Post-IPL Auction - Ideal Teams and Review
How the teams fared at the mini-auction, and the best teams they can make from their squad
10 teams sat in the room. 405 waiting to go under the hammer. 87 spots.
Edmeades waiting to read out the first player’s name. Let the auction begin.
And so begun the fistfight for players that was the IPL mini auction. We had to wait a round before the all rounders came in, and when they did, paddles went straight up. Sam Curran became the most expensive buy at an IPL auction, and only 5 minutes later, Cameron Green joined him as the second most expensive, both being paid big money into the millions. But more discussion later…
Let’s hop into the ideal XIs for each team straightaway.
RCB:
Faf du Plessis (c) (o)
Finn Allen / Will Jacks (o) / Mahipal Lomror (bats down the order, Virat comes up)
Virat Kohli
Rajat Patidar
Glenn Maxwell (o) (may be injured)
Dinesh Karthik (wk)
Shabhaz Ahmed
Wanindu Hasaranga (o)
Josh Hazlewood / Reece Topley (o) / Akash Deep (if playing Jacks/Allen)
Harshal Patel
Mohammed Siraj
This would be the strongest team RCB could make. Finn Allen / Will Jacks offer an aggressive opening option, taking full advantage of the powerplay, which is something Kohli struggles to do. He is best suited to batting at 3. They have a very right-hander heavy batting order, so may consider sending Shabhaz Ahmed up the order as a floater, to take on matchups. They are also relying on Dinesh Karthik to be able to repeat his heroics last year, and do not have too many backups for him - Lomror is the closest swap, along with offering an extra bowling option, but then they need a keeper, which leads them to rely heavily on DK.
KKR:
Venkatesh Iyer
Gurbaz (o) (wk)
Shreyas Iyer (c)
Nitish Rana
Rinku Singh
Andre Russell (o)
Sunil Narine (o)
Umesh Yadav / Vaibhav Arora
Shardul Thakur
Lockie Ferguson (o)
Varun Chakravarthy
KKR didn’t have a lot of money going into the auction, making a few trades beforehand and severely overpaying for Thakur at 10.75cr.
Jagadeesan can also open, but Gurbaz is more aggressive and his game is more suited to the T20 format than Jagadeesan’s (Sr 152.94 vs SR 118.61)
Another option is to drop one of Rinku / Rana, let Jagadeesan open, and then play Shakib/Wiese lower down the order, but then that may leave too much to catch up on for the power-packed lower order.
PBKS:
Jonny Bairstow (o)
Shikhar Dhawan (c)
Prabhsimran Singh
Liam Livingstone (o)
Jitesh Sharma
Shahrukh Khan
Rishi Dhawan / Raj Bawa (pitch factors)
Sam Curran (o)
Kagiso Rabada (o)
Rahul Chahar
Arshdeep Singh
PBKS look stronger with the inclusion of Sam Curran, however it means Ellis, Raza and Rajapaksa sit on the bench. Harpreet Brar can be bought on if pitch assists spinners, being an economical SLA.
They can also utilise the impact player rule, to bring on an extra batsmen if they collapse, particularly with their all-out batting strategy.
CSK:
Ruturaj Gaikwad
Devon Conway (o)
Moeen Ali (o)
Ben Stokes (o)
Ambati Rayudu
Shivam Dube
Ravindra Jadeja
MS Dhoni (c) (wk)
Dwaine Pretorius (o)
Deepak Chahar
Mukesh Choudhary
CSK look a strong side, and bat till 10, along with having 7 bowling options. This way, the matchups can be used carefully, with Jadeja and Ali bowling to their optimal matchups, as they both spin the ball different ways. Chahar and Choudhary are new ball specialists, along with Stokes, so may need to use the impact player to bring on a player to bowl at the death with Pretorius.
Theekshana just misses out on this side, but knowing the slow, low, turning tracks of Chepauk, he may play over Pretorius. Pace has traditionally struggled at Chepauk, going for near 9 an over, and 25.5 balls per dismissal. However, CSK have no death bowler if they leave out Pretorius.
DC:
Prithvi Shaw
David Warner (o)
Rilee Rossouw (o)
Rishabh Pant (c)
Rovman Powell (o)
Axar Patel
Vicky Otswal / Aman Khan
Kuldeep Yadav
Anrich Nortje (o)
Chetan Sakariya
Mukesh Kumar / Kamlesh Nagarkoti
DC have assembled another strong squad. The inclusion of Rossouw gives them some more firepower, and Mukesh Kumar is a strong opening bowler.
Aman Khan can be their pace bowling all rounder: he has a SR of 166.3 in all T20s and a bowling ecnomy of 8.15.
