IPL 2024

INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE 2024

It's that time of year again, when the Indian Premier League (IPL) returns for another exciting season of cricket. The year 2024 begins with the promise of excitement, expectation, and cricketing frenzy, as the IPL returns for its yearly show. IPL 2024, the 17th season of the world's most prestigious T20 cricket tournament, is set to exceed all expectations, providing moments of absolute brilliance, heart-stopping drama, and legendary cricketing performances.

  

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is more than simply cricket; it's about the teams who exemplify competitiveness, camaraderie, and enthusiasm. Each IPL franchise offers a distinct combination of skill, strategy, and fan loyalty, making the competition an enthralling spectacle for cricket fans worldwide. Let us take a deeper look at the strengths and weaknesses of each squad. 

Lets begin with the defending champions....

1. CHENNAI SUPER KINGS(CSK)

Strengths:

1. MSD FACTOR

CSK's strongest strength is its skipper, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the greatest cricket thinker in history. He possesses one of the sharpest minds in cricket. He knows when and how to employ a player to its full potential. He has a midas touch that turns everything he touches into gold; players who were thought to be out of form or past their primes turned out to be the finest players of the season; Shivam Dube, Ajinkya Rahane, and Ambati Rayudu are just a few of the players that benefited from playing under the legend MS DHONI.  

2. SOLID BATTING ORDER

CSK have a strong list of batsmen in their squad. Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ajinkya Rahane, Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Daryl Mitchell, Rachin Ravindra, Devon Conway*, MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja and other Indian uncapped players makes their batting one of the strongest batting unit in the league,  

3. DEPTH IN BATTING

CSK's first-11 batting lineup is one of the deepest among the IPL's ten clubs. Even the No. 9 guy is a capable batter who can slog through the dying overs and end games.

4. PLENTY OF ALLROUNDERS

CSK have a great list of allrounders; Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Santner, Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Daryl Mitchell, Rachin Ravindra, Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar to name a few. With so many allrounders in the roster, the captain has plenty of choices for both batting and bowling.

Weakness:

1. WEAK SPIN DEPARTMENT

Except Ravindra Jadeja CSK has no proper Indian spinner who can play in the starting 11. Mitchell Santner, Moeen Ali, Rachin Ravindra, Maheesh Theekshana are all foreign spinners and playing them in the starting 11 will be very difficult.

2. INJURY PRONE PACERS

Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Mukesh Choudhary, Matheesha Pathirana and Mustafizur Rahman are all very injury prone and have missed many matches in previous editions due to injuries. If anyone of them gets injured during the tournament, CSK's bowling will become weaker.

 
2. ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANAGALORE(RCB)

Strengths:

1. POWERPACKED BATTING LINEUP

RCB has a long list of hard hitting batsmen in its squad; Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Will Jacks, Cameron Green, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat are all match winners in their own rights and on their day can single handedly win RCB any match.

2. STACKED LIST OF FAST BOWLERS

Alzarri Joseph, Lockie Ferguson, Reece Topley, Yash Dayal, Mohd. Siraj, Akash Deep, Rajan Kumar; this is a long list of pacers which will available for RCB to win their maiden title. If used properly all these pacers are capable of being a match winning unit.

Weakness:

1. LACK OF GOOD SPINNER

Only thing that RCB squad lacks is availability of a top quality spinner. Unlike their fast bowling lineup RCB only has three recognized spinners in their squads. Making spin department a weak link.

2. FORM OF SOME PLAYERS

Many of the RCB players are coming after a lengthy layoff from cricket, which puts a question on their match fitness and form. 

3. MUMBAI INDIANS(MI)  

Strength:

1. EXPERIENCED INDIAN CORE PLAYERS

Seven of the eight Indian players in the team's starting 11 are full-time Indian capped players with extensive international experience. Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Verma, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, and Piyush Chawla have extensive experience and can assist the squad win matches. Having a solid core of Indian players lessens reliance on foreigners, making it easier to choose overseas players based on requirements rather than necessity.

2. HUNGER IN PLAYERS

Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Verma, Hardik Pandya all have something to prove to selectors and come into reckoning for selection in India's T20 world Cup. This hunger and fire in players will help the team to perform outstandingly and win matches in a row.

3. QUALITY PACE BOWLING

MI boasts a lengthy list of outstanding pace bowlers in the shape of Jasprit Bumrah, Gerald Coetzee, Akash Madhwal, Nuwan Thusara, Romario Shepard, mixed with fast bowling allrounders like Hardik Pandya, Arjun Tendulkar, and Luke Wood, making up a powerful bowling team.  

Weakness

1. NEW CAPTAIN

MI appointed Hardik Pandya as the new skipper before the start of the IPL 2024, removing Rohit Sharma from the captaincy after winning 5 trophies under his leadership. Appointment of new captain has divided the fan base and also raised questions within the former players of the squad. Hardik not only requires to win over the fanbase but also to gain confidence of the entire squad and make them play as a unit otherwise whole squad will breakout and fail to play as a unit.

