How the 10 franchises stack up after the IPL 2022 mega auction - strengths, weaknesses and possible XI
As the 15th edition of the IPL is expected to begin in the first week of April, ahead of it, we sift through the 10 franchises and analyse the strengths, weaknesses and what their Playing XI could look like.
After two days of riveting bidding-action in Bengaluru, 204 players were sold – 67 of which were overseas – while 76 found no takers, as 10 franchises stacked up their sides for the impending 2022 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). With a whopping ₹550 crore spent, teams went all out in ensuring they assembled the best squad possible. As the 15th edition of the IPL is expected to begin in the first week of April, ahead of it, we sift through the 10 franchises and analyse the strengths, weaknesses and what their Playing XI could look like.
MUMBAI INDIANS
Mumbai Indians had the most curious auction strategy on both days of the auction, leaving all befuddled for the longest time. They remained quiet through the majority of day 1, chasing only a handful of players up till a set price mark, before bidding furiously to grab Ishan Kishan for INR 15.25 crore, the costliest purchase of the entire event. After Ishan, MI invested in a couple of Indian pace options including domestic star Jaydev Unadkat later on Day 1. On Sunday, Mumbai were curiously quiet again, which left most wondering about their strategy. While all the teams had at least 10 or more players in their bag with a set XI evident, Mumbai had only 4 auction buys until lunch and shelled out all their cash in the accelerated session to pick Jofra Archer, Tim David, Tymal Mills and Daniel Sams. Soon enough, the possible XI started to take shape for the five-time champions.
One of the key reasons behind MI's impressive run between 2018 to 2020 was their strong middle-order core and despite notable buys in David and Allen, it does appear weak. Mumbai also possess the weakest spin attack with inexperienced Mayank Markande and Murugan Ashwin expected to shoulder the bulk of the responsibility. In the last three seasons, Markande has bowled in just four innings and picked only five wickets in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2021/22 at an economy rate of 6.92. Ashwin took picked as many wickets in the domestic tournament, somewhat at a better economy rate of 5.57. He bowled in 22 innings in the last three IPL seasons, picking 16 wickets.
Possible XI: Ishan Kishan, Rohit Sharma (captain), N Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Tim David, Fabien Allen, Tymal Mills, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande/Murugran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah.
CHENNAI SUPER KINGS
Call it an emotional approach or a tactical one, Chennai have once again managed to retain their core and have formed one of the most formidable squads ahead of the 15th season. Eight of their players who are an absolute certainty for the playing XI are from the previous season that won the IPL title. And they now have a great batting depth, a strong pace attack and a superb spin department as well.
CSK’s only worry would have been that they failed to get a like-for-like replacement for Faf du Plessis. They did get Devon Conway as their overseas opener, but like Gaikwad, both are anchor batters.
Possible XI: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devon Conway, Ambati Rayudu, Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni (captain), Shivam Dube, Dwayne Bravo, Deepak Chahar, Adam Milne, Hangargekar
KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS
Like CSK, Kolkata too looked to retain their core from the 2021 season, with the management buying back Nitish Rana, Pat Cummins and Shivam Mavi while also acquiring a captaincy option in Shreyas Iyer.
For KKR, their only concern will remain their batting line-up. With Alex Hales in the squad, he will unassumingly be the first-choice opener, but that would mean KKR will have to bench Sam Billings. And if they choose the England wicketkeeper-batsman, KKR will have to go with an anchor-style opener in Rahane. Another possibility is with their Indian contingent. Looking at Venkatesh as a middle-order option, he might want to slot in at No. 4 or 5 and KKR can open with the Hales-Narine pair hence recreating the famous Lynn-Narine strategy. However, it would leave their remaining batting order looking awry.
With Hales as an opener, Sheldon Jackson would take the wicketkeeper's spot and the batter has had an impressive Syed Mushtaq Ali season, scoring 513 runs at 73.29 and a strike rate of 147.84 in the last two seasons, with five fifties and one century. The issue however remains with their pace attack as they lack a T20 strike bowler with the new ball.
Possible XI: Venkatesh Iyer, Alex Hales, Shreyas Iyer, Nitish Rana, Sheldon Jackson, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy, Pat Cummins, Shivam Mavi, Umesh Yadav.
PUNJAB KINGS
They entered the auction with the highest purse value and they walked out one of happier sides with a strong top-order line-up, two hard-hitting batters in Shahrukh Khan and West Indies' Odean Smith as finishers and a well-rounded bowling attack comprising Kagiso Rabada as the leader of the pace attack.
The only factor that might bother Punjab is another Indian middle-order option, although they do have both the experienced Rishi Dhawan and U19 World Cup star Raj Bawa. Punjab would also hope for Arshdeep and Odean to successfully complement Rabada in the pace department.
Possible XI: Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, Jonny Bairstow, Liam Livingstone, Shahrukh Khan, Rishi Dhawan/Raj Bawa, Odean Smith, Harpreet Brar, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh, Kagiso Rabada.
SUNRISERS HYDERABAD
Sunrisers had all the liberty to address their mistakes from the past seasons and while they kept their ritual of bagging more bowlers in the line-up, their batting has been left more questions to answer.
Sunrisers will have to entirely depend on Williamson, who has been troubled with his elbow issue lately, to be available for all the games in the season to complete their top order which had three attacking options on Rahul Tripathi, Glenn Philips and Aiden Markram.
