The Indian Premier League is going to kick off in just one week and while the excitement hasn’t kicked in yet, thanks to the tournament being held nearly 3000 miles away, my guess is that come April 18th, a lot of people are going to be glued to their screens. Lets face it- we love the 20-20 and we absolutely loved the Indian Premier League last year. Unlike last year, most of us will not have the chance of being there to soak in the environment but let’s see if South Africa lives up to the challenge thrown at it by the IPL.
Starting today, we plan to cover each team one by one leading up to April 18th. And it’s always customary to start with the champions. So here we go.
Team: Rajasthan Royals
Captain and Coach: Shane Warne
Trump Card: Graeme Smith
X-Factor: Shaun Tait
Whats changed from last season: Loss of leading wicket taker Sohail Tanveer might leave the bowling weak and last year’s trump card Shane Watson will only be available for two weeks. Tyrone Henderson while not exactly an unknown will have a lot riding on him.
Rajasthan Royals were the real deal last year despite not looking remotely like it when the tournament started. Here was a team which had a bunch of unknowns put together by owners who were more interested in conserving cash and improving profits in the first season. But what experts and fans were not counting on was on the magic touch of their captain and coach Shane Warne- a cricketer who had retired from international cricket and who was the captain Australia never had. What emerged over the next two months was an extraordinary fairytale as the bunch of unknowns went from strength to strength to win the tournament. The team could not do any wrong with the youngsters blossoming under Warne and players like Watson and Pathan finding their feet on the big stage. Rajasthan ultimately went on to win the title in a very tense encounter against the Chennai Superkings.
The batting:
IPl V2.0 will be a fresh start, for starters they have a new owner and cheerleader – Shilpa Shetty (who doesn’t even know the team!). The batting looks reasonably solid and experienced – Graeme Smith could be the real trump card for the Royals considering his explosive batting at the top of the order and because he will know the conditions like the back of his hand. But, the question remains, will Smith remain injury free for the whole length of the tournament? Asnaodkar was a revelation last year- the diminutive opener delighting fans with his fearless batting, whether he will succeed in foreign conditions will remain to be seen.
The middle order could see a lot of juggling as the season progresses thanks to the unexpected call up of Shane Watson to the Australian team for the series against Pakistan which means he will only be available for the last two weeks of the tournament. Mohammed Kaif and Yusuf Pathan should hold their places barring injuries or poor form. Ravindra Jadeja should also make it thanks to his excellent performances last year. The other positions could well be a toss up between Dmitri Mascrarenas, 20-20 specialist Tyrone Henderson and South African all rounder Morne Morkel. Mascarenas will want to prove himself to the English selectors in time for the 20-20 world cup in June and Henderson will have a lot of pressure on him considering the amount of money Rajasthan forked out for him.
The bowling:
The bowling looks a little weak because the excellent Sohail Tanvir wont be around this time with Pakistani players not getting clearence to play in the Indian Premier League. He was the leading wicket taker last year and always gave the team four good overs. The darkhorse this time could well be Shaun Tait. His meltdown last year was well documented but like Shane Watson before him, he could just do well under the guidance of Warne and barring injuries Rajasthan will have him for the whole tournament. The other fast bowling options are Munaf Patel and Siddarth Trivedi. It will be interesting to see how Warne bowls- he hasn’t played cricket in over a year and the conditions will not be as helpful as they were in India last year.
Looking over the rest of the squad, it looks like there are a lot of unknowns in the squad. Some of these players don’t even seem to have a statistics page! Rajasthan might well start this season at the same place they did the last, as underdogs, despite being defending champions. Unlike last year, Rajasthan will be the team the rest look to beat and you can expect the video analysis guys to work long nights on their footage. Shane Warne will have to prove once again that he has it in him to bring this team together and push back seemingly stronger opponents.
The full team
The unknowns - Kamran Khan, Gajendra Singh, Srideep Mangela, Raiphi Gomez, Ashraf Makda, Mohammed Arif, Atul Sharma, Amit Singh, Paul Valthaty, Aditya Angle, Lee Carseldine, Siddarth Chitnis, Paras Dogra, Parag More, Rob Quiney, Anup Revandkar, Mahesh Rawat
The Rest- Shane Warne, Shane Watson, Shaun Tait, Justin Langer (Australia) Swapnil Asnodkar, Ravindra Jadeja, Munaf Patel, Mohammed Kaif, Yusuf Pathan, Niraj Patel (India), Graeme Smith, Morne Morkel, Tyrone Henderson (South Africa), Dmitri Mascarenhas (England)
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