Indian Premier League - General Discussion

[Yash.]

Finch has been there forever in the IPL and done zilch. Amla played his first IPL last year and made 3 hundreds. I know who I am picking. Amla is simply under rated in India.

He also played in the IPL before that.

Finch was also very good in his performances for GL last season. Its just, Why Gayle?

 

[Aislabie]

@Aislabie Would love to read your analysis of all the teams.

As requested:

Chennai Super Kings
Possible First XI: Shane Watson , Faf du Plessis , Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni , Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo , Karn Sharma, Shardul Thakur, Imran Tahir

In my view, CSK have made some serious errors in this auction. First of all, they have ended the auction with ₹6.5 cr unspent, which is a huge sum. Twenty20 cricket is all about expending the maximum amount of your resources as efficiently as possible, and CSK have not done this. They have left themselves without a high-quality T20 opener and without anyone to lead their pace attack, while 8% of their budget was untouched, and players like Hashim Amla and Ishant Sharma went unsold. Furthermore, their second-most expensive Indian auction buy, Karn Sharma, could spend most of the competition sitting on the bench: he is at best the third spinner after Jadeja and Tahir, and if MS Dhoni wants options who put pace on the ball he's the one who'll have to make way. Similarly, they will face a choice between a one-paced Vijay at the top of the order, or converting du Plessis or Rayudu into that top-order option.

Verdict: A strong group of individuals, but this is the IPL where every side is a strong group of individuals. A severe lack of balance and poor auction strategy here.
Should have bought: Hashim Amla - Two centuries in last year's IPL and a proven world-class performer to fill a role that nobody else does in this side.
Shouldn't have bought: Karn Sharma - A reasonably good performer in years gone by, but don't spend $0.75 m. on your third spinner.

- - -

Delhi Daredevils
Possible First XI: Gautam Gambhir , Rishabh Pant , Shreyas Iyer, Colin Munro , Glenn Maxwell , Gurkeerat Singh, Chris Morris , Amit Mishra, Shahbaz Nadeem, Kagiso Rabada , Mohammed Shami

This actually has the potential to be a very good side; one that might even break the long-standing Delhi Daredevils duck. They are teeming with top-order options, so much so that if he weren't the most likely candidate for captain, Gautam Gambhir likely wouldn't make the side here. The bench strength is just as impressive: a second XI in this squad would contain the likes of Jason Roy, Naman Ojha and Trent Boult. There has been much attention paid to the selection of Nepalese leggie Sandeep Lamichhane for his ₹20 lakh base price, but barring extreme circumstances I don't see him actually getting a game ahead of Mishra, Nadeem and Jayant Yadav.

Verdict: On paper, this team is a real title contender. History begs to differ, but the Daredevils can only be rubbish for so long.
Should have bought: Ishank Jaggi - He was sold to KKR at base price despite having one of the leading strike rates in this year's SMA Trophy. In this side he'd bat six.
Shouldn't have bought: Rahul Tewatia - For nearly half a million dollars, you'd expect a player who turns a game on its head. He'll hit a quick 20 or take two-for.

- - -

Kings XI Punjab
Possible First XI: Mayank Agarwal, Aaron Finch , Karun Nair, David Miller , Marcus Stoinis , KL Rahul , Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Andrew Tye , Mohit Sharma, Barinder Sran

Kings XI do have a reasonably good squad to call upon for this IPL, although they do have a couple of unusual imbalances in their squad. For example, they have $1.75 m. competing for a single place in the side depending upon whether they opt for a pace-off seamer in Andrew Tye or a mystery spinner in Mujeeb Zadran - for me, Tye gets the nod because of the lack of a proper keeper. There is also an obvious lack of leadership material: although Yuvraj has been an IPL captain before, his recent form does not warrant him getting anywhere near the playing XI; it will be a toss-up for them between Ravichandran Ashwin and Aaron Finch - one has a good working relationship with coach Virender Sehwag, while the other is a semi-proven international skipper. Finally, they do not have a single proven wicket-keeper in their squad, which is frankly criminal. It will be painful to watch Lokesh Rahul spend another season picking the ball up off the ground.

Verdict: An otherwise well-balanced squad that is inexplicably without either a captain or proper wicket-keeper - the two most important people in the side.
Should have bought: CM Gautam - At only ₹20 lakh, he would have been the perfect option as a low-cost high-quality 'keeper for a trio of Ashwin, Axar and Mujeeb.
Shouldn't have bought: Ben Dwarshuis - I do not understand the Cult of Dwarshuis. He literally can't break into the NSW team. Why is he here?

