The IPL auction was an interesting affair with players like Ben Stokes and Tymal Mills getting their dream deals. There were snubs like in the case of Ishant Sharma and some fascinating underdog stories, like in the case of T Natarajan and Mohammed Siraj.
Some teams got what they wanted whilst some had to make do with whatever was left. The first IPL where MS Dhoni, the most successful captain in domestic T20, will not be captaining a side is building up to be an interesting one given the number of shuffles that have taken place and the number of new players inducted.
Extra Cover: IPL 2017 Team Squads and full list of players sold with price after auctions
While it is too early to call which team will take the silverware home, it is not a bad time to look at which squad has the most balance. Here’s the top 5 in my opinion.
#1 Kolkata Knight Riders
KKR is one of the few teams that understands and also exhibits business sense over euphoria and mass hysteria when it comes to buying players. Rarely do they splurge, often picking awesome deals by requesting for players not picked the first time in the auctions. They have done amazingly well in their strategy and will continue to do so.
Even this year, they picked a high-value player like Chris Woakes, one of England’s shining points during the England tour for a third of Ben Stokes’ price. KKR have the quality of Trent Boult, Woakes and Nathan Coulter-Nile with the ball along with spinners like Sunil Narine and Kuldeep Yadav.
Extra Cover: KKR team 2017: Full list of players bought by Kolkata Knight Riders
They have accumulators in Gautam Gambhir and Manish Pandey, two Indian players equally capable of steering matches and coming up with the big shots. While Yusuf Pathan has the X-Factor, KKR also have the experience of Shakib Al Hasan. Umesh Yadav, Suryakumar Yadav, Robin Uthappa and the promising Ankit Rajpoot ensure that their Indian contingent is impressive and that the team is not dependent on its foreign players to pull through.
#2 Delhi Daredevils
IPL’s perpetual underachievers, Delhi Daredevils have a good team this year. Whether Zaheer Khan, however, can lead them to some silverware is the bigger question.
On paper, they are excellent. They have two young guns in Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant, the latter recently making his T20I debut in Indian colours. They have the firepower of Quinton de Kock at the top, JP Duminy in the middle and Carlos Brathwaite in the lower order. The bowling department is in good hands as well with bowlers like Mohammad Shami, Amit Mishra, Shahbaz Nadeem and Chris Morris.
They managed to pick South African bowling sensation Kagiso Rabada at the auctions along with Pat Cummins. Throw in the Sri Lanka Test captain Angelo Mathews, an excellent all-rounder, along with New Zealand’s Corey Anderson and Delhi have a very impressive team.
With batsmen like Sanju Samson, Karun Nair and Sam Billings, Delhi have options for all conditions.
#3 Mumbai Indians
Mumbai Indians continue to have a settled look about themselves. Led by Rohit Sharma and beefed up with batsmen like Ambati Rayudu, Lendl Simmons, Kieron Pollard and Jos Buttler, Mumbai Indians are stocked with firepower from the top to the lower order. Their bowling strength is equally impressive with Mitchell McClenaghan, who made a name for himself in the previous edition of the IPL and Jasprit Bumrah, India's death bowling find of last year!
With the Pandya brothers, Hardik and Krunal along with other bowling options like Harbhajan Singh, Vinay Kumar, J Suchith and the biggest name of all, Lasith Malinga, Mumbai Indians have a team for all seasons. They have picked up Sri Lanka’s latest sensation Asela Gunaratne, who may get a game or two to show that he isn’t a one-season wonder, after pulling off some sensational wins for Sri Lanka against South Africa and Australia.
#4 Sunrisers Hyderabad
Only Kings XI Punjab have spent lesser money than Sunrisers on players. However, that has not factored much when it comes to actual success on the pitch. IPL’s Moneyball team is also its current champion and would continue to post a challenge to the big spenders.
The Sunrisers look formidable with David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan at the top followed by Kane Williamson and Yuvraj Singh who was in sublime form against England recently.
Their bowling is their strength with Chris Jordan and Mustafizur Rahman, who are death bowling specialists and Ashish Nehra and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who can swing the ball early. Ben Cutting, Barinder Sran and Moises Henriques give Warner some reliable options.
It remains to be seen if Sunrisers should have really splurged so much on leg-spinner Rashid Khan from Afghanistan, who cost them more than Mustafizur, Jordan and Henriques put together!
#5 Royal Challengers Bangalore
Bangalore is probably the fifth-most balanced team in the IPL despite being the second highest spenders at the IPL auction. Their batting is in genius hands with Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle and Shane Watson. However, it is the bowling which is a huge problem.
The exit of Mitchell Starc made RCB bid aggressively for England’s Tymal Mills. It remains to be seen if Mills, who has restricted himself only to T20 cricket due to a back injury, will justify the $1791000 price tag. RCB would hope for Indian players like Yuzvendra Chahal and Lokesh Rahul to come good.
New Zealand’s tearaway fast bowler Adam Milne could also be a good option, not to mention the bowling contributions of Watson and Harshal Patel.
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