AN ANALYSIS OVER IPL Season 4 – Part II

4. Rajasthan Royals


The princely state which turned the table around and won the first IPL title under the leadership of Shane Warne, with the big names in the team like Sohail Tanvir and Shane Watson followed by the Indian talents, Yusuf Pathan, Swapnil Anodikar and Ravindra Jadeja.

However, the euphoria of that first title-win died with the team failing to reach the Semi-Finals in 2009 and 2010. Rajasthan Royals retained only Shane Warne and Shane Watson before the 2011 IPL Auction and in the auction they bagged the Wall – Rahul Dravid, Ross Taylor, Shaun Tait and Johan Botha. They have a young Ranaji Trophy stars in the squad namely, Pankaj Singh, Akash Chopra, Ashok Menaria and Deepak Chahar.

If they look at what they have lost is very minimal when compared to what they have gained after the Auction. They may not have Naman Ojha and Greame Smith opening their batting this time but they have Shane Watson to open the innings with may be Swapnil Asnodikar or Aakash Chopra. They have the best of the middle order batsmen of the world Mr. Dependable Rahul Dravid and Sensible explosive Ross Taylor and local boys Anjikya Rahane, Ashok Menaria, Stuart Binny (S/O Roger Binny) from Karnataka, and experienced all rounders like Johan Botha, Jacob Oram. With so many promising all rounders in the team bowling attack would not be a issue for the Royals lead by Pankaj Singh and Shaun Tait with Shane Watson, Oram for support in pace department and spin attack lead by the magician Shane Warne, Johan Botha and Ashok Menaria. It’s time to wait and watch if the Royal’s crown will be earned back after 3 years.


5. Deccan Chargers

After a disastrous beginning to their journey in IPL by placing themselves at the bottom of the table, they turned the table around to win the second IPL title. In 2010 they continued their Champion performance till they lost to CSK in the semi-finals. The big names that we had in the team were RP Singh, Rohit Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Adam Gilchrist and Andrew Symonds.

Before the IPL Auction 2011 DC went for complete overhaul and made some expensive and worthy buy of foreign players – Dale Steyn, Cameron White and Kevin Peiterson from RCB; JP Duminy from MI and Kumara Sangakkara from KXIP and some young Indian faces – Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra and Shikhar Dhawan. They also bought back Pragyan Ojha, one of the prolific bowling performance of IPL who has already 50 wickets in his IPL kitty.

What they are going to miss in this season? Adam Gilchrist, the wicket keeper captain and explosive opener whom the team would have missed to great extent has been replaced by Kumar Sangakkara, the wicket keeper captain and explosive opener. The middle order that had Andrew Symonds and Rohit Sharma will now be supported by JP Duminy, KP, and Cameron White. They have gained a lot in terms of bowling attack when compared to their previous team with Dale Steyn leading the attack with Ishant Sharma and supported by Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra and MS Gony.


6. Delhi Daredevils

The only team to reach Semi Finals in all the 3 versions of IPL, had the best of the match winning players but failed to reach the finals and win the title for Delhi. The depth of batting line up headed by Viru, Gambhir, Dilshan, ABD, Dinesh Karthik and Paul Collingwood and top notch bowling attack lead by leged Glenn McGrath, Dirk Nannes and Daniel Vettori surprisingly did not help the team reach the finals.

Before the IPL Player Auction 2011, went for a complete rebuilding of team retaining only Viru. None of the players mentioned above returned to the squad, but they made some impressive and expensive buys. Irfan Pathan, Morne Morkel, David Warner, RE van der Merwe and Umesh Yaadav.

Looking at the overall team the team has got some new talents which can turn the results unexpectedly throughout the season. The openers Viru and Naman Ojha (RR) have got good records in the shortest version of International Cricket. The middle order supported by David Warner, Venugopal Rao and Irfan Pathan, Colin Ingram and van der Merwe. Other than Morne Morkel none of the bowlers have shown any significant bowling attack, however, new ball bowler Ajit Agarkar and Irfan Pathan cannot be rated low. They do have their charm still left in them and they can add some runs to the board making their tail stronger. They also have enough support from Venu Gopal Rao and van der Merwe in the spin department who can bowl some decent spells. And some surprise packages are guaranteed with young players coming into picture. Can this team full of talent but not with much experience win their first title or rank at the bottom of the table? Only time can answer this question but fun filled thrill is guaranteed with this team.

We shall have a glance at Kings XI Punjab, Kolkata Knight Riders who have not made much impact in the IPL other than their jersey in last 3 seasons and the new teams – Pune Warriors India and Kochi Tuskers Kerala tomorrow.