IPL - Players who should be retained by the teams next season

As Mumbai Indians celebrate their first IPL triumph, all teams will go back to the drawing board and start preparing for next year. A key element here will be the retention policy – if it exists in the first place.

In my opinion, it should. While the idea behind “resetting” the IPL franchises once every three years is a good exercise in avoiding monotony, certain players endear themselves to the local crowds with their gameplay and showmanship. And a strong identity in their fans’ minds is what every IPL team sets out to achieve at the start of the season. Keeping that in mind, this article takes a look at the players who made most of the right moves this season to be in reckoning for a more permanent place in their IPL side.

Chennai Super Kings

As in the 2011 auctions, Chennai would want to retain a core leadership unit around which the rest of the team would be built. The only problem for them would possibly be the limit of four retentions when they probably would have liked to retain as many as six players.

Michael Hussey‘s Purple Cap winning effort proved that he has enough fire in his belly for at least another season after retirement. Complement that with the (comparatively) youthful exuberance of Suresh Raina and you have one of the most potent top orders in the IPL universe – a combination no one would want to tamper with.

Five IPL finals should guarantee MS Dhoni a retainer contract at the bare minimum if not the keys to the city. His long time protege and Twitter target Ravindra Jadeja too has made the yellow Chennai cap his own with a few crucial performances with the bat and a fine show with the ball. After the top order heroics of Hussey and Raina, Dhoni and Jadeja provide ballast to the lower middle order and allow them to tinker with the rest of the line-up.

Among the bowlers, local boy Ravichandran Ashwin has used the IPL as a springboard to greater pursuits and the Super Kings would want him to continue plying his trade for his home city. In a bowling attack consisting of the likes of Dirk Nannes, Albie Morkel, Dwayne Bravo, Chris Morris, Ashwin and Jadeja among others, Haryana boy Mohit Sharma finished with the best economy rate and the second highest tally of wickets. His McGrath-like ability to land the ball in the channel outside off-stump on demand made him one of the best Powerplay bowlers of the tournament. Chennai has produced the likes of Manpreet Gony and Sudeep Tyagi in the past but Mohit is a special find and one they would not like to part with.

Delhi Daredevils

After five seasons with the franchise, it is time that the Daredevils placed more faith in David Warner. Mahela Jayawardene is not in the best form of his life and the Nawab of Najafgarh is slowly losing all the powers (read: impeccable hand-eye coordination, ability to find the sweet spot of the bat, etc.). Warner could be the best man to lead the team out of the rut next season and claim a full-time middle order slot at the same time.

It may be a surprise call but Ben Rohrer deserves more than eight games to establish his place in the side. He has done his bit though with scores of 64*, 32 and 49 during this period at home and away. Rohrer has been a brutal finisher for the Blues down the order and can be looked upon as a long term asset in the shortest format of the game.

Kings XI Punjab

No doubts about it. David Miller has to stay. With Gilchrist out of the reckoning next season, the Kings need someone to beef up the batting line-up with Shaun Marsh and the exciting Indian talent in the form of Mandeep Singh and Manan Vohra. Miller is just finding his zone; no team in its right mind would want to lose him right now.

Kolkata Knight Riders

This may be the most controversial call in the whole article, but I would put my money on Yusuf Pathan. He has been given a long leash but he has perked up right at the end of it. All his three highest scores for the KKR came at the fag end of this year’s campaign – 49*, 72 and 49* in his last three innings. Ravindra Jadeja’s recent popularity would have him smarting too considering the long tussles he has shared with him for the spinning all-rounder’s slot in the limited overs formats in recent years.

One would do well to discount his recent failings with the bat but Eoin Morgan is right up there with the likes of A.B. de Villiers and Kieron Pollard when it comes to game-changing talent. He has batted too low on more than one occasion but given the chance, he has scored more often than not – at one stage he had scores of 47, 2, 31, 42 and 32* in five games. This Irish lad is only 26 and should be seen as an investment.

Sunil Narine. If you ask me why, clearly you have been sleeping for the last fifteen months or so. The other spinner Sachithra Senanayake too has to stay. The two spinner combo was a step in the right direction – what failed was the team’s ability to put up big scores for the duo to defend. Apart from one bad game against the Mumbai Indians, Senanayake has been consistent in the rest of the seven games he has played in.

It is a decision he has to take for himself but should he be up for it, Jacques Kallis deserves another stint in office. While his batting has been falling away, at least in the shorter formats, Kallis was the fastest of the KKR bowlers and bowled more than one crucial spell with plenty of hostility and aggression. With his batting, Kallis lends balance to the team and should be used as an opener or a finisher to get the best out of him.

Mumbai Indians

Like Chennai, Mumbai have a problem of plenty. Sachin Tendulkar‘s retirement would have not only freed up Mumbai’s cash reserves somewhat but also give them a chance to build a team for the future, much on the lines of Chennai Super Kings. At the heart of this long term strategy lie two young Indian batsmen who have dazzled and frustrated in equal measure and are slowly beginning to make their presence felt more significantly.

