IPL Team XIs - Post 6 Feb 2016 Auctions

IPL XIs

RCB

1. Gayle (Overseas)
2. Watson (Overseas)
3. Kohli (C)
4. AB de Villiers(Overseas)
5. Mandeep / Sarfaraaz
6. Jadhav (WK)
7. Binny
8. Starc (Overseas)
9.  Akshay Karnewar / Iqbal Abdullah (Home matches, extra seamer could play)
10. S Arvind / Aaron / H Patel / Abu Nechim
11. Chahal

XI = 4 Batsmen, 2 Seamers, 2 Spinners, 3 Allrounders

Backup Allrounders = David Wiese
Backup Seamers = Milne, Kane Richardson
Backup Batsmen = Travis Head, Sachin Baby
Backup Spinners = Samuel Badree,
Others = Praveen Dubey, Vikas Tokas

Strength : Additional firepower to already explosive batting in form of inform Watson. Watson allows Kallis like balance to team or some might argue even better in T20.

Weakness = In form of Badree have a quality spinner. But four Overseasers are already locked in Gayle, Watson, AB and Starc. Needed a quality Indian spinner. P Ojha would have a good pick. Seamers prone to leaking runs in pressure situation. Only S Aravind has shown progress that too at the start of innings. Will play Arvind, if to open bowling with Starc. Preference will Watson to open bowling and Aaron in middle.

Verdict = Strong and balanced. Still searching first title. So far made just one final.





MI

1. Rohit (C)
2. Anderson (Overseas)
3. Rayudu
4. Buttler (Overseas) (WK)
5. Pollard (Overseas)
6. Pandya
7. Suchith
8. Bhajji
9. Vinay / Nathu
10. Malinga (Overseas)
11. Bumrah

Backup Allrounders = Shreyas Gopal (Spinner), Krunal Pandya
Backup Seamers = Southee, McClenaghan, Akhshaya Wakhare, Nitish Rana
Backup Batsmen = Lendl Simmons, Parthiv, Chand, Siddhesh Lad, Jitesh Sharma
Others = Kishore Kamath, Deepak Punia

XI = 2 Batsmen, 3 Seamers, 1 Spinner, 5 Allrounders

Strength : Every season pick of the players is bought by MI. Pollard, Maxwell, Richard Levi, Anderson and Jos Buttler now. In auction, at times MI enters for some player, other teams backs out. Such is their monetory arrogance. Core is same. In Anderson, Pollard, Buttler and Pandya Mumbai have 4 biggest hitters who can hit from the word go. Each one can win games single handedly on their own day. On top of that their captain Rohit is in form of his life. Once he accepted captaincy, it has only benfitted him. Going by rumors, Nathu seems to be a good addition, given they had Bumrah already.

Weakness : Malinga skills are waning same as of Dhoni. If doesn't perform in first 3-4 matches, replace him with Southee.

Verdict : There's no reason, they can't add one more title to their kitty.




KKR

1. Gautam Gambir (C)
2. Robin Uthappa (WK)
3. Manish Pandey
4. Shakib (Overseas)
5. Yusuf Pathan
6. Suryakumar Yadav
7. Andre Russell (Overseas)
8. Piyush Chawla
9. Sunil Narine (Overseas)
10. Umesh Yadav
11. Morne Morkel / Hastings (Overseas)

XI = 3 Batsmen, 2 Fast Bowlers, 1 Spinner, 5 Allrounders

Backup Allrounders = Hastings, Jason Holder, R Satish, Manan Sharma
Backup Seamers = Unadkat, Ankit Rajpoot
Backup Batsmen = Lynn, Munro, Sheldon Jackson
Backup Spinners = Hogg, Kuldeep

Strength : KKR is an exception in a way, its entire batting and top order consists of Indian batsmen. This turned out to be a real strength as they could use their Overseaser slots for allrounders or bowlers. We know how bad Indian bowlers perform. They play half of their matches on slow pitch of Eden Gardens and thus Narine, Chawla, Shakib, Yusuf Pathan, Kuldeep Yadav and Brad Hogg's inclusion bodes well with team. Hastings is a experienced handler and good addition to squad. Satish is so much known for his fielding whether they play him in XI or not, they could use his services. 10 lacs is good amount paid for a single skill.

Weakness : We don't know how good Narine will be with his remodelled action. As a team they relied heavily on him. In his absence they won last IPL but they had to chase almost 200. People have forgotten when last Yusuf played a match winning innings for KKR. Gambhir too is losing faith in him. He was heard mentioning at auctions, we are looking for possible replacements for Pathan. Backups do not bode well with this team.

Verdict : On paper, it might seem not so good team as of RCB or Mumbai. but performances are what matters. On field they are as good as any other team. We are yet to see how KKR strategies after departure of coach who is with England now.





