As many as 36 Australian players were picked in the IPL auction in the belief that they would be available for the entire tournament. But Australia’s tour of Bangladesh immediately after the World Cup, where they play 3 ODIs, will rob the franchisees of many key players for a minimum of 10 days minimum – at least four matches.
The team that will lose out the most from this is Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Shah Rukh Khan and Co. bid well this time, hoping that this team can finally make them win. They picked Brett Lee to spearhead the attack and he is a wonderful buy at $400,000. Lee is in terrific form and looks a certainty to tour Bangladesh.
The second Aussie they picked is wicket-keeper Brad Haddin. He is a regular in the Australian team and will play in all their matches, though Tim Paine will be there in that squad. Kolkata will miss his wicket-keeping and the fact that his balanced style of batting is ideal for this format and can forge a strong partnership with Gautam Gambhir at the top.
KKR will also lose the services of Shakib al Hasan, the Bangladesh captain – the only Bangladeshi in the 2011 IPL. Shakib is by far the world’s best all-rounder and his services are crucial to KKR.
All this wouldn’t have affected KKR if they would have picked more than seven foreign players in their squad. So they would have to play with Jacques Kallis, Eoin Morgan, Ryan ten Doeschate and James Pattinson hoping that all of them are 100% fit in time for the competition. The odds are already against KKR, whose choices seemed to be really impressive.
Another team which will be hit hard is Rajasthan Royals. The team is centred on Shane Warne and Shane Watson. Even though Warne is available, Watson is almost irreplaceable as one of the best all-rounders in the world and whose skills are just perfect for T20.
Shaun Tait is likely to be on that plane to Bangladesh. Rajasthan’s woes just do not seem to end, after a horrible auction!
Chennai Super Kings (Michael Hussey and Doug Bollinger), King’s XI Punjab (David Hussey and Shaun Marsh) and Indi Commandos (Steve Smith and John Hastings) will also suffer, but not as much since they have huge reserves of foreign players, who are potential enough to fill in the shoes of the Aussies, at least for the first few matches.
The teams which will be rejoicing at the moment would be Mumbai Indians, Delhi Daredevils and Royal Challengers Bangalore. These three teams have done well in the past in the IPL, with Mumbai finishing with the silver last edition. Delhi have been in the semi-finals of the first two seasons and narrowly missed out in the third. Whereas, Bangalore has been a success story by making it to the final in 2009 and semis in 2010, after being the Davids of 2008.
I dare say, but be ready to up the ante by putting your money in these three teams because the beginning of the IPL always matters and now that the tournament has 10 teams, it is more than necessary for victories early on. After all, the IPL is all about momentum and not just one-off matches won here and there.
As many as 36 Australian players were picked in the IPL auction in the belief that they would be available for the entire tournament. But Australia’s tour of Bangladesh immediately after the World Cup, where they play 3 ODIs, will rob the franchisees of many key players for a minimum of 10 days minimum – at least four matches.
The team that will lose out the most from this is Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Shah Rukh Khan and Co. bid well this time, hoping that this team can finally make them win. They picked Brett Lee to spearhead the attack and he is a wonderful buy at $400,000. Lee is in terrific form and looks a certainty to tour Bangladesh.
The second Aussie they picked is wicket-keeper Brad Haddin. He is a regular in the Australian team and will play in all their matches, though Tim Paine will be there in that squad. Kolkata will miss his wicket-keeping and the fact that his balanced style of batting is ideal for this format and can forge a strong partnership with Gautam Gambhir at the top.
KKR will also lose the services of Shakib al Hasan, the Bangladesh captain – the only Bangladeshi in the 2011 IPL. Shakib is by far the world’s best all-rounder and his services are crucial to KKR.
All this wouldn’t have affected KKR if they would have picked more than seven foreign players in their squad. So they would have to play with Jacques Kallis, Eoin Morgan, Ryan ten Doeschate and James Pattinson hoping that all of them are 100% fit in time for the competition. The odds are already against KKR, whose choices seemed to be really impressive.
Another team which will be hit hard is Rajasthan Royals. The team is centred on Shane Warne and Shane Watson. Even though Warne is available, Watson is almost irreplaceable as one of the best all-rounders in the world and whose skills are just perfect for T20.
Shaun Tait is likely to be on that plane to Bangladesh. Rajasthan’s woes just do not seem to end, after a horrible auction!
Chennai Super Kings (Michael Hussey and Doug Bollinger), King’s XI Punjab (David Hussey and Shaun Marsh) and Indi Commandos (Steve Smith and John Hastings) will also suffer, but not as much since they have huge reserves of foreign players, who are potential enough to fill in the shoes of the Aussies, at least for the first few matches.
The teams which will be rejoicing at the moment would be Mumbai Indians, Delhi Daredevils and Royal Challengers Bangalore. These three teams have done well in the past in the IPL, with Mumbai finishing with the silver last edition. Delhi have been in the semi-finals of the first two seasons and narrowly missed out in the third. Whereas, Bangalore has been a success story by making it to the final in 2009 and semis in 2010, after being the Davids of 2008.
I dare say, but be ready to up the ante by putting your money in these three teams because the beginning of the IPL always matters and now that the tournament has 10 teams, it is more than necessary for victories early on. After all, the IPL is all about momentum and not just one-off matches won here and there.
