Posted on March 14, 2010 | Category: Twenty20
Squad:
Adam Gilchrist*†, Azhar Bilakhia, Andrew Symonds, Arjun Yadav, Bodapati Sumanth, Chaminda Vaas, D Ravi Teja, Dwayne Smith, Harmeet Singh, Ashish Reddy, Herschelle Gibbs, Kemar Roach, VVS Laxman, Mohnish Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Rohit Sharma, RP Singh, Ryan Harris, T Suman, Venugopal Rao, Anirudh Singh, Rahul Sharma, Mitchell Marsh.
Nims Predictions:
After a whirlwind 2009 in South Africa during Season 2 it’d be understandable to pin them as favourites for the title in 2010. That’s only if you didn’t happen to see their performance in the Champions League. Luckily for Deccan, national duty won’t rob them of anyone that can’t be replaced which gives them some time at least to gel together as a team and iron out some of the kinks. Deccan’s success will rely mainly on the established names like Andrew Symonds and ‘Commercial’ Herschelle Gibbs actually finding form otherwise it looks like it’ll be Adam Gilchrist carrying the Chargers on his back. At the very least Deccan will qualify for the Champions League.
Freemo Predicts:
Last year they went from chumps to champs. This year, they’re hitting the road again, with their home ground in Hydrabad relieved of it’s hosting duties for security reasons. Since they lost all seven of their home games in IPL1, you’d think they’d be grateful, but no, apparently not the case. But I agree with Nims. Andrew Symonds needs to fire a little more often than sporadically, and Advertisement Herchille needs to fire a little more often than never. Though RP Singh and WPUJC Vass can be relied on to be solid, one suspects that their bowling is light on. When Symonds regularly bowls out his four overs, one knows it for certain. Gilchrist will drag them into the semi-finals, but that’s about it.
Squad:
Anil Kumble*, Jacques Kallis, Shrivats Goswami, Bhuvanesh Kumar, Eoin Morgan, Abhimanyu Mithun, Virat Kohli, Robin Uthappa, Dale Steyn, Cameron White, Kevin Pietersen, Rahul Dravid, S Sriram, Manish Pandey, R Vinay Kumar, KP Appanna, B Akhil, Steven Smith, Praveen Kumar, Mark Boucher†, Dillon du Preez, Ross Taylor, Roelof van der Merwe.
Nims Predicts:
Once Challengers In Name Only, the CINOs have shed that title with a vengeance and Kevin Pietersen. Under Anil Kumble’s leadership the Challengers really became a force to be reckoned with in IPL 2 and the Champions League. The Challengers seem to have all the boxes ticked with a proven batting lineup lead by the leaner and meaner Jacques Kallis with Ross Taylor bringing on the slogfests, a strike bowling attack in Steyn and Praveen Kumar and some of the best slow bowlers in Kumble and Van der Merwe. Unlike the other IPL franchises Bangalore actually seem to have formed themselves a cricket team and not a collection of names in a fantasy World XI. I’m predicting this is the year Bangalore takes the IPL title.
Freemo Predicts:
This time last year I predicted that IPL 2 would be the year of Herchille Gibbs. Sadly, it didn’t quite work out that way. This year, I’m putting what little is left of my tattered reputation on the line once more, and declaring this year the year of Jacques Kallis. Oh, how we once mocked Bangalore. The “Challengers In Name Only”, we called them. “The Royal Clippers Bangalore”, we called them. Let’s be honest, that Brendon McCullum innings in Season One, Game One left them shell-shocked, and it took them about a season and a half to recover. But then Kumble took the reins, Kallis did a Stella and reacquired his groove, Ross Taylor realized “hey, I’m in a batting line-up that doesn’t collapse faster than a poorly thought out simile. Better make the most of it”, and slowly but surely it all came together. This year, they’ll be ready from Game One. Another final beckons.
Squad:
Gautam Gambhir*, AB de Villiers, Umesh Yadav, Kedar Jadhav, Wayne Parnell, Shashi Ranjan, Ashish Nehra, Mithun Manhas, Andrew McDonald, Farveez Maharoof, Virender Sehwag, Dinesh Karthik†, Joginder Singh, Pradeep Sangwan, Amit Mishra, Moises Henriques, Sarandeep Singh, Sarabjit Ladda, Aavishkar Salvi, David Warner, Dirk Nannes, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Rajat Bhatia.
Nims Predicts:
Delhi dominated IPL 2 winning 10 of their 14 league games and sat comfortably on the top of the points table for a good portion of the tournament and only due to Adam Gilchrist’s superb knock for Deccan in the semi that halted their rapid march to the Final. Delhi’s lineup reminds me a bit of Bangalore’s in the sense that they have tried to tick all the boxes you need for Twenty20 (big hitters, strike bowlers, ‘all rounder’) but seem to have taken it to a bit of an extreme. Aside from AB de Villiers, the Delhi top order consists of nothing but sloggers in Sehwag, Gambhir, Dilshan and Warner all of who either hit the ball out of the park or sky one to cover. Delhi’s “score 250 every match” philosophy will be their downfall. They’ll definitely make it to the semi final stage.