Can use the impact player rule for Sarfaraz / Dhull / Pandey in case of an early collapse: a low SR anchor to stabilise before Pant and Powell.
RR:
Jos Buttler (o)
Yashasvi Jaiswal
Devdutt Padikkal
Sanju Samson (c)
Shimron Hetmyer (o)
Donavon Ferreira (o) / Jason Holder
Riyan Parag
Ravichandran Ashwin
Trent Boult (o)
Prasidh Krishna / Kuldeep Sen
Yuzvendra Chahal
RR have done well to plug the hole in their side by picking Holder as an all rounder. Holder offers them bounce, with his extra height, so Sen can play over Prasidh Krishna. But in my opinion, Ferreira is also a good option for lower order hitting, and extends that batting lineup so much more. Root is unlikely to play, unless it’s a game at Chepauk, where he might be of use, as a good player of spin and useful offies. Hard to see Zampa getting a game.
MI:
Rohit Sharma (c)
Ishan Kishan
Suryakumar Yadav
Tilak Varma
Dewald Brevis (o)
Tim David (o)
Cameron Green (o)
Jofra Archer (o)
Arshad Khan / Hrithik Shokeen / Piyush Chawla
Jasprit Bumrah
Kumar Kartikeya / Shams Mulani
This was a very hard team to make. Cameron Green needs to find an ideal slot to play in, whether that be opening with Rohit, or down the order in a Pollard-esque role. In terms of the impact player, you can see an extra spinner coming in for a batsman after the first innings. The Wankhede Stadium has true bounce, so you can see a tall seamer coming in - also the true bounce means the batsmen can play their shots.
SRH:
Mayank Agarwal
Abhishek Sharma (c)
Rahul Tripathi
Aiden Markram (o)
Glenn Phillips (o) (wk)
Harry Brook (o)
Washington Sundar
Akeal Hosein / Adil Rashid (o)
Bhuvneshwar Kumar
T Natarajan
Umran Malik
SRH have a really good looking middle order, so can play with more intent than they have in previous years.
Hosein offers lower order batting, which gives SRH a deeper batting lineup. Hosein is also economical, and arguably a better option than Rashid in terms of all-round value. Rashid may be a better spinner, but Hosein can bat.
In terms of the impact player, Samad may come in, or Tyagi, but overall, it is a strong looking team.
LSG:
KL Rahul (c) (wk)
Quinton de Kock (o)
Deepak Hooda
Nicholas Pooran (o)
Marcus Stoinis (o)
Krunal Pandya
Daniel Sams (o) / Romario Shepherd (o) / Mark Wood (o)
Prerak Mankad / Ayush Badoni
Avesh Khan
Ravi Bishnoi
Mohsin Khan
LSG look steady, and better with the inclusion of Pooran, who was overpriced, but is still a good player. Alternatively, they can play Mark Wood at 7, but that shortens their batting lineup, and Ayush Badoni would have to come in for Prerak Mankad. However, I think Mankad is a good up-and-coming all rounder, who brings more to the table. It is plausible to see them two being used as impact players.
Wood shouldn’t play every game due to his injury record, only being used at places like Hyderabad, Mumbai and Bangalore, which are the best places for a pace bowler to bowl (lowest balls per dismissal).
They need a lot of firepower down the order to cover for KL Rahul, who still seems to be batting at his sub 140 SR, even late in his innings. Hooda, Pooran and Stoinis are all capable of upping the ante.
GT:
Shubman Gill
Wriddhiman Saha (wk)
KS Bharat
Hardik Pandya (c)
David Miller (o)
Matthew Wade (o)
Rahul Tewatia
Rashid Khan (o)
Joshua Little (o) / Alzarri Joseph (o)
Mohammed Shami
Shivam Mavi / Yash Dayal / R Sai Kishore (pitch factor)
Last year’s winners, GT made some decent moves at the auction. I’m not quite sure why Williamson was bought, as I don’t see him getting a game (and rightly so, as an overrated T20 anchor). Matthew Wade may not play, but he has done well enough internationally to warrant a place.
Alternatively, Wade may open, leaving Saha out and letting Sai Kishore play as the economical SLA, along with Tewatia in case the pitch is more in favour of spin.
In terms of impact player, Abhinav Manohar can be brought in as a finisher if wickets fall too early.
That concludes my IPL ideal XI’s. I will make another post before the IPL talking about how the pitch may affect the new Impact Player Rule, and how it may also affect team balance, as the IPL returns to a home and away format this year. Each ground has different dimensions, and plays to accommodate the home team (eg CSK has a high spin bias to accommodate their spinners and spin bowling all rounders). These all play a role in picking the right team for the game - looking at stats for this is crucial. I will release the next IPL article soon: coming up next will be some ODI notes and the SA20 preview!