The IPL Auctions are over. The Monopoly game lasted for a couple of days, one of which was damn interesting and the other, extremely boring. At the end of it all, this is how the teams stand
Chennai Super Kings. probably the most balanced composition. Retained, the players who would have costed them more and bought back many of their other trump cards to make sure that their team composition does not change. The most expected move by the current Champions of IPL and CLT20.But...There is a big but here. The man is not anymore in the squad....Murali. We will have to wait and see how Suraj Randiv fills the spot.
Delhi Daredevils. What were those people smoking while the auctions were going on? Seriously. They were not in their senses during the auction.Or is it that the $9M cap is not applicable for the Capital city? Irfan Pathan for $1.9M, Venugopal Rao Umesh Yadav for 700K and 750K. (Zaheer Khan was just 900K).The silver lining being the decent set of Foreign players Warner and Flinch and Sehwag. How much can they do by themselves?
Deccan Chargers: Another team which has a great set for foreign players but they are short on Indian talent. The 4 foreign players fielded will possibly be KP, Steyn,Dan Christian and Sangakara. But what will they do for the remaining 7? With just 1 Indian batsman (Shikhar Dhawan) They will be in serious hunt for some of the best uncapped players. If they are unsuccessful in getting the best, Deccan will be the first team in the history of world cricket to have "Fielding" (Not batting or bowling or wicket keeping) as the speciality of some of their players.
Kings XI Punjab: Another team which is low on Indian talent. But not as low as Deccan. Piyush Chawla, Abhishek Nayar Dinesh Karthik and Praveen Kumar are acceptable names in the format.Do not have a great set of foreign players too. I would be surprised if they are not in the bottom 3 of the list
Kolkata Knight riders: The most unsuccessful team in the tournament s far. That should be the reason why they are as new a team as Kochi and Pune. Till the beginning of the Auction I had believed that retaining 4 players for half the budget was a bit too much. But Kolkata - Thank you... you proved me wrong. 4.5 Million USD on 2 players in the first hour of auction. But as always, Kolkata thinks of bowling as just a warm up exercise.
Kochi. I think the IPL commitee should have given Kochi more time. At least enough time to understand the format of IPL. I think the officials in the room were still discussing whether they were playing a test or a T20.
VVS Lakshman, Parthiv patel......And the classical Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja. The ones who will always be given opportunities to bat and bowl and are in the side because the selectors believe too much in the theory of probability - Sorry Kapil Dev
But they had some good buys. Murali and Mahela
One doubt. Are Kochi and Kolkata trying to merge according to communist ideologies? If so, they will make one of the best teams in the IPL
Mumbai Indians: They literally think Sachin is God and has supernatural powers. That may be the reason why Mumbai believes that they can go all the way without picking up an injury. Mumbai is the team to watch out for in he tournament. Unlike Kochi, they were just going for a T20 squad. They have currently 8 players whom they can field 3 batsmen-Sachin, Rohit and Davy Jacobs, 2 alrounders Symonds and Pollard and 3 bowlers - Harbhajan (let us count him as a bowler for the time being) Munaf Patel and Malinga. They will be expecting to get Dhawal Kulkarni and Ambati Rayidu back. They have all the potential to beat any side. But, A couple of injuries and it is all over for Mumbai. Also,I still feel that Mumbai should have retained Zaheer instead of Harbhajan or Pollard.
Oh wait..the impossible has happened here. Symonds and Bhajji in the same team???
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Another solid side. With Kohili, AB, Saurabh Tiwari and Dilshan in the batting line up and Nannes Zaheer Vettori etc bowling RCB is another great team. And a good bench makes it even more comfortable for the side. A semi final birth for sure. Well done Mallya. Smart thought process. retaining Kohili turned out to be a smart move given the fact that Uthappa and Rohit Sharma got 2 and 2.1 million USD.
Pune Warriors: Nothing great about the team but nothing bad as well. Uthappa, Yuvraj, Smith, Tim Paine, May be Ryder or Mathews, Parnell, Nehra etc. Expect them to be the dark horses. Eyebrows might be raised over Uthappa's 2.1 Million USD buy.
Rajastan Royals: Started with $2M less than the rest of the teams. Retained a "non playing captain" at 1.8.Bought John Botha at 950K and Rahul Dravid for 500K. Reminder: The matches are in T20 format.
Dada was available at 400K. This team is the biggest puzzle in history
Moral of the story:If at all you let a woman influence your decisions, never let it be an actress. Never ever a bollywood actress- inspired from Rajastan Royals and Kings XI Punjab
