So there it begins! The ninth season of the Indian Premier League! We have come a long way from when IPL first began, back in 2008. A lot has changed since then. Two of the biggest IPL teams – the Rajasthan Royals and more importantly the Chennai Super Kings, are out of the IPL, for reasons that have nothing to do with cricket.
It’s certainly not a happy state of affairs, but we wish all the best to the new teams, Rising Pune Supergiants and Gujarat Lions. It’s great that Gujarat finally gets its own IPL team – nobody has been able to give a good reason why one of India’s richest states, and a cricket mad one at that, had been denied an IPL team so far.
The IPL auction was a successful event too, a total of 94 players were bought, including Carlos Braithwaite, who is quite possibly the biggest star in cricket right now, after his exploits in the final of the World T20 Cup, where he smashed England’s Ben Stokes for four consecutive sixes to win the match for his country.
So let’s have a look at the teams, and predict who will win IPL 2016.
Rising Pune Supergiants
Rising Pune Supergiants is MS Dhoni’s new team, now the Chennai Super Kings are no longer around. Dhoni goes from a Chennai boy to a Pune warrior. If going by batting alone, Rising Pune Supergiants are a very impressive team. They have one of the most intimidating batting line-ups out there, with every batting position taken up by a superstar – Ajinkya Rahane, Kevin Pietersen to open, Faf du Plesis, Steven Smith and MS Dhoni forming the middle order, Mitchell Marsh and Irfan Pathan filling up the all-rounder slots. But the problem is their bowling. Apart from Ravi Ashwin, the Pune team do not have a single match winning bowler in their ranks. That’s why we don’t rate their chances of winning the IPL highly. They will be lucky to finish in the top 5.
IPL 2016 – Rising Pune Supergiants – The Team
1 Ajinkya Rahane, 2 Kevin Pietersen (overseas), 3 Faf du Plessis (overseas), 4 Steven Smith (overseas), 5 MS Dhoni (capt, wk), 6 Mitchell Marsh (overseas), 7 Irfan Pathan, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Ishant Sharma, 10 M Ashwin, 11 Ishwar Pandey
Gujarat Lions
We are so glad that Gujarat gets an IPL team of its own. They are a side filled with all-rounders and have got a plenty of good ones – DJ Bravo, fresh after his win in the World T20 Cup for the West Indies, James Faulkner and local boy Ravindra Jadeja. However, they look very weak in the pace bowling department – Dhawal Kulkarni and Praveen Kumar aren’t likely to send shivers to any batting side. The batting looks very strong though, with Aaron Finch, Dwayne Smith, the recently retired Brendon McCullum, Suresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik.
IPL 2016 – Gujarat Lions – The Team
1 Aaron Finch/Dwayne Smith (overseas), 2 Brendon McCullum (overseas), 3 Suresh Raina (capt), 4 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 5 Dwayne Bravo (overseas), 6 James Faulkner (overseas), 7 Ishan Kishan, 8 Ravindra Jadeja, 9 Praveen Kumar, 10 Dhawal Kulkarni, 11 Pravin Tambe
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Royal Challengers Bangalore have had a very tumultuous time as owner Vijay Mallya faces arrest because of defaulting on a $1 billion loan. He has since vacated his position and has been replaced. But as far as the team itself is concerned, it’s perhaps the most impressive IPL team out there. Just imagine – a top 4 that consists of Chris Gayle, Shane Watson, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers. Wow! No T20 side, not even an international team has a top four like this. The bowling is decent too, with the world’s fastest bowler Mitchell Starc leading the attack, supported by Varun Aaron and the young spinner Yuzvendra Chahal. However, a lot rides on Starc’s fitness – if he fails to recover from his injury, the RCB bowling would look very weak indeed.
IPL 2016 – Royal Challengers Bangalore – The Team
1 Chris Gayle (overseas), 2 Shane Watson (overseas), 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 AB de Villiers (overseas), 5 Mandeep Singh/Sarfaraz Khan, 6 Kedar Jadhav (wk), 7 Stuart Binny, 8 Varun Aaron, 9 Yuzvendra Chahal, 10 S Aravind, 11 Mitchell Starc (overseas)
Kolkata Knight Riders
There’s nothing flashy about the Kolkata Knight Riders. Except all-rounder Andre Russell they don’t really have a T20 superstar, but they are a very effective outfit with a number of proven T20 performers and a great track record. Kolkata Knight Riders are a very smartly managed team and one of the most successful IPL sides out there. Their batting is efficient, but nothing to shout home about. Robin Uthappa, Gautam, Gambhir, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan and Shakib Al Hasan are all proven performers, but the magic is added by Andre Russell, who is the idea T20 player – bowls fast and bats with great power and strength. In Umesh Yadav and Morne Morkel, they do have a decent new ball attack. However, with Sunil Narine being banned from cricket for a suspect action, they are woefully short in the spin department.
