Team Preview – Delhi, Chennai & Hyderabad

As the mega auction of the Indian T20 League concludes, we are here to guide you about all the teams in the best possible way. Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad are three giants in the tournament. Chennai has won the trophy four times while Hyderabad has won it once in 2016. Delhi has played the final of the tournament but is yet to get the crown. Can it finally be their year?

In terms of the quality that they have, it should be their year. Undoubtedly, they have one of the best squads in the tournament. Imagine Prithvi Shaw and David Warner opening the batting for the team with Mitchell Marsh and Rishabh Pant in the middle order. They have a fantastic bowling line-up as well with Anrich Nortje leading the attack. Chetan Sakariya has been a revelation in the tournament and with him, Delhi can expect to pick some wickets upfront. Most importantly, Delhi has Shardul Thakur with them, who can be a very handy cricketer and will definitely win them a couple of games. They have also picked up talented young cricketer Yash Dhull, who just led India and won the Under 19 Championship. They have former Kolkata players Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Kuldeep Yadav in their team as well. Kuldeep along with Axar Patel will be leading the bowling attack for the franchise.

Delhi squad - Prithvi Shaw, Anrich Nortje, Rishabh Pant (c), Axar Patel, David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Shardul Thakur, Mustafizur Rahman, Kuldeep Yadav, Ashwin Hebbar, Sarfaraz Khan, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, KS Bharat, Mandeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Chetan Sakariya, Lalit Yadav, Ripal Patel, Yash Dhull, Rovman Powell, Pravin Dubey, Lungi Ngidi, Tim Seifert, Vicky Ostwal

Team Rating – 9/10

Talking about Chennai, the team has brought in a lot of their old players back. Unfortunately, they have let Suresh Raina go and the player hasn’t been picked up by any other franchise. They will be depending a lot on Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar and Moeen Ali as others are either not tested or are past their prime. Even though they have Dwayne Bravo, Chris Jordan and Maheesh Theekshana, their death bowling looks pretty weak. Robin Uthappa is more of an emotional buy. MS Dhoni, even if he doesn’t win matches with the bat, the legend will win games with his captaincy for sure. Ambati Rayudu is going to be very key in the middle order. They also lack proper spinners. Even though Rajvardhan Hangargekar joined the franchise, they should have invested more on young talents as these players won’t be giving them a lot of service. MS Dhoni is also expected to leave the team after this season and yet they didn’t go for a captain who can lead the team beyond his days.

Chennai Squad - Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni, Moeen Ali, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Dwayne Bravo, Ambati Rayudu, Robin Uthappa, Deepak Chahar, KM Asif, Tushar Deshpande, KM Asif, Shivam Dube, Maheesh Theekshana, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Samarjeet Singh, Devon Conway, Dwaine Pretorius, Mitchell Santner, Subhranshu Senapati, Adam Milne, Mukesh Choudhary, Prashant Solanki, C Hari Nishaanth, N Jagadeesan, Chris Jordan, K Bhagath Varma.

Team Rating – 7/10

Coming to Hyderabad, the team looks decent if not great. They have signed some talented Indian cricketers like Washington Sundar, Rahul Tripathi, Abhisekh Sharma, Kartik Tyagi and others. They do have Nicolas Pooran, Aiden Markram and Marco Jansen in the mix. They have once again bought T. Natarajan but the team lacks a death bowler and a specialist foreign pacer. Bhuvneshwar Kumar will once again play for the franchise but the player doesn’t provide any threat to the opposition. The team will miss Rashid Khan a lot as he hasn’t been properly replaced. The team should have gone after Yuzvendra Chahal but decided against it. Despite all this, expect them to stay close to the playoffs.

Hyderabad Squad - Kane Williamson, Umran Malik, Abdul Samad, Washington Sundar, Nicholas Pooran, T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Priyam Garg, Rahul Tripathi, Abhishek Sharma, Kartik Tyagi, Shreyas Gopal, Jagadeesha Suchith, Aiden Markram, Marco Jansen, Romario Shepherd, Sean Abbott, R Samarth, Shashank Singh, Saurabh Dubey, Vishnu Vinod, Glenn Phillips, Fazalhaq Farooqi

Team Rating – 8/10