2. LACK OF SPIN OPTIONS

MI completely depends on the form of Piyush Chawla in their spin department. Except Piyush Chawla they don't have any proper spinner in their squad which weakens their squad.

4. DELHI CAPITALS(DC)

Strength:

1. HIGH QUALITY TOP ORDER 

Prithvi Shaw, David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Rishabh Pant, Tristan Stubbs, Shai Hope, and Jake Fraser-McGurk form Delhi's top-order batting lineup. The top five players in the DC batting lineup are all hard hitters who can score a lot of runs and win games for their team.

2. TOP QUALITY INDIAN SPINNERS

In form of Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav Delhi has two top quality Indian spinners in their rank which gives 8 overs of spin which could create lots of difference in the match. Both the spinners are match winners in their own rights and capable of taking wickets and saving runs at crucial junctures of the match.

Weakness:

1. LOWER MIDDLE ORDER

Delhi lacks a proper finisher in their team, a batsmen who can play at number 6 or number 7 and can score at fast rate in death overs or finish matches at the end. This has been a perennial problem for Delhi unit as they have lacked a finisher from last few seasons. This creates pressure on top-order batsmen as they have all the pressure of scoring runs which sometimes result in their own downfall.

2.   OVERSEAS FAST BOWLER

Delhi only have two overseas pacers; Jhye Richardson and Anrich Nortje with latter coming from a lengthy injury layoff making his participation in the tournament under a doubt. Due to unavailability of overseas pacers all the workload comes on Indian pacers which can sometimes backfire.

5. KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS(KKR)

Strength:

1. GOOD BATTING LINEUP

KKR boasts of a formidable batting lineup having a mix of top quality overseas and Indian batsmen like Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Philip Salt, Sherfane Rutherford, Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer, Nitish Rana, Manish Pandey and superstar Rinku Singh. KKR have a strong batsmen for every position from opener to finisher making them a batting heavy side.

2. HIGH QUALITY SPINNERS

Among all the 10 sides KKR has the best spin bowling unit in their squad boasting of top quality spinners like Sunil Narine, Suyash Sharma, Varun Chakaravarthy, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Anukul Roy. 

Weakness:

1. OVERDEPENDENCE ON MITCHELL STARC

KKR bought Mitchell Starc for 24.75  crore rupees in the auction making him the costliest ever player in IPL history. Having such an expensive player in the squad will make it highly difficult for him to drop out of the squad. Thus increasing dependence on him in the pace bowling department.

2. INEXPERIENCED INDIAN PACE ATTACK

Except Mitchell Starc, KKR doesn't have any other high quality pacer. All the Indian pacers are relatively inexperienced and not of that high quality making their pace bowling very weak.   

6. RAJASTHAN ROYALS(RR)

Strength:

1. GUN BATTING LINEUP

In form of Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson, Dhruv Jurel, Donovan Ferreira, Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell Rajasthan has a gun batting lineup from top to bottom with hard hitting batsmen all around. 

2. SPIN BOWLING 

Rajasthan  has two of the best Indian spinners available in form of Yuzvendra Chahal and R. Ashwin two of the best Indian spinners. Add Adam Zampa to the ranks and Rajasthan has one of the best spin bowling unit.

Weakness:

1. LACK OF AN ALLROUNDER

Rajasthan has no proper allrounder in their squad making it a weak link going into the tournament. Due to lack of allrounders Rajasthan is the only team that fails to take advantage of the impact substitute rule and makes their team combination very rigid.

2. WEAK DEATH BOWLING

Rajasthan has a quality bowling lineup be it spinners or pacers, all are of top quality. But none of the bowler is a proper death bowler who can bowl in last 5 overs of the match. Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Navdeep Saini, Nandre Burger and Kuldeep Sen are all good pacers in their own right but all of them are very expensive in death overs.

7. SUNRISERS HYDERABAD(SRH)

Strength:

1. PLENTY OF ALLROUNDERS

Washington Sundar, Marco Jansen, Shahbaz Ahmed, Abhishek Sharma, Wanindu Hasaranga, Glenn Phillips, Aiden Markram etc. SRH consists of a long list of allrounder and having lots of allrounders in the squad allows the captain to have plenty of options in both batting and bowling.

2. LOTS OF INDIAN FAST BOWLER

SRH is the only team in IPL which contains a good quality of Indian pacers. With likes of T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Nitish Reddy, Umran Malik and Akash Maharaj Singh in their ranks SRH has one of the best Indian Pace Bowling Unit.

3. HIGH QUALITY FOREIGN CONTIGENT

SRH's roster includes a number of high-quality international players. Pat Cummins, Travis Head, Glenn Phillips, Aiden Markram, Wanindu Hasaranga, Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen, and Fazalhaq Farooqi are among the many top-tier international players.