IPL 2016 – Kolkata Knight Riders – The Team
1 Robin Uthappa (wk), 2 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 3 Manish Pandey, 4 Shakib Al Hasan (overseas), 5 Yusuf Pathan, 6 Suryakumar Yadav, 7 Andre Russell (overseas), 8 John Hastings/Jason Holder (overseas) 9 Piyush Chawla, 10 Umesh Yadav, 11 Morne Morkel (overseas)
Kings XI Punjab
Kings XI Punjab depend heavily on their three overseas batsmen – Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell and David Miller. The trio carry the Kings XI batting, there’s not much to talk about the batting line-up apart from them. The bowling consists of Mitchell Johnson supported by Indian youngsters such as Mohit Sharma and Sandeep Sharma. We think the Punjab side are lightweight in this tournament – in fact the Kings XI side has always been underperformers in the IPL. We expect that to continue.
IPL 2016 – Kings XI Punjab – The Team
1 M Vijay, 2 Manan Vohra, 3 Shaun Marsh (overseas), 4 Glenn Maxwell (overseas), 5 David Miller (overseas), 6 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 7 Axar Patel, 8 Rishi Dhawan/Gurkeerat Singh, 9 Kyle Abbott/Mitchell Johnson (overseas), 10 Mohit Sharma, 11 Sandeep Sharma
Delhi Daredevils
Delhi Daredevils are managed by Rahul Dravid, who is probably the smartest man in cricket. Dravid is one guy you can depend upon to bing out the best from even the most mediocre team of cricketers, as Delhi Daredevils certainly are. Apart from Carlos Braithwaite, the hottest player in cricket right now after his exploits in the World T20 Cup, there isn’t a single match winner in the Delhi team. They have a plenty of good players for sure, but none that will make you sit up and take notice. We do expect Dravid to squeeze enough out of this team and they should remain competitive throughout the IPL 2016. But we don’t really see them going beyond the semi-finals.
IPL 2016 – Delhi Daredevils – The Team
1 Shreyas Iyer, 2 Mayank Agarwal, 3 Sanju Samson, 4 JP Duminy (capt, overseas), 5 Karun Nair, 6 Albie Morkel/Carlos Braithwaite (overseas), 7 Pawan Negi, 8 Chris Morris (overseas), 9 Mohammed Shami/Zaheer Khan, 10 Amit Mishra, 11 Imran Tahir/Nathan Coulter-Nile (overseas)
Mumbai Indians
Mumbai Indians are owned by India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani and they are a very impressive side with some of India’s biggest T20 stars- Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah. They don’t have the biggest overseas players, but the likes of Lendl Simmons, Kieron Pollard, Mitchell McClenaghan, Tim Southee and of course, Lasith Malinga are proven IPL performers. They are one of the favorites to win IPL 2016 and we expect big things from them. They also have a huge reputation to live up to as they have the best track record among all the IPL teams in the competition, now that their old rivals the Chennai Super Kings are no longer around.
IPL 2016 – Mumbai Indians – The Team
1 Parthiv Patel (wk), 2 Lendl Simmons (overseas), 3 Rohit Sharma (capt), 4 Ambati Rayudu, 5 Kieron Pollard (overseas), 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Harbhajan Singh, 8 J Suchith, 9 Mitchell McClenaghan/Tim Southee (overseas), 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Lasith Malinga (overseas)
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Nothing wrong with the Sunrisers Hyderabad side – they have a powerful top-11. But there isn’t much beyong that, as they have a very weak bench. So if even one of the top players gets injured, you will have a rookie coming in to fill the slot. But if the Sunrisers Hyderabad playing eleven stay fit for the entire duration of the IPL, they are sure to go far indeed. They have an impressive batting lineup indeed, with the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, David Warner, Kane Williamson, Eoin Morgan and Yuvraj Singh, backed by the all-rounders Ben Cutting and Moises Henriques. The bowling lacks pace as there isn’t even one out-and-out fast bowler in the team.
IPL 2016 – Sunrisers Hyderabad – The Team
1 Shikhar Dhawan (capt), 2 David Warner (overseas), 3 Kane Williamson/Eoin Morgan (overseas), 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Deepak Hooda, 6 Naman Ojha (wk), 7 Ben Cutting/Moises Henriques, 8 Trent Boult (overseas), 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Karn Sharma, 11 Ashish Nehra
