Indian Premier League - General Discussion

[SaiSrini]

Okay so I was having a think about the proposal to include two new franchises for 2022, and how I might go about building a squad if I were in charge of such a team. I guess the first step is to look at which players are likely to be unavailable to me - the five players that each franchise will be allowed to retain:

Franchise	1	2	3	4	5
Chennai Super Kings	MS Dhoni	Ravindra Jadeja	Suresh Raina	Deepak Chahar	Ruturaj Gaikwad
Delhi Capitals	Rishabh Pant	Shikhar Dhawan	Kagiso Rabada	Shreyas Iyer	Ravichandran Ashwin
Kolkata Knight Riders	Shubman Gill	Pat Cummins	Andre Russell	Sunil Narine	Kamlesh Nagarkoti
Mumbai Indians	Rohit Sharma	Jasprit Bumrah	Hardik Pandya	Krunal Pandya	Kieron Pollard
Punjab Kings	KL Rahul	Mohammed Shami	Mayank Agarwal	Nicholas Pooran	Jhye Richardson
Rajasthan Royals	Sanju Samson	Jos Buttler	Ben Stokes	Yashasvi Jaiswal	Chris Morris
Royal Challengers Bangalore	Virat Kohli	Yuzvendra Chahal	Kyle Jamieson	Washington Sundar	Mohammad Siraj
Sunrisers Hyderabad	David Warner	Kane Williamson	Rashid Khan	Mujeeb ur Rahman	Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Note: These are just the players I would personally choose to retain while trying to think like the franchise in question. I might be miles off

That does rather limit my options as a potential franchise owner, but regardless I do have some targets to go for:

Top-Order Batsmen
Priyam Garg
Alex Hales
Dawid Malan
Manish Pandey
Nitish Rana
Rinku Singh

Wicket-Keeper Batsmen
Jonny Bairstow
Srikar Bharat
Punit Bisht
Wriddhiman Saha

Batting All-Rounders
Marnus Labuschagne
Prerak Mankad
Abdul Samad
Vijay Shankar

Bowling All-Rounders
Fabian Allen
Akshar Patel
Harshal Patel
Rahul Tewatia

Fast Bowlers
Siddharth Kaul
Ali Khan
Dhawal Kulkarni
Thangarasu Natarajan
Anrich Nortje
Mohammad Siraj
Diwesh Pathania

Spin Bowlers
Shreyas Gopal
Dharmendrasinh Jadeja
Sandeep Lamichhane
Amit Mishra
Jalaj Saxena
Tabraiz Shamsi

So there's not a huge amount of star power in that team, but it'd be a competitive team with provisions for every role. My first XI out of that pile would be something like:

Alex Hales
Jonny Bairstow
Nitish Rana
Rinku Singh
Priyam Garg
Akshar Patel
Harshal Patel
Anrich Nortje
Thangarasu Natarajan
Amit Mishra
Tabraiz Shamsi

There's a little bit of a balance problem - Shamsi probably makes way for Labuschagne if the batting needs reinforcement - but it'd be a serious proposition to play against I think.

Wow, thats intensive. You are way too ahead of the curve

Also as a CSK fan, I would almost drop the ball on them if they retain Dhoni and Raina for next season. Also there is no way in hell they will let go of Sam Curran. The guy's pencilled in as the "superstar in making" and there are strong indications that CSK are looking to keep Sam Curran for atleast a full 3 year cycle and maybe more. I would retain Jadeja, Chahar among the Indian guys, and Curran among the overseas. Rest is fluid and depends on IPL 2021 performance

 

[SaiSrini]

Its getting really tough to predict a Top four right now, but call me pessimistic of call this a 'jinx attempt', but I have a feeling CSK won't make yet another playoffs. I expect their performance to be much improved than last season, but I predict them to lose out on the Top 4 spot in a very close manner. I am having nervous pangs in my stomach, seeing the way there has been absolutely no movement from Dhoni to prepare for this season. He didn't care to play SMAT. Being the sun around which Chennai revolves, his inaction so far has been very worrying. I do hope he clicks, but to me he is now a lottery (I know LiveLoveABD is going to tear into me for this comment)

MI is sureshot and will again be the team to beat. I do think Rajasthan is going to surprise people and do way better under Samson. DC will continue to do well, I expect Punjab to knock hard. Even KKR and RCB look even better and they did well enough last season.

