IPL: Superheroes have always been an emphatic part of our lives as they imbue us with hope. In whatsoever sable situations we are enmeshed in, it is their embodiment of strength and belief in themselves that tends to fill us with courage and clears the path for us to walk ahead.
Similarly, we use certain epithets to describe our favorite persons or even teams, let’s say, invincible, indomitable, insuperable and the list is like a bunch of words strung together to give us the feeling of something bigger and more powerful.
In this piece, we decided to compare and check that if IPL teams were superheroes, who would they exactly be and why.
1. Mumbai Indians – Superman
The symbol on Kal-el’s chest has been the embodiment of hope on his planet. Also to mention, the powers that he has of flight, laser beams, super speed, and inhuman strength, they all blend in the most perfect proportion to make him what he is. He only has one weakness and that is Kryptonite, a rare metal from his own planet which is apparently alien to earth. Also, anyone flying down from his home can be a major threat to him, like Commander Zhod and Doomsday.
Now if we slowly string the attributes together for Mumbai Indians, it will be a major match. The power of flight is the team’s soaring confidence to rock through the league, laser beams can’t be replicated but those brilliant placements and timing of the balls carry a startling laserlike resemblance.
Pollard induces the super-strength while Bumrah spearheads the speed department. Also, they visibly didn’t have a sign of weakness back in India but their solitary reason for downfall can be those UAE pitches which are pretty tough to play and if they continue to be headstrong, this can be a major reason for their slip (UAE is alien to them).
2. Kolkata Knightriders – Iron Man
Tony Stark’s Iron Man is all about being one of the coolest billionaires who apparently contributed a lion’s share to the Avengers. His improvisation made him and the Avengers one of the toughest teams against those super-villains. His arrogance was his primary arch-enemy that could have led to his downfall. But he overcame it all by sacrificing himself in the end.
Kolkata Knightriders has a couple of arrogant monikers through Andre Russell and Dinesh Karthik. On the contrary, they are also Iron Men. Talking about improvisation, Shubman Gil leads the list while Sunil Narine has those lasers up his arms to go big.
Talking about the high-tech prosthesis, Eoin Morgan and Nitish Rana is their cover from the outside world, the two blokes that look apparently calm but can be explosives when the time comes.
3. Chennai Super Kings – Batman
Talking about Batman, how can one forget the baritone and the man beneath the mask? We can keep his fighting skills on hold, but his scientific mind and his proclivity for dark makes him a crowd-favorite.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the dynamite behind the masquerade of a calm and composed cricketer, leads the charge with his flying helicopter instead of the cape. He is also the baritone that people go crazy about.
Scientifically bringing in those inventions are the responsibilities of Faf Du Plessis and Shane Watson. Bravo is the replication of those sudden and weird antics pulled off by the team.
Want to take a dig at Alfred? Imran Tahir at 40 years of age can steer the batmobile with his own hands.
4. Kings XI Punjab – Hulk
Hulk has two sides. They are the Hulk side and the Banner side, one programmed to destroy while the other creates. Yet there is an invisible line of balance, a line that keeps the ship in motion.
Lets first talk about the scientist, Bruce Banner. KL Rahul, Nicholas Pooran, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Ravi Bishnoi, Sheldon Cottrell and others who come up with innovative ways to hurl your opponents off the rails. It ideally should work. However, if it doesn’t Banner usually lets his big friend out, the Hulk.
When we talk about the muscle here, rather insane muscle, who seems indomitable and invincible, the calculations become a lot simpler. The two names that contribute to the Hulk side are Chris Gayle and Glenn Maxwell. One out of the two goes berserk and the rest of the team can take a nap.
5. Delhi Capitals – Flash
Breezy and beautiful but yet Superman had Flash by the scruff of his neck. Capitals have a wondrous opening pair that can set things in motion for them as fast as they can, with Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw firing shots.
The big guns acting as the team’s propulsors walk in next in the form of Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer. A stabilizer to keep the team juiced always is Shmiron Hetmeyer, while Ashwin and Mishra are the wheels if Flash has any.
A squad brimming with youth that has the potential of destabilizing any opponent can be the catch of the tournament but honestly, put against a team filled with experience, Flash stood no chance against Batman and Superman.
6. Royal Challengers Bangalore – Ant-Man
This may probably start a debate as he is one of the misunderstood heroes on the base of Avengers but his adaptability and his knowledge in quantum physics are paralleled only by Tony Stark.
Challengers have this ability to grow Titanic with the monikers of Kohli and ABD firing. They can also fry the wirings of a big brain if Aaron Finch and Moeen Ali can string a few sequences together.
However, going by their antiquity, the team has faltered in the dying stages, like Ant-Man falls short of Pym Particles. That juice, in the end, has always been a problem for the Challengers.
If they can manage to stockpile more of it once they get the momentum right, maybe they will have a chance at salvation.
7. Sunrisers Hyderabad – Cyborg
Warner and Bairstow start with the calculative destruction that can be wrought upon the opponents by Cyborg. But once the electronics are toast, his powers are nothing short of just some fancy lightning shows as their middle order lack depth and expertise.
Someone will have to power the engines on with great force for the team to rally their forces and bring on some neat handiwork through Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rashid Khan. The team looks intimidating like Cyborg, but it is a matter of their elements being taken away from them and they are nothing but a toy.
8. Rajasthan Royals – Hawkeye
Fury would know at the back of his head that he has an extremely dependent marksman at the helm of things, but once that quiver is gone, stones are Hawkeye’s solitary shaft of hope.
Royals has astronomical names in papers and apparently if all of them glowing together, it will be Hawkeye at his finest even ready to take on Thanos. However, situations are different in cricket. On one fine day when the sun tends to trudge slower than expected towards its expected horizon, that is when Royals shine and on the remaining days, they are just canon-fodder.
A smart and attractive being like Hawkeye, but overtly reliable on the expected weapons. Take them away and the team would crumble like a house of cards.
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