A year after Gujarat Titans shook up the established order clinching the Indian Premier League (IPL) title on their debut season, the players are psyched up to reach new heights when the tournament gets underway on March 31. Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, the former five-time winners and the latter four-time champions, will expectedly spearhead the charge but other seasoned campaigners, all bolstered in the mega auction earlier this year, have the resources to usurp the heavy. 

Can Mumbai and Chennai keep others at bay? It has been, beyond a shadow of a doubt, a campaign to forget for Mumbai Indians, who registered an unwanted record of having lost eight matches in a row last year. One reckons their dismal outing in the mega auction was an initial point of trigger for the impending disaster, the failures of openers Sharma and Ishan only added fuel to the fire. Things have indeed become tougher for the heavyweights, but given their rich experience and ability to identify talent to rise to the occasion, it will be hard for anyone to suppress them.