IPL 2020: Predicting and ranking the new-ball bowling pairs of all 8 teams

#4 Kings XI Punjab - Mohammed Shami and Sheldon Cottrell

Mohammed Shami will be KXIP's bowling leader in IPL 2020

KL Rahul's Kings XI Punjab come into IPL 2020 having made a multitude of changes to their roster, but one retained player who will be their most important bowler in Mohammed Shami. The right-arm quick is the only capped Indian full-time pacer in the team, and he will have to match or improve his tally of 19 wickets in the 2019 IPL season.

Partnering him will be West Indian pacer Sheldon Cottrell. The left-armer can swing the ball prodigiously, and has an arsenal of cutters and slower balls at his disposal. He will play his first IPL season this year but having been bought for 8.5 crores, he is likely to be a regular in the playing XI.

KXIP have other new-ball options in Ishan Porel, Chris Jordan and Afghanistan spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman, but the Shami-Cottrell partnership is the one to watch out for in IPL 2020.

---

#3 Delhi Capitals - Ishant Sharma and Kagiso Rabada

Kagiso Rabada is one of the longest tenured DC overseas players at the moment

An attack that looks highly dangerous on paper, Kagiso Rabada and Ishant Sharma are expected to share the new ball for DC in IPL 2020.

The South African has been with DC for quite some time now, and has picked up wickets in almost every game. Ishant, on the other hand, has revived his IPL career at the franchise, and scalped 13 wickets last year at a superb economy rate of 7.58.

Anrich Nortje, Mohit Sharma, Harshal Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin are other options with the new ball, but the fearsome combination of Rabada and Ishant is all but guaranteed to take center stage in the powerplay. They rank in at a well-deserved #3 on this list of IPL 2020 new-ball bowling pairs.