The management will also depend a lot on the Indian pace pair of Bhuvneshwar, whose form has suffered a significant dip in the last few years amid injury issues and Natarajan, who will be looking to make a comeback from an injury that has left him on the sidelines since last January. Sunrisers also have only one spinner to add to the lineup between Sundar, Suchith and Shreyas Gopal, none of whom are strike bowlers, hence leaving a huge Rashid-size gap in the line-up.
Possible XI: Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Kane Williamson, Abhishek Sharma, Nicolas Pooran, Abdul Samad, Romario Shepherd, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik, Natarajan
RAJASTHAN ROYALS
Rajasthan Royals had one of the most impressive outings on day 1 of the auction, picking Ashwin and Chahal as their frontline spinners and bolstering the bowling attack with the addition of Boult and Krishna.
However, their equally poor day 2 outing left them with a few questions to answer, the most crucial being their fifth-bowling and death-bowling options.
The top order line-up too looks a bit concerning with the Padikkal-Jaiswal combination being inexperienced. And if the management chooses to send Buttler up the order then, Royals will lack an Indian middle-order option, and will hence have to settle down for either Karun Nair or one of Padikkal and Jaiswal.
Possible XI: Devdutt Padikkal, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler, Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag, James Neesham, R Ashwin, Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal.
ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE
Bangalore, for the first time probably, have a better bowling attack than their batting line-up. The pace combination of Siraj, Harshal and Hazlewood can collectively take of the three bowling phases along with the Sri Lankan leg-spinning all-rounder in Hasaranga for the middle-over phases and you have the bowling attack to look out for. Meanwhile, RCB also have Maxwell and Shahbaz as spin options. RCB, in fact, have a very all-around bowling attack.
Their only concern will be the middle-order line-up which has two uncapped options in Lomror and Rawat hence leaving a huge responsibility on Maxwell and Karthik.
Possible XI: Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli, Anuj Rawat, Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Dinesh Karthik, Wanindu Hasaranga, Shahbaz Ahmed, Mohammed Siraj, Harshal Patel, Josh Hazelwood.
DELHI CAPITALS
Look at that top-four! That is one of the most destructive combinations so far in the league. They also have a middle-over strike bowler in Shardul Thakur, a defensive spinner in Axar Patel and a powerplay wicket-taking option in Nortje, although the South African's fitness will be an issue.
Delhi, on the other hand, lacks a sixth-bowling option with Marsh having his fitness issues and Kuldeep Yadav with his concerning form, leaving Powell, the fifth-bowling option, with a lot of responsibility.
Possible XI: Prithvi Shaw, David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Rishabh Pant (captain), Sarfaraz Khan, Rovman Powell, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Anrich Nortje, Chetan Sakariya
LUCKNOW SUPER GIANTS
Who would say that Lucknow was actually making their debut appearance in an IPL auction? They have a good opening combination and hard-hitting combination of middle-order options and a whole lot of all-rounders adding to the depth on either side. And not to forget, their express pace combination of Wood and Avesh.
What they do lack is...nothing. Although, Lucknow do want to keep their fingers crossed over Wood's fitness throughout the entire season and the presence of Chameera offers them the chance to even rest the England pacer.
Possible XI: KL Rahul (captain), Quinton de Kock, Manish Pandey, Marcus Stoinis, Jason Holder, Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya, Mark Wood, Avesh Khan, Ravi Bishnoi, Krishnappa Gowtham/Ankit Rajpoot.
GUJARAT TITANS
Gujarat looked the most out-of-sorts franchises throughout the entire phase of the auction. Despite making one of the best retentions, or draft picks to be more precise in this scenario, the Titans failed to pad up the squad adequately and in fact, managed to pick their wicketkeepers only in the accelerated phase of the auction.
Delhi, on the other hand, lacks a sixth-bowling option with Marsh having his fitness issues and Kuldeep Yadav with his concerning form, leaving Powell, the fifth-bowling option, with a lot of responsibility.
Possible XI: Prithvi Shaw, David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Rishabh Pant (captain), Sarfaraz Khan, Rovman Powell, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Anrich Nortje, Chetan Sakariya
LUCKNOW SUPER GIANTS
Who would say that Lucknow was actually making their debut appearance in an IPL auction? They have a good opening combination and hard-hitting combination of middle-order options and a whole lot of all-rounders adding to the depth on either side. And not to forget, their express pace combination of Wood and Avesh.
What they do lack is...nothing. Although, Lucknow do want to keep their fingers crossed over Wood's fitness throughout the entire season and the presence of Chameera offers them the chance to even rest the England pacer.
Possible XI: KL Rahul (captain), Quinton de Kock, Manish Pandey, Marcus Stoinis, Jason Holder, Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya, Mark Wood, Avesh Khan, Ravi Bishnoi, Krishnappa Gowtham/Ankit Rajpoot.
GUJARAT TITANS
Gujarat looked the most out-of-sorts franchises throughout the entire phase of the auction. Despite making one of the best retentions, or draft picks to be more precise in this scenario, the Titans failed to pad up the squad adequately and in fact, managed to pick their wicketkeepers only in the accelerated phase of the auction.
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Their batting still looks weak despite acquiring Roy and Wade and their bowling too looks poor amid Hardik's fitness issues.
Possible XI: Wriddhiman Saha, Jason Roy, Shubman Gill, Vijay Shankar, Matthew Wade, Hardik Pandya, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Lockie Ferguson, Mohammed Shami, R Sai Kishore
