IPL 2014: Fantasy Guru - Imran Tahir and Praveen Kumar come with plenty to add to both IPL and fantasy teams

So should you pick Praveen Kumar? Well, why not when he plays his second match relatively sooner? The only condition being he shouldn’t cost more than 950,000.

Malinga will never get into my team if he plays against the Chennai Super Kings. The CSK top 5 know the art of playing the ‘Slinga’. Harbhajan is in some touch, but being an off-spinner doesn’t stand him in good stead against the openers who love the ball coming in to them.

Kieron Pollard can feast on this bowling attack, but will he get enough deliveries? I doubt it. Faf du Plessis and MS Dhoni bat too low to disturb my fantasy team combination, as well.

Uncapped player pick:

Ishwar Pandey gets the nod ahead of Jasprit Bumrah, Pawan Suyal and CM Gautam. Ishwar bowls to a susceptible top 3, while Bumrah and Suyal are up against an in-form top 3. Gautam should be extremely fortunate to get through what should be a probing spell of swing bowling from Ben Hilfenhaus and his Indian counterparts.

Kings X1 Punjab vs. Kolkata Knight Riders:

Guru’s team for the KKR vs. KXIP match

Transfers made – 1; Transfers remaining – 33

Sunil Narine in – David Warner/Brendon McCullum/Aaron Finch out (in that order)Pravin Tambe in – Ishwar Pandey outCaptain – Sunil Narine/Glenn Maxwell

Jacques Kallis bats at 4, which rules him out straightaway. Shakib Al Hasan will not get enough purchase on that flat deck. The opening pair of Kolkata Knight Riders – Robin Uthappa and Gautam Gambhir – despite being in good form don’t look like getting past Sandeep Sharma and Mitchell Johnson. The Cuttack deck provided good carry, which means Johnson will continue to bother Gambhir.

With Maxwell in already and the issues with Miller discussed, the only other player who is worth contemplating about is Narine. Maxwell would want to prove a point and, in the process, can get foxed by the West Indian mystery spinner. If he does that, the rest of the unit barring Virender Sehwag will have no answer to Sunil Narine’s mastery. If Sehwag gets dismissed by a new ball bowler, things can only get worse. So it all comes down to whether or not Maxwell sees through Narine.

It wouldn’t do any harm to have Narine in the team even at the cost of the transfer, so I get him in.

Uncapped player pick:

The match is being played on a flat deck, so banking on the Kings X1 spinners won’t be the ideal way to go. On the other hand, Mandeep Singh and Manish Pandey look good to give you a 40-ball 50. The batsmen should be extremely silly to give away wickets to the KXIP spinners in Akshar Patel and Shivam Sharma. I will, however, use the uncapped player trick and bring in Pravin Tambe for the next match.

Royal Challengers Bangalore vs. Rajasthan Royals:

Guru’s team for the RCB vs. RR match

Transfers made – 2; Transfers remaining – 31

David Miller out – Ajinkya Rahane inSunil Narine out – Shane Watson inLokesh Rahul out – Sanju Samson inCaptain – Shane Watson

With Rajasthan Royals playing 2 matches in a 3-match round, getting in Ajinkya Rahane and Shane Watson into the team is a no-brainer. James Faulkner is another entry that interests me. Faulkner looks like he has found his lost touch back and is mainly employed at the death, which more often than not translates to wickets. However, I choose to keep him out, as he is up against some of the finest hitters that the IPL has ever seen in Dhoni, McCullum, Smith, Raina, Gayle, De Villiers and Kohli.

Keeping Gayle out for 3 consecutive times has come off quite well. It could sound ostentatious: he remains out of my team, again. I have previously explained my reasons to have him out, and it will be no different now. I see Kane Richardson as the one who is capable of nailing the big West Indian this time. Even if he doesn’t, the support cast of Watson and Faulkner are adept in getting the better of him. The pitch, quite surprisingly, has been offering considerable assistance to the spinners, and that brings Pravin Tambe into the scene, as well.

AB de Villiers has been getting more than enough deliveries as a result of Virat Kohli’s failures, but that has its drawback, too. He has to take more chances than he would actually like to and will end up giving his wicket away. The ideal scenario for De Villiers to click is Kohli scoring as well as he can. Till then, De Villiers will continue to stay out.

Uncapped player pick:

On a good deck, I will prefer Sanju Samson over Karun Nair, as the former gives points for wicket-keeping, too. I already have Yuzvendra Chahal and Pravin Tambe in my team. Rajat Bhatia isn’t as consistent as Tambe and stands good chances of being hit around for plenty in a small ground.