For all his failings otherwise, Rohit Sharma has turned into somewhat of an IPL legend with his consistent performances over the last six years. He has proved to be a fine captain too and someone Mumbai would like to groom for the future. On the other hand, Dinesh Karthik provided the team a key factor which had been missing in earlier seasons – a wicket-keeper who could bat rather than the other way round. Sachin’s retirement makes it all the more critical for Mumbai to retain these two players as ‘seniors’ who would take the team forward in the coming years.

Kieron Pollard has been a handy bowler for the Indians but he came into his own as a batsman in this year’s edition of the IPL. While batting first or chasing, Pollard brought Mumbai back from the dead on more than one occasion including the IPL final itself. A retainer would be just rewards for his improved performance this season.

Lasith Malinga walks into the side without too many questions being asked. His new ball partner Mitchell Johnson finished the season as the joint highest wicket taker for Mumbai alongside Harbhajan Singh. Both of them are national team discards and this season would have done them a world of good to their confidence. They will be hungry to repeat their success next season to strengthen their cases for a permanent place in their respective national sides and Mumbai would do well to retain their services during the same period.

The same applies for Pragyan Ojha who completes the bowling quartet for Mumbai which took them to the trophy. Ojha has 16 wickets in as many matches and has proved to be an able partner for Harbhajan to hunt in a pair. Both of them have fallen behind the likes of Ashwin, Jadeja and now Amit Mishra in national reckoning and the IPL is a good place to make your presence felt.

Pune Warriors

The first question is whether the Warriors will participate in the next IPL. If the answer to the question is in the affirmative, the next question would be – should they go for a complete overhaul?

While that seems the most logical option for now, it would be mighty unfair on Aaron Finch. He was one half of the (statistically) best opening partnerships of this IPL and his 456 runs came at a strike rate of over 135. It came as a shock to many when he was given the captaincy of the side but he did a fair job with the limited resources he had. Finch could be the fulcrum that Pune had earlier searched for in Yuvraj Singh and Uthappa.

Rajasthan Royals

In Shane Watson, the Royals had the most complete player of the tournament. When he is at full fitness and devoid of any vice-captaincy woes, Watson is as good as two players rolled into one and Rajasthan would need him to play this dual role in the future with greater responsibility now that Dravid is on his way out.

The other two Australians Brad Hodge and James Faulkner would also count their chances of retention pretty high. Barring a fluffed catch in the second eliminator, Hodge has looked the part he was supposed to play – lower middle order aggressor who can bring all his wealth of experience into play under pressure. Faulkner on the other hand, swung the ball with panache to trade the Purple Cap a few times in the tournament. He has a good chance of featuring in the Ashes later this year and that experience would only add onto his undoubted talent for the next IPL.

Last, but definitely not the least, the young guns Stuart Binny and Sanju Samson. Binny represents the quintessential Rajasthan player – inconspicuous yet always involved in the game, be with a heavy bat or a heavy ball. Complementing Binny’s unabashed derring-do is the poetry in motion by Samson. The richer franchises would have their eyes on him but for his own sake and for the sake of Indian cricket, Samson needs to stay with the Royals for at least three more years to perfect his trade. The fact that he is also a wicket-keeper will not be lost on the owners.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

The holy triumvirate of Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and A.B. de Villiers is a must-retain for the Royal Challengers as they have taken the team on their mighty shoulders to the IPL play-offs twice and once to the brink of it. All are mighty fine T20 players in their own right but together they become the Masters of the T20 universe.

Moises Henriques should also be considered because he provides Bangalore the option of a batting all-rounder, which is important when you consider Ravi Rampaul, who bats at number ten for his national team, coming in to bat at number seven.

Talking about Ravi Rampaul, he too deserves more chances after finishing this IPL with the best economy rate and second highest tally of wickets for RCB despite playing only 10 games. The more obvious choice would have been Vinay Kumar but he is leakier than a cannonball-battered cauldron.

Sunrisers Hyderabad

A batting line-up which failed more often than not requires the services of the moustache twirling Shikhar Dhawan and Darren Sammy. Both of them played only nine games this season for various reasons but performed two very important roles – of a launchpad and a finisher respectively. Both have been low-on-show but high-on-intensity performers for the greater duration of their cricketing career and this gels in with the team profile of the Sunrisers.

The bowling was Hyderabad’s strength and should continue to be their forte in the years to come. Dale Steyn is the best fast bowler I have seen since a young Shane Bond and I do not see why any team would want to leave him out of their team on current form. Complementing his mastery of pace would be the two-pronged leg spin strategy of Amit Mishra and Karan Sharma which has worked so well for SRH this season. Mishra is the master and Sharma the apprentice – both can bat better than any other spinner (barring Harbhajan) in the national reckoning. Mishra has come back to the Indian team; Sharma should make the jump soon enough. Their lethal weaponry as a duo deserves an encore.