Indian Premier League is all set to begin in the first week of April. The 11th season of cricket extravaganza is geared up to enthrall millions of cricket fans all over the world. This year’s IPL will have 8 teams contesting to win the tournament, as first IPL winners Rajasthan Royal and two-time winners Chennai Super Kings will replace Gujarat Lions and Pune Supergiant. The former champions of IPL are making their comeback to the tournament after serving a 2-year ban due to match-fixing charges.
Here’s a list of all the 8 teams participating in IPL 11, the team composition, domestic and international players to watch out for, time-wise highest auctioned player this year, and team’s chances of winning the tournament:
Chennai Super Kings
One of the most successful cricket franchise in IPL, Chennai Super Kings have dominated the tournament with the two-time winners making it to the qualifiers and finals on several occasions during their eight years of participation. The team came under the scanner when the franchise was hit with a two-year ban in 2015, when the one of the former principal member of the CSK was found involved in match fixing. In IPL 11, the team would like to regain the trust of their fans and put up mesmerizing performances, that made them one of the most feared teams in the league.
Owner: Chennai Super Kings Cricket Ltd.
Team Captain: Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Coach: Stephan Fleming
Squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Faf du Plessis, Suresh Raina, Kedar Jadhav, Ambati Rayudu, Dhruv Shorey, Murali Vijay, Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Shane Watson, Kshitiz Sharma, Karn Sharma, Sam Billings, Narayan Jagadeesan, Mark Wood, Harbhajan Singh, Shardul Thakur, Imran Tahir, Kanishk Seth, Mitchell Santner, Lungi Ngidi, Monu Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Chaitanya Bishnoi, and KM Asif
Stadium: M. A Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
Highest auctioned player: Kedar Jadhav, India(7.8 Crore INR)
Players to watch out: Domestic-Mahendra Singh Dhoni, International-Faf du Plessis
Best Finish: Winners in 2010 & 2011
Odds: 7/1
Delhi Daredevils
Perennial underdogs of IPL, Delhi Daredevils have failed to win the tournament in the last 10 seasons. Although, the franchise reached the Qualifiers(Semi-Finals) on two occasions, but it failed to advance to the finals on both occasion. The Delhi-based franchise has been inconsistent with its performances, as after the highs of one season, the team would falter dramatically in the following season. With Gautam Gambhir as the captain and legendary Ricky Ponting as the head coach, the team will be surely looking to shed their underdog title and stamp their authority in IPL 11.
Owner: GMR Group & JSW Group
Team Captain: Gautam Gambhir
Coach: Ricky Ponting
Squad: Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Chris Morris, Glenn Maxwell, Kagiso Rabada, Amit Mishra, Shahbaz Nadeem, Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tewatia, Mohammad Shami, Gautam Gambhir, Trent Boult, Colin Munro, Daniel Christian, Jason Roy, Naman Ojha, Prithvi Shaw, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Avesh Khan, Abhishek Sharma, Jayant Yadav, Harshal Patel, Manjot Kalra, Sandeep Lamichhane, and Sayan Ghosh
Stadium: Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, Delhi
Highest auctioned player: Glenn Maxwell, Australia(9 Crore INR)
Players to watch out: Domestic-Gautam Gambhir, International-Glenn Maxwell
Best Finish: Semi-Finalists in 2008, 2009, and 2012
Odds: 11/1
Kings XI Punjab
Kings XI Punjab, the Mohali-based franchise, is co-owned by Bollywood actress Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia of Wadia Group, Mohit Burman from Dabur, and Saptarishi Dey. The KXIP as the team is known, had made good runs in the 10 years of IPL, apart from the inaugural season and one in 2014. The team from Mohali has struggled to compete at the top level in the competition.
Owner: KPH Dream Cricket Pvt. LTD.
Team Captain: Ravichandran Ashwin
Coach: Brad Hodge
Squad: Axar Patel, KL Rahul, Ravichandran Ashwin, Andrew Tye, Aaron Finch, Marcus Stoinis, Karun Nair, Mujeeb Zadran, Ankit Singh Rajpoot, David Miller, Mohit Sharma, Barinder Singh Sran, Yuvraj Singh, Christopher Gayle, Ben Dwarshuis, Akshdeep Nath, Manoj Tiwary, Mayank Agarwal, Manzoor Dar, Pardeep Sahu, Mayank Dagar
Stadium: Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali & Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore
Highest auctioned player: KL Rahul, India(11 Crore INR)
Players to watch out: Domestic-Axar Patel, International-David Miller
Best Finish: Finalists 2014
Odds: 9/1
Kolkata Knight Riders
Kolkata Knight Riders have been one of the most entertaining team in the short IPL history. The Kolkata-based cricket franchise had a tough start in the first three seasons. The IPL franchise has seen relative success in the last few years, as under the leadership of Gautam Gambhir KKR managed to clinch the IPL title twice. This year the team would look to reinstate itself as the IPL winner, with Dinesh Karthik spearheading the knights.
