rotating players well, and the team looks confused. Hope Green starts bowling, and Pathirana joins them soon. KKR has the next 3 games at home ground, and they have a match against Sunrisers Hyderabad tomorrow.
Do you agree with Piyush Chawla? Or do you think there are other teams who will make it to the playoffs?
