Bhubaneswar/Mumbai: Season 11 of the cash-rich Indian Premiere League comes with a promise of entertaining fans across the world as the teams got revamped and did see many changes after the auction compared to last year's IPL. The auction was very interesting with franchisees behaving more maturely than ever before. Players were left out, some were retained and some joined new franchisees.
Let's have a look at the team composition of this current season IPL 2018.
1. After returning to the Indian Premier League after two long years, the team of Whistle Podu is back with some strong combinations. The franchise has retained captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Chennai has a power-packed batting line-up with Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay, Faf Du Plessis, and Kedhar Jadhav, while the bowling department comprises Bhajji, Imran Tahir and Lungi Ngidi. They have Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, and Shane Watson as their premium all-rounders.
2. Talking about Delhi Daredevils, they bought their old horse Gautam Gambhir back into the team and have two power hitter openers in Jason Roy and Colin Munro. Youngsters Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant balance the middle order with foreign players Glenn Maxwell and Chris Morris adding power to it. Delhi has a strong bowling line-up though, with Indian pacer Mohammed Shami, Kagiso Rabada, Trent Boult, and leggie Amit Mishra. It will be interesting to see which four overseas players they pick up in the playing eleven.
3. The Knight Riders team this season looks a bit immature and lacks experience somewhat. Kolkata have openers Chris Lynn and Robin Uthappa followed by Dinesh Karthik, Nitish Rana, and U-19 World Cup Player of the tournament Shubman Gill and Andre Russel as the all-rounder. However, with Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Johnson, Sunil Narine, and Indian leggie Piyush Chawla, the bowling department looks evenly balanced.
4. Co-owner of the Kings XI Preity Zinta became a popular face during the auction and some named her Shopping Queen. Chris Gayle, Aaron Finch, Yuvraj Singh, KL Rahul and David Miller, are all power hitters, with Ravichandran Ashwin joining the King's Den for the first time. Let's wait and see how selectors balance the Playing XI.
5. Mumbai Indians retain the Indian opener Rohit Sharma who is in tremendous form. They have West Indian Evin Lewis, and JP Duminy in the batting line-up, while two best bowlers of the current generation Jasprit Bumrah and Mustafizur Rahman are a must in the final eleven. They also have Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard as their genuine all-rounders.
6. The bottom team of the last year's IPL, RCB is expected to bounce back heavily this season. Virat Kohli, ABD, Brendon Mccullum, De Kock, Parthiv Patel, Chris Woakes, pacer Umesh Yadav, and leggie Yuzvendra Chahal bring a balance to the team but it's important for the big guns to perform and take revenge for the previous year.
7. Coming back after two years like CSK, Rajasthan has some big players but lacks a dangerous pace attack. Ajinkya Rahane, Steven Smith, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, all-rounder Ben Stokes everyone in good form. But they need to find the right combination.
8. The Sunrisers have retained David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan, while Kane Williamson is back in the squad. In the middle order, they have Yusuf Pathan, Manish Pandey, and Shakib Al Hasan while the bowling is led by Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, and star Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan. Let's wait and see how the selectors use the players.
Also Read: IPL-Final 2018