 

[Targaryen]

jinx attempt

You mean reverse jinx?

 

[SaiSrini]

You mean reverse jinx?

Yeah... how did I forgot that famous word?

 

[SaiSrini]

Michael Clarke thinks that Steve Smith might pull out of IPL 2021 citing a fake hamstring injury or something like that, just because he gets only 2.2 crores which seems pretty low.

Sounds crazy and ridiculous! Is he going to do that in a "T20 World Cup" year where the tournament is going to take place in India? Players are given permission by their home boards to skip international cricket to play IPL, so that they get serious practice before the T20 World Cup. Steve Smith might likely get a game here and there, and it would be massively beneficial for any non-Indian players to participate in IPL and get the practice in these conditions, when its very close to the WC

 

[Bevab]

The hoopla around Smudge seems odd. I expect him to be a first-team player most likely. The Kotla pitch is sluggish which suits his style and the way he plays these days is more suited towards a middle order role. Add that to Nortje and Rabada very likely missing out on large chunks of this season and it makes sense that Smudge will be a starter.

Dhawan
Stoinis
Shreyas
Smudge/Pant
Pant/Smudge
Axar
Curran
Woakes/Nortje
Ashwin
Ishant
Mishra/Meriwala

 

[Sherlock Holmes]

The Kotla pitch is sluggish

Ipl will be played in mumbai most likely

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

No comment on the rest of the teams.

Haha I can see you only left one team. And I know the reason.

 

[Bevab]

Ipl will be played in mumbai most likely

Well RIP CSK then.

 

[SaiSrini]

Well RIP CSK then.

Well, lets see. I think there could be the possibility that CSK might opt for Bradbourne stadium or Pune stadium to be their home ground for the league stages. Bradbourne could be a slow wicket with purchase for spinners. Also CSK were forced to move to Pune as their home ground in 2018 and we saw what happened that year (we won the title).

Also I feel the crowd factor can energize CSK. 50% crowds vs zero crowds (which was the case in IPL 2020) could potentially energize CSK.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

For the mega auction, each franchise should be allowed to retain one marquee player of their choice and the new one's should be allowed to choose their marquee player from the free agents with an equal deduction in purse if the governing council is at all interested in making it fair for everyone.

 

[SaiSrini]

For the mega auction, each franchise should be allowed to retain one marquee player of their choice and the new one's should be allowed to choose their marquee player from the free agents with an equal deduction in purse if the governing council is at all interested in making it fair for everyone.

I wouldn't mind that, of course

 

[LiveLoveABD]

I wouldn't mind that, of course

It's not about what you and I mind. It's about what's fair for the growth of Indian cricket. No franchise is interested in making up the numbers.

 

[Bevab]

I agree. Unless you have a total reset, the new franchises will always be playing catch-up to not look hopelessly shite.

@Aislabie made a decent side but that one is still heavily reliant on it's overseas stars to do the bulk of work. The lack of an Indian star or two will eventually catch up and bite you in the back.

 

[Aislabie]

I agree. Unless you have a total reset, the new franchises will always be playing catch-up to not look hopelessly shite.

@Aislabie made a decent side but that one is still heavily reliant on it's overseas stars to do the bulk of work. The lack of an Indian star or two will eventually catch up and bite you in the back.

That is very true; if I were prepared to do a deep dive of SMA stats and scores (even TNPL if that still exists) I could probably find a handful of players with the potential to become stars.

I think you're underselling both Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh though - they'd make the white ball sides and be on the fringes of the red ball sides of pretty much any team in the world other than India. Mishra's the best spinner in the IPL (but ageing), Garg is a future star, and Akshar is the BTEC Jadeja. Oh, and Natarajan's there at the death.

I fully agree that it's a big game of catch-up, especially with the auction pretty much guaranteeing the need to overpay for players, but there are definitely enough high-class Indian players out there.