IPL result analysis: It's all about revival of the Veterans 

The next day, a super Sunday, which meant two blockbuster matches, happened on 27th March. Rishabh Pant's Delhi Capitals went against Rohit Sharma's Mumbai Indians, and the very new Captain Faf du Plessis' Royal Challengers Bangalore went against Punjab Kings.

Three super exciting matches that happened in around 24 hours brought excitement and thrills to over 700 million fans across the globe. The IPL, which is becoming a face of young talent, a platform for them to showcase their talent to the world, saw a little veteran touch during these three matches. 

These matches saw some comeback performance from the experienced players who were sidelined from white-ball matches to focus on red ball or didn't get the chance because of their perception that they cannot play in the shorter format. The majority of these players were benched last season for a considerable duration, while few were those who failed to perform. All of these speculations made them not-so-interested names whenever their performance was discussed. 

Players, who were once hot picks for T20, were entitled as the test specialist about a decade ago, and one retired 40-year-old part-time Team India World Cup mentor out-performed youngsters with their experience. The opening matches on the first two days were all about these veterans defying their age to prove their calibre and fitness. The veterans who allured fans and audiences at the beginning of this league are: 

Umesh Yadav

One of the late picks for Kolkata Knight Riders in mega auctions gave a perfect start in the game against the defending champions, Chennai Super Kings, at Wankhede. The Player was picked at his base price of INR 2 crore. In the opening match of this season, he snapped 2 wickets by dismissing reigning orange cap holder Ruturaj Gaikwad for a duck and IPL debutant Devon Conway for 3 runs in the powerplay. Fans couldn't stop cheering for the bowler who played exactly two IPL games in the last two seasons, of which he was benched in the last one throughout. He has 121 wickets in 122 matches averaging at 29.74 runs. In the match against CSK, he had 2/20 in 4 overs, for which he won the Player of the Match award.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni

In the inaugural match, Chennai Super Kings had early jolts against Kolkata Knight Riders. With the team being stuck in the middle innings, they limped to 84/5 in 17 overs. When MS Dhoni, the genius finisher, came for the rescue to post a respectable total of 131 for the opposition. The chief-finisher found his form back for the death-over range. He raced to a 38 ball fifty, which came after 21st April 2019 for the first time. He became the oldest Player to score a fifty in the tournament. This came to be a magnificent start as he didn't have a good season in 2021, in which his highest score was 18.

"Well played by @msdhoni. He started slowly but used his experience and a combination of composure, aggression and common sense to get @ChennaiIPL to where they are. Their bowlers will have to bowl exceedingly well to defend the total on this pitch," Sachin Tendulkar tweeted.

Ajinkya Rahane

After losing his place in the Test set-up for India and being sacked by previous franchise Delhi Capitals, he got picked up for his base price INR 1 crore in auctions by Kolkata Knight Riders. In IPL 2021, he got only 2 matches to play in which he had the highest score of 8 runs. However, while chasing a target of 132 against Chennai Super Kings in the opener, he took the responsibility. He played a brilliant knock of 44 runs off 34 balls as an opener, ringing into a promising start for the season.  

Kuldeep Yadav

An epic debut as Kuldeep Yadav made a comeback with the figures of 3/18 in the debut match of IPL 2022 for Delhi Capitals against the five-time champion, Mumbai Indians. After being benched for the complete IPL 2021, he got picked by Delhi Capitals for INR 2 crore in auctions. Fans couldn't stop from showering praise for the wrist spinner. The spinner took three crucial wickets of Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard and Anmolpreet Singh. These wickets came when Delhi Capital looked to lose the plot from the match.

Virender Sehwag tweeted, "Abhi tak toh yeh Yadavon ki IPL Rahi hai. Very happy for two hardworking guys, Umesh yesterday and Kuldeep today".

IPL is a tournament full of possibilities, where age is just a number, form is temporary, and class is permanent. With just three matches played, there is already so much excitement in the air, and the best part, this tournament is just getting started.