Freemo Predicts:
So far, Delhi have been the team to beat, and so far, they’ve been beaten. This is a side loaded with stars: The destructive batting line-up of Sewhag, Warner, Dilshan and de Villiers, plus two of the best T20 bowlers in the history of T20 bowling in Dirk Nannes (who arrived early) and Daniel Vettori (who’ll be arriving late). But they play a high risk / high return batting line up, and while it will usually pays off handsomely, you know it’s going to completely implode at least once during the tournament, and it could be at the worst possible time. Also, I think they lack a bit when it comes to leadership. I’m not sure Gambhir is captaincy material, especially as he’s yet to truly fire in the shorter forms of the game. Why Batman handed Robin the keys to the Batmobile I have no idea, but they should make the final. Hell, they should win it, but then they should have won last year as well.
Squad:
MS Dhoni*†, Muttiah Muralitharan, Manpreet Gony, Shadab Jakati, Arun Karthik, Thissara Perera, L Balaji, Suresh Raina, Michael Hussey, Makhaya Ntini, Thilan Thushara, C Ganapathy, M Vijay, Sudeep Tyagi, R Ashwin, Justin Kemp, Hemang Badani, S Badrinath, Matthew Hayden, Albie Morkel, Jacob Oram, George Bailey, Parthiv Patel.
Nims Predicts:
On prior performance alone it’s safe to assume that Chennai will hover around the top of the points table and make it to the semi finals, and with the form that Matthew Hayden was in during IPL 2 it seems like a safe bet that Chennai will be a top four side in 2010. The key word there is “seems” since Matthew Hayden is the only one scoring runs and without him who knows where Chennai would be on the table. Hayden (54.35) and MS Dhoni (41.44) seem to be the only two players who step up and do anything, and unless Mike Hussey plays I can’t see anyone breaking out with a match winning performance. Bat the opposition out of the game looks to be the winning formula for the Superkings cause I sure as hell don’t see any of their bowlers doing anything threatening. I do hope that Hemang Badani gets a game only because he’s a former ICL Chennai Superstar.
Freemo Predicts:
Like Delhi, they rely on their star players. Unlike Delhi, they don’t have that many of them. them. It’s Hayden and Dhoni with quick cameos from everyone else. But for the most part it seems to be working for them. If Hayden has another year like last year, they’ll be competitive. If he doesn’t, they won’t be. Simple as that.
Squad:
Kumar Sangakkara*†, Brett Lee, Adrian Barath, Vikramjeet Malik, Bipul Sharma, Manvinder Bisla, Yusuf Abdullah, Karan Goel, Ravi Bopara, Irfan Pathan, Ramesh Powar, Shalabh Srivastava, Mohammad Kaif, Love Ablish, Amanpreet Singh, James Hopes, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Yash Gandhi, Shaun Marsh, Mahela Jayawardene, Yuvraj Singh, Sreesanth, Piyush Chawla.
Nims Predicts:
It’s a damn crime that Ravi Below-par-a gets into the Kings XI squad yet Simon Katich, the man who captained New South Wales to the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 title, isn’t even on a plane to India. Yuvraj stepping down as captain and handing the reigns over to Sangakkara doesn’t really fill me with much hope really, especially considering the fate of the last IPL franchise that had a wicket keeper batsmen replace its Indian captain. Shaun Marsh is injured as well so that’s another tick in the “Going to have a crappy season” column for the Kings XI. Jayawardene has been in top T20 form leading Wayamba to a back to back title in Sri Lanka’s T20 comp. Tom Moody has his work cut out for him… as usual.
Freemo Predicts:
While Rajasthan chose to put together a “champion team”, and Delhi opted for the “team of champions” route, the Kings XI Punjab have, well, I can’t really work out what they’ve done. If the IPL were a Poker game, Punjab would be holding a two-seven off-suit. Who’s opening the batting for Pete sake? How many Sangakkara / Jayawardene middle order patch-up jobs am I going to have to sit through this season for Heaven sake? Please tell me Irfan Pathan isn’t leading the bowling attack for Chirst sake! But they did win more games in 2009 than I thought they would. I can’t remember how many, but they did win some, which was more than I thought they would, so maybe they can be the new Rajasthan this year and take everyone by surprise. Doubt it though.
Squad:
Shane Warne*, Damien Martyn, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Abhishek Raut, Faiz Fazal, Amit Paunikar†, Amit Singh, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Shaun Tait, Yusuf Pathan, Swapnil Asnodkar, Naman Ojha, Johan Botha, Michael Lumb, Shrikant Wagh, Sumit Narwal, Syed Quadri, Kamran Khan, Graeme Smith, Morne Morkel, Siddharth Trivedi, Mahesh Rawat, Munaf Patel.
