IPL 2018: Tactical mistakes by teams which could prove costly

The IPL is the world's biggest T20 league and is extremely competitive. It has teams which are equally talented to win the title and often it is the tactical moves by the team management which gives a side an upper hand.

Chennai Super Kings has won the title twice and has qualified to the playoffs in all the seasons they played thanks to a superior think tank that the team possesses consisting of the likes of Stephen Fleming and MS Dhoni.

Mumbai Indians is the most successful side in terms of winning the title as the team has won it thrice. Mumbai has been synonymous with the biggest names in cricket in their coaching team with the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting and John Wright being involved in the team management in different capacities.

Kolkata Knight Riders changed their fortunes in IPL thanks to a tactical masterstroke by the owners when they selected a totally new looking team in the 2012 Auction under the captaincy of Gautam Gambhir. The tactical moves by the team management, therefore, goes a long way in deciding the future of the team.

Let's have a look at some of the tactical mistakes committed by the bigger teams this year:

---

#1 KKR: Inexperienced batting line-up

Gill will have to play a key role for KKR this year

Kolkata Knight Riders had started the IPL auction with a purse of 59 Crores. They spent the entire amount but haven't been successful in assembling the best KKR team ever.

Kolkata has got their bowling department covered with the spin department being particularly impressive. The team would depend on the young Nagarkoti to handle the pace department for the side along with Mitchell Starc and the talented boy is capable of managing it.

The real problem for the team, however, lies in the batting department where they don't have experienced players in the middle order. Narine and Lynn would open the batting. Uthappa and Karthik would have to rely on the inexperienced and untested Nitish Rana and Shubman Gill to fill 2 slots in the middle order. There would still be a slot which would be vacant and it would be interesting to see as to who fills that slot.

Chris Lynn's injury in the Big Bash League is a huge cause for concern for Karthik. Andre Russel's injury and Sunil Narine's chances of getting banned for suspect action would be a death blow to the team which is already facing problems in the middle order.

The young batsmen's performance in the middle order would go a long way in determining the prospects of the team in IPL this year.

#2 CSK: Absence of quality fast bowlers

Wood needs to step up for CSK this year

Chennai Super Kings went into the auction with the aim of retaining as many of their players from 2015 edition as possible. They were partly successful as they retained the likes of Dhoni, Raina and Jadeja before the auction and used the Right To Match cards to buy back Faf Du Plessis and Dwayne Bravo but missed out on Ashwin and McCullum.

The Chennai team now has a strong batting attack and an oversized spin attack but it lacks in the fast bowling department. Mark Wood and Lungi Ngidi are the overseas pace bowlers for the team and neither of them are a part of the playing XI of their respective international sides.

Mitchell Santner is injured now and it provides the Chennai management with a great opportunity to bring in a quality pacer in the squad.

#3 RCB: Lack of experienced finishers

The young batsman would have to shoulder a huge responsibility this year

Royal Challengers Bangalore is a high profile team in the competition which has failed to win the tournament despite having the biggest names in their team. The team had always filled the team with star batsman who would chase any total for their team.

This year they have covered there bowling pretty well with Coulter-Nile, Southee, Umesh Yadav and Siraj along with Yuzvendra Chahal and the young sensation Washington Sundar. The problem this time for RCB is with the lack of experienced finishers.

The team would open the innings with McCullum and De Kock and Kohli would probably drop to one down followed by De Villiers. With that being the case the entire responsibility of finishing the innings would fall on the young shoulders of Sarfraz Khan and Washington Sundar which is too big a task for these young stars.

The solution for this would be to maybe to open with Vohra and De Kock and ask the experienced McCullum to finish the innings along with the talented Sarfraz Khan.

#4 MI: Weak spin bowling strength

Pandya's form would be a cause of concern for Rohit Sharma

Mumbai Indians went into the auction with their core players already being retained. They retained their captain Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya. They also managed to retain Krunal Pandya and Kieron Pollard.

The core of the team remains almost the same from the tournament winning side of 2017, but an area where they lack now is the department of spin bowling. The team management seems to have preferred the young rookies in Rahul Chahar and Akila Dhananjaya over the experienced Harbhajan Singh and this could prove to be a costly mistake as both of them are relatively inexperienced.

Krunal Pandya has been going through a poor run in domestic competitions this year. The performance of this combination of an untested spinner and an out of form all-rounder would have a huge bearing on the prospects of Mumbai Indians this year.