SRH

1.  Warner (C)(Overseas)
2.  Williamson  (Overseas)
3.  Dhawan
4.  Morgan (Overseas)        
5.  Yuvi
6.  Aditya Tare / Naman Ojha (WK)
7.  Deepak Hooda
8.  Karn Sharma
9.  Bhuvi
10. Nehra
11. Mustafizur Rehman (Overseas)


XI =  Batsmen,  Fast Bowlers,  Spinners,  Allrounders

Backup Allrounders = Henriques, Ben Cutting, Ashish Reddy
Backup Seamers =  Boult, Barinder Saran, Mithun, Siddharth Kaul
Backup Batsmen = KL Rahul, Ricki Bhui, T Suman
Backup Spinners = Bipul Sharma, Pervez Rasool
Backup WKs =

Strength : Last season they benched Steyn, this time it could be Boult. Such is their bowling strength. Along with Nehra they have acquired services of Mustafizur as well. Such is left handers presence, Bhogle tweeted SRH could field all left handers in their XI and still could produce a quality side. Whether batsmen or seamers, they have abundance of talent in left-handers.

Weakness :

Verdict : At auctions Laxman made a statement, Such is their left-arm-seamers prowess they could leave Bould out of XI and accomodate Williamson and Henriques.


KXIP

1.  Manan Vohra
2.  Shaun Marsh (Overseas)
3.  Saha (WK)
4.  Maxwell (Overseas) (C)
5.  Miller (Overseas)
6.  Gurkeerat
7.  Axar
8.  Johnson (Overseas)
9.  Mohit Sharma
10. KC Cariappa (home matches, extra seamer in form of Shardul Thakur / Anureet Singh could play)
11. Sandeep Sharma

XI =  Batsmen,  Fast Bowlers,  Spinners,  Allrounders

Backup Allrounders = Stoinis, Behardien, Rishi Dhawan, Armaan Jaffer
Backup Seamers = Abbott, Anureet Singh, Shardul Thakur
Backup Batsmen = Murali Vijay
Backup Spinners =
Others = Nikhil Naik, Pradeep Sahu, Swapnil Singh

Strength :

Weakness :

Verdict :



Gujarat Lions

1.   McCullum (Overseas)
2.   Dwayne Smith / Finch (Overseas)
3.   Raina(C)
4.   Dinesh Karthik (WK)
5.   Paras Dogra / Ishan Kishan
6.   Dwayne Bravo (Overseas)
7.   Faulkner (Overseas)
8.   Jadeja
9.   Praveen
10.  Dhawal Kulkarni
11. Tambe


XI =  2 Batsmen,  2 Fast Bowlers,  2 Spinners,  5 Allrounders

Backup Allrounders = Andrew Tye
Backup Seamers =  Steyn, Sangwan, Amit Mishra
Backup Batsmen = Finch
Backup Spinners = Shadab Jakati
Others : Jayadev Shah, Akshdeep Nath, Umang Sharma, Shivil Koushik, Sarabjeet Ladda
Backup WKs = Ishan Kishan,Eklavya Dwivdedi

Strength :

Weakness :

Verdict :





 Pune Super Giants
1.   Rahane
2.   Faf (Overseas)
3.   Pieterson (Overseas)
4.   Steven Smith (Overseas)
5.   Dhoni (WK) (C)
6.   Mitchell Marsh (Overseas)
7.   Irfan
8.   Bhatia
9.   Ashwin
10.  M Aswin
11.  Ishwar


XI =  4 Batsmen,  1 Fast Bowler,  2 Spinners,  4 Allrounders

Backup Allrounders = Perera, Zampa, Baba Aparajith
Backup Seamers =  Scott Boland, Ishant, Dinda, R P Singh, Deepak Chahar
Backup Batsmen =
Backup Spinners = Ankit Sharma
Backup WKs = Handscomb, Ankush Bains
Others = Jaskaran Singh
Strength :

Weakness :

Verdict :




DD

1.  Quinton De Kock (Overseas)
2.  Mayank Agarwal
3.  Shreyas Iyer
4.  Sanju Samson (WK)
5.  Karun Nair
6.  Duminy (C) (Overseas)
7.  Pawan Negi
8.  Albie Morkel (Overseas)
9.  Shami
10.  Zaheer
11.  Imran Tahir (Overseas)

XI =  Batsmen,  Fast Bowlers,  Spinners,  Allrounders

Backup Allrounders = Chris Morris, Carlos Braithwaite, Lomror, Jayant Yadav
Backup Seamers =  Coulter De Nile, Joel Paris, Pawan Suyal, Khaleel Ahmed
Backup Batsmen = Saurabh Tiwary,
Backup Spinners = Amit Mishra, Nadeem
Backup WKs = Sam Billings, Rishabh Pant
Others = Chama Milind, Pratyush Singh, Herwadkar

Strength :

Weakness :

Verdict :





P.S.
1. WK is allrounder :)
2. Wherever 2-3 players named for a single slot. Names are mentioned in preferred sequence.
3. You might not noticed but teams are analyzed in sequence strongest first on paper.