Nims Predicts:
Rajasthan’s fairytale first season was very quickly forgotten by their performance in IPL 2 but to be fair to them they were dealt a couple of blows that hindered their performance. Their leading wicket taker Sohail Tanvir was banned from taking part, Shane Watson, the leading run scorer and Player Of The Tournament was out injured and their spearhead signing Shaun Tait was forbidden to play by Cricket Australia. Poor Warnie tried his best to pull a rabbit out of a hat each time but sadly couldn’t repeat the heroics of 2008. The Royals do have the talent under their belt so there’s no reason they can’t be a force to be reckoned with but they wont reach the heights of 2008. Ever.
Freemo Predicts:
Straw into Gold. Water into Wine. Straw into Wine. Loaves into fishes. Nothing into Something. The insides of a stone into blood. Watch wizard Warne wave his wand as he tries to turn each of the former into each of the latter and lead his ragtag band of randoms, misfits and village nobodies to glory. He did it once, in IPL1, and he would have done it again in IPL2 except everything that he was saddled with a top six who couldn’t make seven between them. But their young Indian players will be better for being back on home turf, and Graeme Smith won’t have two dud seasons in a row. Plus, they have Damien Martyn now, so, you know, case closed. Should make the top four.
Squad:
Sachin Tendulkar*, Lasith Malinga, Kieron Pollard, Ambati Rayudu, Chandan Madan, Syed Sahabuddin, Dhawal Kulkarni, Shikhar Dhawan, Graham Napier, Dilhara Fernando, Dwayne Bravo, Zaheer Khan, Ali Murtaza, Saurabh Tiwary, R Sathish, Aditya Tare†, Ishan Malhotra, Rahul Shukla, Abhishek Nayar, JP Duminy, Sanath Jayasuriya, Harbhajan Singh, Ryan McLaren.
Nims Predicts:
I really don’t know what to think about Mumbai this year. Their performances in the previous two seasons of the IPL have been nothing short of indifferent with them either playing really well and dominating opponents, or collapsing like a house of cards and self destructing. The big signing of IPL 3 is of course Trinidad & Tobago’s Kieron Pollard who was won in a silent auction, but will he be available considering the state of Windies cricket. Does the BCCI care? Hell do the West Indies care? Mumbai will have some good games and some bad games but they’ll always be in the bottom four of the IPL table.
Freemo Predicts:
For two years we’ve been waiting for Mumbai to do something, anything, to give us a reason as to why we should give a damn about them. Well, the signing of Kieran Pollard might just be that anything. Nims clearly hasn’t given Mumbai a second thought, but then, I haven’t even given them a first thought. Mumbai have always been just sort of there, hanging around, making up the numbers. Good for a few Sanath Jayasuria 29 off 20 specials, maybe a Duminy salvage operation or two, some Harbhajan stupidity, and the novelty act that is Lasith Malinga, but not much else, certainly not in terms of threatening to do something. Pollard will make a big difference, no doubt about it, but will it be enough?
Squad:
Sourav Ganguly*, Cheteshwar Pujara, Charl Langeveldt, Chirag Pathak, Iqbal Abdulla, G Vignesh, Brendon McCullum†, Angelo Mathews, Wriddhiman Saha, Ajit Agarkar, Chris Gayle, Manoj Tiwary, Rohan Gavaskar, Harshad Khadiwale, Varun Aaron, Eklak Ahmed, Owais Shah, Murali Kartik, Brad Hodge, Ajantha Mendis, Laxmi Shukla, Ashok Dinda, Ishant Sharma.
Nims Predicts:
Well we all know how KKR fared in the IPL 2009 so its no surprise that the franchise has cleaned house a bit. Ganguly’s back as captain, John Buchanan’s been replaced by the much more competent Dav Whatmore and they have the world’s best Twenty20 batsman Brad Hodge with them for the entire season. I’m not sure why Shane Bond hasn’t been named in their preliminary squad especially considering McCullum is listed, but he’ll hopefully be throwing on the black and gold of KKR at some point in the tournament. After their abysmal performances in IPL 2008 and 2009, KKR will be keen to try and finish with a respectable standing in this years season. That’s right KKR are the IPL’s Bangladesh.
Freemo Predicts:
Congratulations to Kolkata for finally doing what they should have done all along and backing Sourav Ganguly over John Buchanan. It took them a whole year and an abysmal last place finish for them to come to their senses, but hey, some folk just got to learn the hard way. The big name, big money, big hype, big event, big name team has so far been a big disappointment, but could this be the season they turn it all around? Unburdened of the captaincy, hopefully Brendon McCullum and exorcise the demons of last season and return to his 2008 form. Brad Hodge will be opening the batting apparently, and when and if and for how long Chris Gayle decides to show up we could see some 200+ scores. But Kolkata are one of those sides who spend all their budget on their International stars and forgot that you actually have to play 7 Indians in a starting XI. Will win a few games, but won’t make the top four.
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