England legend Kevin Pietersen names his three favourites to win the IPL

England legend Kevin Pietersen has named his three favourites to win the Indian Premier League, insisting current leaders Gujarat Titans will be ‘difficult to stop’.

Gujarat, who were one of two new franchises to join the IPL this year along with Lucknow Super Giants, have made a brilliant start to the 2022 edition, winning seven of their eight games to climb to the top of the table.

Lucknow and Rajasthan Royals are joint-second, two points behind the leaders, while Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore are currently in contention for the play-offs.

Delhi Capitals, Punjab Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders have all lost more games than they have won, while Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians have endured dismal starts to the season.

Defending champions Chennai have amassed just four points out of a possible 16, while five-time winners Mumbai are yet to secure a win from eight games and are threatening to set a number of unwanted records.

‘At the moment, it looks like Gujarat Titans are going to be difficult to stop in the Indian Premier League,’ Pietersen told Betway.

‘They are consistently finding ways to win, whether from a good, middling or bad position in games. When you have that winning mentality, it becomes very difficult to break.

<p lang=«en» dir=«ltr» xml:lang=«en»>That’s that from Match 42.@LucknowIPL win by 20 runs and add two more points to their tally. Scorecard – https://t.co/H9HyjJPgvV #PBKSvLSG #TATAIPL pic.twitter.com/dfSJXzHcfG

‘I didn’t see them being at the top of the table when I first saw their squad, but they are on a roll.

‘It reminds me of Rajasthan Royals when they won the title under Shane Warne in 2008 – they weren’t the best side on paper but everybody knew what they were doing and they