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Follow UsGujarat Titans - finishers
With GT, there are obvious questions about how they will overcome the absence of Mohammed Shami and Hardik Pandya. Their mercurial XI which was carried by a core of five consistent players, including Shubman Gill, David Miller and Rashid Khan, has lost two stalwarts.
But in more significant questions, their lower middle-order looks more brittle than before, mainly with Pandya moving to Mumbai. GT addressed the issue by signing Azmatullah Omarzai and Shahrukh Khan at the auction.
Omarzai, a like-for-like replacement for Pandya, emerged as an impressive seam-bowling all-rounder in T20 cricket and international cricket last year. However, this will be his first year in IPL. Shahrukh is yet to taste success in this league (426 runs across three seasons) and is looking for a second life-line with GT.
A lot will bank on Rahul Tewatia who did find a second lifeline in the Gujarat colors. He averages 27.6 for the franchise at a strike rate of 149. But last year, he faced only 5.7 balls on average per innings. Contrary to that, Tewatia may have to do a lot of heavy-lifting in the final five overs this time.
Punjab Kings - form of overseas players
Punjab will need to be cautious of the form of their overseas players, especially their prime all-rounders - Liam Livingstone and Sam Curran.
Playing in the SA20 and ILT20 this year, Livingstone averaged only 12.8 at a strike rate of 115.6. With the ball, he picked up only four wickets in 18 overs while conceding at 9.1 runs per over. Curran also had a torrid time: 10 wickets in 12 games, economy 9.7, batting strike rate 127.5 in these two tournaments this year.
Meanwhile, Kagiso Rabada hasn’t averaged under 25 runs per wicket for three years in a row now. And Jonny Bairstow played a T20 six months ago. Hence, Punjab would need to think on their feet regarding the form of their first-choice overseas players. They have handy backups in Rilee Rossouw, Nathan Ellis and Sikandar Raza and should be quick to make a change if required.
Delhi Capitals - finishers
Delhi have been constantly pinned down by the lack of quality finishers for a couple of auction cycles now. In IPL 2023, they had the lowest run-rate (8.3) and average (14.3) in the final five overs with the bat. Axar Patel scored nearly one-third of Delhi’s death over runs in the preceding season and has been the only constant figure for the side in this phase since he joined the team in 2019.
This year again, their fortunes in this aspect seem to be heavily dependent on fate. Unless they bat Mitchell Marsh down the order at five, they will have to bank on players like Tristan Stubbs, Kumar Kushagra and Ricky Bhui to back Axar Patel in the lower middle order. These three players have only played six innings in the IPL between them. Moreover, they have a stern challenge in store: to facing the specialist bowlers for this phase.
Thus, Delhi better be prepared to counter this ever-lasting threat hovering over their head. At the moment, it appears that DC will expect Rishabh Pant, set to return at number four after skipping the last season, will be entrusted to bat deep.
Chennai Super Kings - death over bowling
Death bowling could be CSK’s concern. It has always been the case but owing to the magical mind of MS Dhoni, they have somehow managed to circumvent the issue every year.
Last season, Chennai had above-average bowling numbers at the death but at the back of a breakout season for Matheesha Pathirana. The seamer bowled nearly 40% of CSK’s death bowling overs at an economy of 8. He was almost Dhoni’s cheat code.
Since IPL 2023, Pathirana has blown hot and cold in T20 cricket, going at an economy of 9 in the last five overs. He also made his ODI debut, where he has been awry, leaking runs at 7.3 per over and 9.3 at the death.
If Pathirana doesn’t work out this year, CSK’s other options are all high-variance: Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar (injury prone), Mustfizur Rahman, Mukesh Chaudhary and Tushar Deshpande.
But knowing Dhoni, he must already have a plan in place, not just for Pathirana but for every bowler in his side in case they have a bad season.
Royal Challengers Bangalore - form of batting stars
RCB have a solid-looking first XI but the replacement players are not of the same ilk, especially in the batting order. Barring Anuj Rawat, none of their other batting options outside their first-choice XI have played more than 10 IPL games.