Owner: Red Chillies Entertainment and Mehta Group
Team Captain: Dinesh Karthik
Coach: Jacques Kallis
Squad: Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Chris Lynn, Mitchell Starc, Dinesh Karthik, Robin Uthappa, Kuldeep Singh Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Nitish Rana, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Mitchell Johnson,Shubman Gill, Ranganath Vinay Kumar, Rinku Singh, Cameron Delport, Javon Searless, Apoorv Vijay Wankhade, Ishank Jaggi
Stadium: Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Highest auctioned player: Chris Lynn, Australia(9.6 Crore INR)
Players to watch out: Domestic-Dinesh Karthik, International-Chris Lynn
Best Finish: Winner in 2012 and 2014
Odds: 13/2
Mumbai Indians
The Mumbai-based IPL franchise is the most successful team in IPL with three titles. Mumbai Indians‘ IPL journey got off to a disappointing start in the first two seasons but the stability was restored in the following season, and their steady rise resulted in them winning three IPL titles. Last season, they became the first team in the short history of IPL to win three titles, leaping one step ahead of Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders.
Owner: Reliance Industries
Team Captain: Rohit Sharma
Coach: Mahela Jayawardene
Squad: Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Krunal Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Kieron Pollard, PatCummins, Evin Lewis, Suryakumar Yadav, Ben Cutting, Mustafizur Rahman, Rahul Chahar, Pradeep Sangwan, Jean-Paul Duminy, Saurabh Tiwary, Tajinder Dhillon, Akila Dhananjaya, Nidheesh M D Dinesan, Aditya Tare, Siddhesh Dinesh Lad, Mayank Markande, Sharad Lumba, Anukul Roy, Mohsin Khan, Mitchell McClenaghan
Stadium: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
Highest auctioned player: Krunal Pandya, India (8.8 Crore INR)
Players to watch out: Domestic-Rohit Sharma, International-J P Duminy
Best Finish: Winners in 2013, 2015, and 2017
Odds: 11/2
Rajasthan Royals
Like Chennai Super Kings, Rajasthan Royals is also making a comeback to IPL, after a two-year ban due to owner Raj Kundra involved in match-fixing allegations. Rajasthan Royals is often considered as a “moneyball” team in IPL, this tag came after out of the blues Rajasthan Royals surprised the whole country after winning the inaugural edition of IPL. Their IPL journey has been a mix bag of bottom finishes and table topping seasons, the team would be looking to make a similar impact as they did in the inaugural season.
Owner: Manoj Badale
Team Captain: Ajinkya Rahane
Coach: Shane Warne(Mentor)
Squad: Ajinkya Rahane, Steve Smith, Ben Stokes, Jaydev Unadkat, Sanju Samson, Jofra Archer, Krishnappa Gowtham, Jos Buttler, Darcy Short, Rahul Tripathi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Zahir Khan Pakteen, Ben Laughlin, Stuart Binny, Dushmantha Chameera, Anureet Singh, Aryaman Vikram Birla, Midhun S, Shreyas Gopal, Prashant Chopra, Jatin Saxena, Ankit Sharma, Mahipal Lomror
Stadium: Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur
Highest auctioned player: Ben Stokes, England(12.5 Crore INR)
Players to watch out: Domestic-Ajinkya Rahane, International-Ben Stokes
Best Finish: Winner in 2008
Odds: 7/1
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Royal Challengers Bangalore has been missing the lady luck in IPL. They have reached finals in three separate occasions but failed to win even one final. The Bangalore-based franchise has seen some costliest and high profile names grace the team jersey including Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli but somehow even after coming close to winning on so many occasions the title dreams have eluded RCB. This year the team looks great and all the players including Captain Kohli would love to conquer the elusive IPL title.
Owner: United Spirits
Team Captain: Virat Kohli
Coach: Daniel Vettori
Squad: Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Sarfaraz Khan, Chris Woakes, Yuzvendra Singh Chahal, Umesh Yadav, Brendon McCullum, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini, Quinton De Kock, Mohammed Siraj, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Colin De Grandhomme, M. Ashwin, Parthiv Patel, Moeen Ali, Mandeep Singh, Manan Vohra, Pawan Negi, Tim Southee, Kulwant Khejroliya, Aniket Choudhary, Pavan Deshpande, Anirudha Ashok Joshi
Stadium: M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Banglore
Highest auctioned player: Chris Woakes, England(7.4 Crore INR)
Players to watch out: Domestic-Virat Kohli, International-Chris Woakes
Best Finish: Finalist in 2009, 2011, and 2016
Odds: 5/1
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Sunrisers Hyderabad is the newest team in the list of teams participating in this year’s IPL. The now defunct Deccan Chargers was replaced by Sunrisers Hyderabad in the fifth edition of IPL in 2013, as the former’s franchise was terminated due their failure in managing finance of the team. The Hyderabad-based team made an instant impact in its debut season, as the team reached playoffs, eventually losing out to Rajasthan. But the team made amends to their failure 3 years later in 2016, when David Warner captained the team to be crowned as the champions of IPL in 2016 edition.
Owner: Sun Group
Team Captain: David Warner(Not Confirmed)
Coach: Tom Moody
Squad:David Warner, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey, Rashid Khan Arman, Shikhar Dhawan, Wriddhiman Saha, Siddarth Kaul, Deepak Hooda, Syed Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, Carlos Brathwaite, Shakib Al Hasan, Yusuf Pathan, Shreevats Goswami, Mohammad Nabi, Chris Jordan, Basil Thampi, T Natarajan, Sachin Baby, Bipul Sharma, Syed Mehdi Hasan, Ricky Bhui, Tanmay Agarwal
Stadium: Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, Hyderabad
Highest auctioned player: Manish Pandey, India(11 Crore INR)
Players to watch out: Domestic-Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, International-Kane Williamson
Best Finish: Winner in 2016
Odds: 11/2