- - -

Kolkata Knight Riders
Possible First XI: Chris Lynn , Sunil Narine , Dinesh Karthik , Robin Uthappa, Nitish Rana, Andre Russell , Ishank Jaggi, Mitchell Starc , Kuldeep Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Kamlesh Nagarkoti

Kolkata Knight Riders have the smallest squad of the 2018 Indian Premier League, but spent every rupee of their budget on countless big money signings. So strong is their bowling attack that that they boast three 150 kph quick bowlers to go with three of the IPL's most expensive spinners. The only missing piece to that puzzle might be a pace-off option, someone like an Andrew Tye, but they should be okay. They are also slightly short of middle-order batting firepower, so will likely be hoping that one of the uncapped pair of Nitish Rana and Ishank Jaggi stands up to be counted after strong Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy campaigns in that role. Watch out for a couple of players plucked straight from the under-19s, especially Kamlesh Nagarkoti.

Verdict: This too could be a title-contending team providing nobody gets injured, because there's not much in the way of a Plan B here.
Should have bought: Ben Laughlin - He might not have made the first XI to start with, but would have been someone to fall back on in the death overs. Crazy fielder too.
Shouldn't have bought: Piyush Chawla - He'll likely make the first XI, but won't regularly bowl his four overs. Arguably a waste of an RTM card.

- - -

Mumbai Indians
Possible First XI: Rohit Sharma , Evin Lewis , Ishan Kishan , Suryakumar Yadav, Kieron Pollard , Saurabh Tiwary, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Pat Cummins , Jason Behrendorff , Jasprit Bumrah

If there's something that every IPL team seemed to want, it was a Pandya. However, it seemed always to be guaranteed that they would both stay put at Mumbai Indians, and so it proved: Hardik was retained before the auction, while Krunal was the first recipient of a Right To Match card. A lot will likely depend upon the propensity of openers Rohit Sharma and Evin Lewis to score centuries from the top of the order: if they can manage that, then they should mask the lack of any world-class talent at number three or four. Also, watch out for Saurabh Tiwary - once catapulted to massive riches and an international opportunity by the IPL auction, this time around it has given him a chance to lift himself back out on the field and to stamp his name all over the competition rather than the competition's name on him.

Verdict: They are one world-class batsman short, but if their openers fire it won't matter in the slightest. If.
Should have bought: Joe Root - Arguably overpriced, but he would have added more to the side batting at three than Pollard will batting at five or six.
Shouldn't have bought: Kieron Pollard - I might be biased here because I just don't like the man, but Kieron Pollard was not the missing link in this team.

- - -

Rajasthan Royals
Possible First XI: Ajinkya Rahane, D'Arcy Short , Steven Smith , Ben Stokes , Rahul Tripathi, Sanju Samson , Stuart Binny, Jofra Archer , Dhawal Kulkarni, Krishnappa Gowtham, Jaydev Unadkat

Rajasthan Royals did not spend responsibly. By throwing all their money at five millionaire players (Smith, Stokes, Unadkat, Samson, Archer) and five more over $500k (Gowtham, Rahane, Buttler, Short, Tripathi), they left themselves with barely a handful of rupees to flesh out the remainder of their squad. And they also used their Right To Match on Dhawal Kulkarni, but whatever floats your boat I guess. If this side all fires at once it will be more than a slight handful, but Steven Smith is currently coming off a Test series where he scored runs through sheer willpower and a one-day series where he couldn't get the runs off the square. This is not ideal for someone who prides himself on leading his IPL side by example.

Verdict: Could sneak into the playoffs if they can work out what order to put their top-five in, and if Jofra Archer works up a head of steam.
Should have bought: Shakib Al Hasan - He ended up getting picked up by a team that already had Rashid Khan. Would be a safer bet than Gowtham.
Shouldn't have bought: Rahul Tripathi - No, we do not buy mediocre Ranji players for half a million dollars, even if they have had one freakishly good IPL season.

- - -

Royal Challengers Bangalore
Possible First XI: Quinton de Kock , Brendon McCullum , Virat Kohli , AB de Villiers , Sarfaraz Khan, Chris Woakes , Washington Sundar, Pawan Negi, Umesh Yadav, Mohammad Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal

This is a very very very scary side. There are four world-class hitters making up the top four spots in the order, followed by Sarfaraz and the all-rounders who are all flexible enough to bat according to whatever situation presents itself. Meanwhile, there are three good seamers (Woakes, Yadav, Siraj), three good spinners (Chahal, Sundar, Negi) and reasonable bench strength (Mandeep, Parthiv, de Grandhomme, Saini, Southee) to back up all the power-hitting. Basically, what I'm saying is that this team starts the competition as favourites now they've finally got the bowling to go with the injustice of having Kohli and ABdV in the same playing XI.

Verdict: They are probably my favourites for the title. I've not checked what the bookies say but it should be similar.
Should have bought: Aaron Summers - I'm completely going against what I said about Dwarshuis, but seriously - pick Summers and let him rip at 154 kph.
Shouldn't have bought: Murugan Ashwin - Seriously I don't get it. Just look at his stats. What a waste of money.

