IPL 2017: Basil Thampi and Mohammed Siraj are 'two good', feels Aakash Chopra

Gujarat Lions Basil Thampi right and Andrew Tye celebrate the wicket of RCBs dangerman Chris Gayle in Bangalore on Thursday PicPTIThe 10th edition of the Indian Premier League IPL has reached its halfway stage and while Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders have looked the two best teams by some margin theres some serious grappling expected for the thirdfourth slots Punes rise and Hyderabads issues with illness and injury have opened up the league furtherDelhi look like one win away from finding momentum and Punjab isnt too far from stitching a couple of wins together Gujarat Lions are the only team that looked fairly strong on paper but havent managed to create any momentum thus far Lets have a look at a few trends emerging in this years IPLT20 is a bowlers gameThe common thread in the top two teams in the league is their depth in the bowling department Both Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders have resisted the temptation to play an extra batsman for a bowlerWhenever they made changes to their playing XI they made sure that they fielded five proper bowlers with an additional bowling option to take care of someone having a bad dayIn the early years of T20 cricket most teams thought packing the team with batsmen was key to success but thats changing nowT20 is a 120 balls game and therefore you seldom require the services of more than six batsmen but irrespective of how good your bowlers are you need five bowlers in every gameLesserknowns to the foreNitish Rana has done so well that teams captain Rohit Sharma has to make peace with batting at No 4 for its criminal to move the best inform batsman lower down the order for captains preferred batting spot The same is the case with Rahul Tripathi for RPSSunrisers Hyderabads Mohd Siraj left celebrates the wicket of Delhi Daredevils Sanju Samson with wicketkeeper Naman Ojha on April 19 PicAFPBasil Thampi and Mohd Siraj are the two quick bowlers whove impressed one and sundry and it wont be surprising that both start featuring in India A teams soonUmpiring in the spotlightUmpiring is at its best when it goes relatively unnoticed The moment it becomes the central part of cricket discussions around a tournament you know that it hasnt been of very high standardThis years IPL has seen some really ordinary umpiring which in turn has raised the issue of the standards of homegrown Indian umpires Its not that overseas umpires havent erred but its also a fact that Indian umpires have erred more oftenEven since the BCCI has started covering every firstclass game with six stationary cameras the umpiring standards have improved in the domestic circuit but the ordinary standard displayed by the few handpicked who are supposedly best Indian umpires in the IPL shows that there are miles to be covered stillThe ambience of the ground the pressure of the game and stature of the players have the potential to influence the decisionmaking of the onfield umpire Worldclass umpiring is necessary to make the tournament worldclass and currently the standards are bringing down the leagues statureChampions Trophy in mindAmongst the known performers some have shown more than the rest And interestingly they happened to be ones who are in line with India selection for the Champions TrophyKKRs Manish Pandeys brilliant run must have served as a timely reminder to the selection committee And with both Chahal and Kuldeep doing well itll be interesting to see who gets the nod Bhuvneshwar has all but sealed his place along with Bumrah While the focus is on making their respective teams win the IPL theres an intriguing story playing out on the side