Weakness:

1. CONTINUOUS CHANGES IN LINEUP

One of the main reason for the failure of SRH last season was continuous chopping and changing of the playing 11. Players were regularly dropped or their positions were changed in the batting lineup creating a chaos both in the team and also in the mind of players which resulted in poor performance.

2. MUDDLED THINKING

Last season, the SRH think tank was a little perplexed; they weren't sure which team to choose or which players to play in what positions. This confusing mindset leads to poor performance. 

3. STACK OF PLAYERS

SRH has a contingent of high quality players in their squad which can both be a strength and weakness for the squad. Having high class players can create a sense of jealousy and cause breakdown in the squad.

8. LUCKNOW SUPER GIANTS(LSG)

Strength:

1. GOOD TOP ORDER

Lucknow is a top order heavy batting unit, having a sound bating lineup with players like KL Rahul, Quinton de Kock, Devdutt Padikkal, Kyle Mayers, Deepak Hooda, Ayush Badoni, Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran all high quality batsmen at top of the batting unit.

2. GOOD SPIN UNIT

In form of Amit Mishra, Ravi Bishnoi and Krunal Pandya Lucknow squad has a formidable spin bowling unit. All of these spinners are match winners in their own rights and capable of taking wickets and saving runs at crucial junctures of the match.

3. GOOD OVERSEAS OPTIONS

Lucknow has a formidable foreign contingent with players like Quinton de Kock, Kyle Mayers, Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran, David Willey, Ashton Turner, Naveen-ul-Haq and Shamar Joseph has a very strong foreign batting and bowling options.

Weakness:

1. NO PROVEN FINISHER

Lucknow squad lacks a proven finisher who can come in final overs of the innings and score at high rate. Lucknow team boasts of a powerful batting lineup but none of the batsmen is a proven finisher, all of them loves to play at top.

2. INEXPERIENCED INDIAN PACERS

Lucknow squad does not have any additional high-quality pacers except of David Willey and Shamar Joseph, with latter also not a proven T20 player. All of India's pacers are inexperienced and of low quality, resulting in poor pace bowling unit.

9. GUJRAT TITANS(GT)

Stregnth:

1. SQUAD STREGNTH

GT squad is full of high quality players in every department be it batting, fast bowling or spin bowling. Players like Shubman Gill, David Miller, Kane Williamson, Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad, Mathew Wade, Wriddhiman Saha, Kartik Tyagi, Mohit Sharma, Spencer Johnson and list goes on. GT team is one of the most well round team.

2. TEAM BONDING

Since last 2 years GT squad has more or less been the same with exception of Hardik Pandya all other players have more or less been same which helped GT to win the title in 2022 and again took them to the finals in last edition. This creates a collective bond within the players which helps the team to perform well.

Weakness:

1. SELECTING FOUR OVERSEAS OPTION

GT has high quality foreign players in each and every position. Picking 4 players from such a pool of talented players will be a difficult task.

2. WEAK INDIAN SPINNERS

Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad are two of the specialist T20 spinners but after them there is no quality Indian spinners. Jayant Yadav and Rahul Tewatia are good bowlers but not of that quality. This increases teams dependence on Afghani spin duo and playing both of them in the squad can be difficult for the team management.

10. PUNJAB KINGS(PBKS)

Strength:

1. STACKED UP FAST BOWLING OPTION

In form of Kagiso Rabada, Arshdeep Singh, Nathan Ellis, Harshal Patel, Chris Woakes, Sam Curran Punjab squad has a full list of high quality players. This long list of pacers will be ready to help Punjab win their first title. If employed correctly, all of these pacers have the potential to be a match-winning unit.

2. PLENTY OF ALLROUNDERS

Punjab has plenty of allrounders in their squad with likes of Liam Livingstone, Sikandar Raza, Chris Woakes, Sam Curran and Rishi Dhawan. Having lots of allrounders in the squad allows the captain to have plenty of options in both batting and bowling.

Weakness

1. INEXPERIENCED INDIAN BATTING OPTIONS

Except Shikhar Dhawan Punjab team doesn't have any experienced Indian batsman. Players like Atharva Taide, Jitesh Sharma, Prabhsimran Singh are all talented batsmen but have no experience at the highest level.

2. WEAK SPIN BOWLING OPTIONS

Punjab team only has two recognized spinners in form of Harpreet Brar and Rahul Chahar with latter being out of form from last season. This makes Punjab heavily dependent on part time spinners like Liam Livingstone and Sikandar Raza.

3. DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN BATTERS

Lack of Indian batsmen in the squad makes the team heavily dependent on its foreign batsmen like Jonny Bairstow, Rilee Rossouw and Liam Livingstone to score runs and take team forward. This overdependence can back fire on slow turning tracks where overseas batsmen find it difficult to score runs.

4. LACK OF FINISHER

Punjab's batting lineup is full of top order batsmen and all the finishing job lies in hands of young Jitesh Sharma and Liam Livingstone who can misfire anytime.