Such is the combination of their batting resources, it is important for the big players to come good consistently. Most of their big guns are on the wrong side of the 30s, indicating a lack of game time. Faf du Plessis had 74 runs in the first six SA20 matches this year before he scored his first fifty of the season. Glenn Maxwell has been injury prone of late.
Provided RCB don’t have many spinners in their squad this year and the pace battery also looks inconvincing, it is their top five, du Plessis, Maxwell, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar and Cameron Green that will have to do the heavy lifting.
Rajasthan Royals - relying too much on Boult
Rajasthan have some powerful batters but too few a bowlers of the same firepower. With Prasidh Krishna ruled out of the season, their pace bowling fortunes seem to be heavily dependent on Trent Boult. Sandeep Sharma can slot in for Krishna but he hasn’t been a wicket-taker for a some time, averaging over 50 runs per wicket in the last three years.
The other seam-bowling options, Avesh Khan, Kuldeep Sen and Navdeep Saini, have been quite inconsistent for a while now. Nandre Burger, the latest overseas recruit in this department, is yet to play an IPL match.
Unlike other teams, RR will be pigeonholed in using the Impact Player rule to create a sixth bowling option.
Thus, a lot rests on Boult’s form during these two months and Rajasthan should be prepared in case it doesn’t work out for their premier pacer.
Kolkata Knight Riders - relying too much on Starc's form and fitness
KKR had the worst pace-bowling numbers last season (average 37.3, economy 10.7). They have signed Mitchell Starc to plug that hole but that is all they have. His backup, Gus Atkinson, won’t get into the playing XI alongside Starc unless they change their combination upside down.
Starc himself has not played much T20 cricket of late. In his last 12 T20s, dating back to 2022, Starc has averaged 26.1 at an economy of 8.3.
The frontline Indian seam-bowling options lie in Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Chetan Sakariya and Sakib Hussain. Rana and Arora have done well for KKR before and the franchise will bank on these youngsters to come good again. Sakariya has not translated his potential to IPL while Hussain has played only two T20s in his career.
KKR is one of the most improved squads of the season but whether they fix their pace bowling numbers will rest mainly on Starc’s fitness, availability and form.
Lucknow Super Giants - no star in pace bowling
The withdrawal of Mark Wood has left LSG between a rock and a hard place regarding their seam-bowling setup. Their likely XI leaves room for only one overseas seamer that may go to Naveen Ul Haq, David Willey or Shemar Joseph (Wood’s replacement).
They have plenty of options to occupy the two Indian seam-bowling spots - Mohsin Khan, Shivam Mavi being the frontrunners, alongside Mohammad Arshad Khan, Arshin Kulkarni, Mayank Singh, Yash Thakur and Yudhvir Singh Charak.
Lucknow have plenty of spinners but in terms of pace, they would be playing Russian roulette, especially on flatter pitches like in Mumbai and Mohali.
Mumbai Indians - spin bowling
While other teams have caveats in their pace-bowling department, Mumbai have a gaping hole in the spin department. Kumar Kartikeya tapered off last year. Piyush Chawla delivered more than expected but had an under-par season in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy where he went wicketless in the last four games.
MI signed Shreyas Gopal in the auction who has played only four IPL games since 2021. Mohammad Nabi is a handy addition but overall, the five-time champions don’t have an X-factor in their spin line-up.
Therefore, teams can target Mumbai when their spinners come on.
Sunrisers Hyderabad - team combination and consistency
Have SRH already done what they didn’t need to do? Making Pat Cummins captain, they have locked 14 games for a bowling all-rounder who has never been a consistent match-winner with the ball in this format. The Orange Army will also have a new coach-captain combination for the fourth year in a row.
That is what they need to be wary of now - not making too many changes.
SRH, arguably, have the best pool of overseas players. They made too many changes last year, from their personnel to their combination. For example, Abhishek Sharma batted at three different positions in the first five games of SRH. There is a running joke on social media that despite acquiring the best of the players, SRH will find a way to muddle their season, as they did last year, finishing with the wooden spoon.
The new management would want to inject some stability in the side now by not making too many changes and trusting the players to do the job.