- - -

Sunrisers Hyderabad
Possible First XI: Shikhar Dhawan, David Warner , Kane Williamson , Manish Pandey, Deepak Hooda, Shakib Al Hasan , Wriddhiman Saha , Rashid Khan , Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed

I'm not convinced that anyone really knows who Khaleel Ahmed is, but if he really is all that then it completes the recovery of the 2016 Champions into a title-challenging side once again. As a 50-over side, this team would have everything you could ever need: an explosive opening pair, a classy three and four, an attacking five and six, the world's best keeper, the world's best spinner, the world's best all-rounder, and three skilled seamers. But this isn't a 50-over side, it's a Twenty20 side in which much will depend upon the aforementioned Khaleel, as well as Deepak Hooda's ability to clear the ropes and sneak in an over of medium-pace filth. If that all comes together, then they should be play-off contenders; if it doesn't, then Bipul Sharma comes back into the side, arguably batting a little too high.

Verdict: This is a good, well-balanced team, although no team can ever be perfect.
Should have bought: Jonny Bairstow - As good as Saha is, having Bairstow at three and taking the gloves while Bipul bats at seven would perfectly balance the side.
Shouldn't have bought: Yusuf Pathan - He's currently still banned for doping I think, as well as being 35 and just generally not the future.

- - -

Predicted Standings
C: Royal Challengers Bangalore
RU: Kolkata Knight Riders
3: Delhi Daredevils
4: Sunrisers Hyderabad
5: Mumbai Indians
6: Rajasthan Royals
7: Chennai Super Kings
8: Kings XI Punjab

- - -

I've spent over two hours on this. I need to sleep.

 

[AliB]

Woah! https://www.crictracker.com/football-style-mid-season-transfers-set-light-ipl-2018/

 

[abhi_jacko]

Woah! https://www.crictracker.com/football-style-mid-season-transfers-set-light-ipl-2018/

This could be a game changer as far as strategies are concerned. Will keep the under performing teams in the tournament, and give opportunity to players who might end up being benched for most games

 

[Na Maloom Afraad]

C: Royal Challengers Bangalore

Every year we expect this.

Every year.

 

[Zaxotes]

This appears to be CSK's jersey:
After 8 years, the belly sponsor is changed.

 

[SaiSrini]

I wish CSK got rid of that ugly logo for the Gulf sponsor. Other than that, this jersey triggers nostalgia and has been successful in IPL history because CSK has been successful. Its not flashy but the thing is, other teams have not taken any form of yellow and so CSK's jersey has a strong uniqueness to it.

 

[Targaryen]

This appears to be CSK's jersey:
After 8 years, the belly sponsor is changed.

That image clearly looks as if the original stock is edited in Photoshop to add some sponsorships. Look at the IPL logo on the sleeves and the sponsor logo on chest of Jadeja lol.

 

[Zaxotes]

That image clearly looks as if the original stock is edited in Photoshop to add some sponsorships. Look at the IPL logo on the sleeves and the sponsor logo on chest of Jadeja lol.

I did not say that the players are wearing the official jersey. This obviously is a mock up with placement of new sponsors and the same old jersey design which has been unchanged since forever; which 'appears' to be CSK's 2018 jersey.

 

[Targaryen]

I did not say that the players are wearing the official jersey. This obviously is a mock up with placement of new sponsors and the same old jersey design which has been unchanged since forever; which 'appears' to be CSK's 2018 jersey.

So is that image released officially by CSK or their counterparts?

 

[Varun7]

Courtesy:ESPN

 

[Ahmad94]

A slightly unrelated article, but a good read.

Pakistani players in IPL

It really shows the value of name over quality when Afridi has the highest favourability regardless of him not playing decent cricket for over 1 yr.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

A slightly unrelated article, but a good read.

Pakistani players in IPL

It really shows the value of name over quality when Afridi has the highest favourability regardless of him not playing decent cricket for over 1 yr.

What a joke! The problem with most Pakistani fans in relation to Afridi has been their expectations and the way Shahid was managed. The polls you see are probably results of Afridi in his pomp. I have watched cricket since long before T20 started and Afridi would be my first pick if I was looking for a bowling all rounder in the sub continent. In his pomp, he was also a brilliant fielder. My expectation of him would be to give me 4 overs and win me 1/15 games with the bat. If you expect him to bat like Kohli or Ab with that consistency, I'm sorry but you're daft and this exactly was the expectation of most people in Pakistan.

On the subject of Pakistanis playing in the IPL, I think I really miss it. I'd love to see Shadab Khan and Md. Amir in it. I rate Shadab as good a cricketer as any in world cricket in terms of upcoming blokes. He has the potential to be one of the best bowling all rounders of all time. It all depends on his ability to keep himself grounded and more importantly how the PCB and co. manage him.

 

[Zaxotes]

This will be the CSK's jersey.

 

[AliB]

This will be the CSK's jersey.

Is that some official image?