IPL 2019: Big weaknesses of some of the franchises

The Indian Premier League is set to start on 23rd March in Chennai, with the Chennai Super Kings taking on the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Like every year, this season, the IPL will boast of many star attractions.

Every team does a lot of analysis and homework before the season begins to have the best players at their disposal. They have different types of players in their squad depending on their strategies and game plan. They try their best to rope in the best possible players who will suit their style of play. However, that isn't possible as teams wouldn't have the required budget to buy all the players they want.

Hence, every team will lack in some or the other department, and opposition teams will try to expose teams in those areas. No matter how much they try, there will be certain weaknesses that can't be covered and in this article, we shall have a look at the biggest weaknesses of each team.

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#1 Chennai Super Kings - Death bowling

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CSK's death bowling was an issue for them last season, and it doesn't look like they have done anything to solve it. Their premier death bowler, Dwayne Bravo, had a terrible outing in the IPL last season and conceded runs at an economy rate of nearly 10. He also conceded 27 sixes last season and has become way too predictable with his slower balls.

They bought Mohit Sharma at the auction this season, but he isn't the same bowler he used to be a couple of years back. He had an economy rate of 10.85 last season and played his last competitive game 4 months ago. Shardul Thakur had an economy rate of 9.23 and isn't known for his death bowling.

Lungi Ngidi bowled just 7 of his 26 overs at the death and while he did impress, he will be available for just a few games this season. Furthermore, 7 overs are too small a sample size to judge whether he is good or not. David Willey is also not great at the death.

It will be interesting to see how CSK will tackle their death bowling issues.

#2 Delhi Capitals - Absence of an anchor

Delhi Capitals' skipper, Shreyas Iyer

Like CSK and a few of the other teams, Delhi Capitals have failed to address their problems from last season. Gautam Gambhir was expected to play the role of an anchor, whereas explosive batsmen like Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer and Glenn Maxwell were supposed to bat around him. However, he failed to do that, and it coincided with the entire team's downfall.

Gambhir's retirement has left them without an anchor in the team. Even players like Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw can't be considered as anchors, and this could come back to bite them.

The role of an anchor is often overlooked in a T20 side and even the Capitals have overlooked it. The presence of an anchor is a must, especially in a team like Delhi, where all the batsmen are highly aggressive and start attacking from the word go.

Nobody in the team comes close to being an anchor, but being the skipper of the team, Iyer will have to shoulder that responsibility and try to bat for long periods of time.

#3 Kings XI Punjab - Lack of finishers

Ravi Ashwin will once again captain the Lions

Kings XI Punjab don't have any renowned finishers in their set-up this season. Finishers are a necessity for any T20 team, and without them, teams struggle to set good targets or chase big scores. It was a huge problem for them last season, especially in the second half of the season. Chris Gayle failed to get going in the second half of the season, and it exposed their weaknesses even more.

They have the services of David Miller but he has failed to have any sort of impact over the last few seasons. Barring the odd innings, Miller hasn't been in great form for the Proteas in the recent past. Furthermore, he may not even find a place in their starting eleven because of the availability of other overseas players.

If they expect Sam Curran to perform the duty of a finisher for them, they are certainly fooling themselves. He has a strike rate of 118.9 in T20's, which is unacceptable for a finisher.

KXIP didn't do anything in the auction to solve their problem, and if Miller can't find form quickly, then they are heading in the wrong direction.

#4 Kolkata Knight Riders - Bench strength

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Another team with the same problem from last season, Kolkata Knight Riders have a weak bench. Their starting line-up will definitely have Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine, and Andre Russell as 3 of the 4 foreigners. The 4th foreigner's slot will most likely go to Carlos Brathwaite who has never had a huge impact in the IPL.

The other foreigners they have are Lockie Ferguson, Joe Denly, Anrich Nortje, and Harry Gurney, who are good T20 players but don't have much experience playing in India.

Even the Indian players on the bench are highly inexperienced and untested, which means that the management will be forced to play out of form players as well. With injury-prone players like Chris Lynn and Andre Russell in the squad, they could be in serious trouble when key players are injured.

#5 Mumbai Indians - Unreliable middle-order

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Mumbai Indians have a lot of power hitters in their squad and are capable of scoring big runs on flat pitches. However, they could face a lot of problems when batting on tricky pitches where the ball is seaming around or turning a bit.

Their middle-order is quite unreliable as it is packed with power hitters and it lacks a calming influence. Rohit Sharma could perform that role, however, he has himself shown the tendency to throw his wicket away under pressure or in difficult conditions.

A prime example for the middle-order letting them down was the game against SRH last season when they had to chase a paltry 119. They lost a couple of early wickets, wilted under pressure and succumbed for just 88. Their skipper, Rohit Sharma should be more cautious with his wicket and bat for longer periods as they have a fairly unreliable middle-order.

#6 Rajasthan Royals - Quite a few weaknesses

Ajinkya Rahane (c) has a lot to ponder about

The Ajinkya Rahane-led Rajasthan Royals have a lot of weaknesses in their squad. During the first half of the season, Rajasthan Royals will be one of the teams to beat. However, they will become very weak after that because of the departures of Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Steve Smith, and Jofra Archer.

They will only have 4 overseas players in their squad, out of whom only 1 has IPL experience. Ish Sodhi has played a couple of games, but the likes of Liam Livingstone, Ashton Turner and Oshane Thomas have never played before. However, a positive is that these 3 have exhibited good form in recent months.

The squad hardly has any reliable Indian players barring the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Sanju Samson and Rahul Tripathi. Their Indian resources along with fast bowling resources are quite poor. Jofra Archer is the only renowned pacer in the team. Jaydev Unadkat had a terrible outing last season, while Varun Aaron wasn't even selected for last year's IPL.

The team will rely a lot on the experienced shoulders of Ajinkya Rahane to score runs after the big name departures. They will also hope that the likes of Samson, Livingstone, Unadkat, and Aaron can perform. If they fail to do so, they can kiss their hopes of winning the title goodbye.

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