There has never been more pressure on the Royal Challengers from Bangalore to win an IPL season. Fortunately for them, there won’t be any fans in the stadium to remind them of this expectation. There’s no doubt that RCB are going to field a top quality squad, but it is their bench strength which will come into the focus as the tournament progresses.
A team perfectly built for the Sawai Mansingh Stadium of English conditions suddenly finds itself in a spot of bother – their premier all-rounder is in NewZealand and will miss at least the first part of the tournament. There is little certainty over whether their captain is available for the first game.
MI’s squad is one of the most peculiar squads ever. If you look at the indispensable assets of the squad – Rohit Sharma, Pandya Brothers and Jasprit Bumrah – every player has a similar, if not exactly the same replacement sitting on the bench. This has a couple of very interesting implications.
Kolkata Knight Riders is one of the two teams, the other one being Rajasthan Royals, who would be giving quite a lot of opportunities to youngsters within their squad. If you look at the KKR roster, it is not as intimidating as a roster like, say, Mumbai Indians’. Yet, it works.
KL Rahul is appointed the full-time captain of this franchisee and they have got Glenn Maxwell in their team again. Kings XI Punjab have definitely set yes on the long run based on the roster that they have compiled. Baring some negligible gaps, their team looks strong on paper.
The squad of Delhi Capitals looks one of the most complete squads on paper, this IPL. Filled with batsmen, who can play the explosive role, the anchor role and the pinch-hitting role. Then there are the all-rounders who are right up there in terms of performance. They have quality spinners and fast bowlers.
There’s nothing characteristically different in this CSK squad. They have once again put their weight behind experience – in terms of age and in terms of number of IPL matches played. This should be CSK’s toughest season yet with Harbhajan Singh and Suresh Raina, two of the most vital cogs in their wheel set to miss out on the IPL.
It’s that time of the year but it is not really ‘that’ time of the year. Preparations for the T20 World Cup would have been in full swing right now. Instead we have players converging in UAE almost a month before the start of another IPL season. These are crazy times.
For the first time in the past few years, I am not happy with the squad SRH have put together. They had several opportunities in the auction to efficiently replace Shikhar Dhawan. Manan Vohra is someone who comes to the mind. Now, the dilemma they face is playing 2 out of Jonny Bairstow, Shakib Al Hasan and David Warner. Trust me, any combination is making the lineup of SRH a bit weaker.
It is very difficult to form an opinion about RCB’s auction. They made a couple of smart buys and acquired Marcus Stoinis from KXIP. While most of their departments look complete, the batting looks a little weak, with the onus once again falling on Kohli and A B de Villiers.