Indian squad for T20 World Cup

My Indian team for World T20 to be held in India from Tuesday March 15, 2016. India will start its campaign against New Zealand in Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur in a day-night match.

1. Rohit Sharma
2. Manish Pandey
3. Virat Kohli
4. Suresh Raina
5. M S Dhoni
6. Hardik Pandya
7. Pawan Negi
8. Ravi Jadeja
9. Ravi Ashwin
10. Jasprit Bumrah

11. Ashish Nehra

Back up seamer - Mohd. Shami

Back up spinner - Harbhajan Singh

Back up batsman - Ajinkya Rahane

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are two best limited overs batsmen India have at present and both are in awesome form. Suresh Raina is an automatic selection. There’s no better batsmen-wicketkeeper available than Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin are automatic picks as well, considering world cup is being organized in India.

India will prefer to play three spinners in XI. We have Harbhajan Singh who bowls tidy economical overs can hit a few, if required. But we have seen Pawan Negi hitting the ball hard in IPL. He did it for Chennai Super Kings and before that for Delhi Daredevils. Besides noticeable that he is a left-arm spinner who bats left handed too. Left-armers are valued in gold, when it comes to spin. Left-right batting combo helps as well. Done Spinners.

Openers, we have Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane. Dhawan has not so consistent, though we are highly aware, he is a match-winner and on his day can demolish any attack. Rahane a consistent one but not dynamic. We have seen his best IPL exploits probably in 2014 IPL where he was as consistent as anyone in the world and scored two centuries I think. But he is par that. Young Manish Pandey is an upcoming star. He was a solid no 3 for Kolkata Night Riders and one of the reasons they won 2015 IPL Title. He is consistent and a big match player. He is my choice for opener. Rahane has been kept as a backup batsman. Could easily slot at top of the order or in middle, if situation arises.

Allrounders. We have Hardik Pandya, Stuart Binny and Rishi Dhawan as seam bowling allrounders. In T20s these will need to start hitting from the word GO. Rishi is not made for that. And after so many chances, Binny is yet to show that. Pandya is coming off a very successful Syed Ali Mushtaq T20 trophy. Bowling wise he is not at par but will improve. And anyways Dhoni will be using him sparingly on Indian Pitches, He will have Raina at his disposal too.

Seamers. Ashish Nehra and Mohd. Shami are two of the best in business when it comes to control, bowling at death or wickets at the start. Jasprit Bumrah has popped up at the scene and have impressed everyone. Dhoni, a very subdued person, openly admired him by mentioning as Find of the Tour.

We Indians are the emotional kind. And whenever a Yuvraj Singh or Irfan Pathan comes up for discussion, we get excited. Though both of them used to be a match-winner but I am not sure if they possess same firepower today. What we saw of Yuvi in Australia was not much different from that of last T20 world cup finals, although almost 2 years ago. Seems like nothing changed.

Shikhar Dhawan was a notable miss from my team but he doesn’t dim fit. Pick any of his recent IPL stint or T20 internationals. He misfired on most occasions, with few fine knocks. High time to move on. I am not writing him off but better options are available, I am simply going with them.

If personally someone asks me, whom I will miss most. Without a doubt, it would be Robin Uthappa. He is a real consistent player anywhere from the top of the order to middle order or lower middle order. We all have witnessed what he did opening for KKR. Prior to that how can we forget his fireworks in the middle for RCB few seasons back. He is a quality player without a doubt. I would love to see him back in the setup, anywhere literally.

My squad consists of 5 proper batsmen, 2 spinners, 2 seamers, 1 seam bowling allrounder and 1 spin bowling allrounder. Note that, I am not counting Jadeja or Ashwin as allrounders, though they could bat a little.

India are to play total of 10 T20 matches before start of the T20 world cup assuming we qualify for Asia Cup Finals. 3 T20s with Sri Lanka. 5 T20s in Asia cup including Finals. 2 warm up matches are lined as well just before the world cup with mighty West Indies and dynamic South Africa. It is imperative India should test and groom these set of players by allowing them ample chances and time in the middle. There could be nothing more encouraging than backing them up and making sure they are not playing for their places.

Not Discussed – Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohit Sharma, Axar Patel, Amit Mishra, Umesh Yadav, Ambati Rayudu, Varun Aron.

Please don't mention Ishant Sharma, Karn Sharma, Yujvendra Chahal & Sandeep Sharma.

I will love to see Deepak Hooda as a surprise pick and yes I did not miss Suryakumar Yadav … lol.

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