One thing each IPL franchise lacks in their team

The 12th season of Indian Premier League is more than five months away but already there is an air of excitement among the fans as the franchises have already started their trade for players for the upcoming season.

While the host country for next season is not yet confirmed, one thing is for sure is there would be a lot of chopping and changes amongst the team for IPL 2019.

Chennai Super Kings are the current reigning champions of Indian Premier League and were the most complete side in the last edition of Indian Premier League.

Chennai beat Sunrisers Hyderabad in the final to become the champions and despite few injuries for their players in the season, they came out trumps thanks to some good bench strength, which was missing in other teams.

Let us look at the one important thing that each team is missing in their squad that needs to be filled for the upcoming season.

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#1 Royal Challengers Bangalore – Death Bowling

Royal Challengers Bangalore is regarded as the most star-studded team amongst the other IPL teams.

Lead by Virat Kohli, the men in red never managed to win the trophy despite reaching the finals on more than a couple of occasions.

In the last season, RCB started off slowly but managed to pick up the pace in the business end of the season.

But in their last league game, which was a do-or-die game against Rajasthan Royals they failed to turn up, which resulted in their exit from the tournament.

RCB ended up at sixth place with just six wins and eight losses from 14 games last year. The main reason for the loss is due to their death bowling which failed to live up to expectations.

The likes of Umesh Yadav, Corey Anderson, Chris Woakes failed to contain the batsman in the latter stages of the innings, which resulted in heavy scores by the opponents.

If RCB has to get their team combination right, they would need to get good death bowlers who can contain the batsman and pick up wickets.

#2 Mumbai Indians - Opener

An opener is a must for the Mumbai based franchise

Mumbai Indians had a decent tournament last season but their decent tournament couldn’t fetch them a spot in top 4.

Mumbai Indians fell apart in the business end of the tournament and in a must-win game against Delhi Daredevils, they lost the tie, which resulted in their exit.

Mumbai Indians ended up at fifth position with six wins and eight losses out of 14 games. Their opening has been a disappointment last time around with Evin Lewis failing time and again in providing good starts to the team.

His weakness against spinners was clearly exploited by opposition teams and this is surely a weak link in the Mumbai Indians setup.

However, Surya Kumar Yadav has been a revelation as an opener last season and he has delivered some really good performances and this shall ensure and confirm his position as an Opener for next year.

Mumbai Indians have snatched Quinton de Kock for the 2019 season and it would be interesting to see how the pair of De Kock and Yadav will be looking to smash the bowlers all over the park.

#3 Kings XI Punjab – Middle Order

The Mohali-based outfit was heavily dependant on KL Rahul

Kings XI Punjab started the previous season with a bang by winning the first few games in a dominant fashion.

KL Rahul’s swashbuckling 50 in the opening game versus Delhi Daredevils at Mohali set the stage on fire. In another game against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Chris Gayle showed his heroics by scoring a blistering century and everyone expected this team to cruise through to the playoffs.

But as the tournament went on, their performances dipped drastically and they fell apart. They even registered the lowest team score of the season against Royal Challengers Bangalore in a crucial encounter in Indore and this dented the Net run rate very badly.

In the end, they ended up at seventh place with six wins and eight losses out of 14 games just above Delhi Daredevils. The main reason for their disappointing season is over dependency on KL Rahul and the lack of a proper middle order.

Yuvraj Singh was kept out for more than half of the season, Karun Nair had few good knocks here and there but never managed to put in consistent performances throughout the season.

Axar Patel and Marcus Stoinis showed few sparks in a couple of innings but the burden was too much on them.

Hence, the owners and management should need to look for some strength in the middle order and with a solid middle order in the line-up, Kings XI should do well with their batting in the upcoming season.

#4 Rajasthan Royals - Finisher

The Royals are in need of a player who can finish the game off

Rajasthan Royals had a good tournament last season and ended up in fourth place with eight wins and six losses from 14 games. Jos Buttler leads the way with the bat scoring all those consecutive half-centuries to guide his team into the knockouts.

Ajinkya Rahane although couldn’t contribute much with the bat, did well with his captaincy skills that helped his team to reach the top 4.

Rajasthan Royal's main strength has been their bowling which managed to live up to the expectations on many occasions. In a must-win league game against Royal Challengers, it was their bowlers that defended a moderate total of 164 against a strong batting line-up of RCB.

However, they lacked a strong finisher in their line-up, who could propel the scoring rate in the death overs of an innings.

Krishnappa Gowtham won them a couple of games but he lacked support at the other end to finish the game in a couple of occasions. Stuart Binny disappointed again and the unavailability of Ben Stokes cost them the Eliminator game last time around.

Hence the team management would need to look for some strong finishers, which would complete their batting and sort out their major problem.

#5 Delhi Daredevils – Experience in Batting

Experience could be key for the Delhi-based outfit next time around

Delhi Daredevils had a bad season last time. Gautam Gambhir was bought into the squad from Kolkata Knight Riders and he was appointed as the Skipper for Delhi Daredevils.

After few losses in the first half of the season, Gautam Gambhir quit captaincy, stopped playing the season and handed over the captaincy to Shreyas Iyer.

This was a shocker to fans who expected a turn around for Delhi Daredevils in IPL 2018. Shreyas Iyer was leading a very young team in the middle and the business end of the season.

Apart from Glenn Maxwell, Trent Boult and Liam Plunkett majority of the side consisted of youngsters. Maxwell couldn’t do much with the bat throughout the season and his poor form continued throughout.

Rishabh Pant was the shining light of the season, who notched up more than 600 runs in the season.

With Gambhir out of the equation, Delhi Daredevils would need to loop in some experienced batsmen into their squad to have any chance of improving their performance in the next season.

#6 Sunrisers Hyderabad – Middle Order Batting

Tom Moody and co would need to solidify their middle order by recruiting some good players for the upcoming season

The runners-up of 2018 season had a great season last time and this came as a surprise to many. With David Warner out from the squad due to compliance issues, the onus was on Kane Williamson to take the team forward.

Kane Williamson was a revelation with the bat, he singlehandedly took the men in orange into the finals.

Time and again he let his willow do the talking and was the best batsman of the season. His attacking stroke-play came as a surprise to many and him along with Shikhar Dhawan put up solid partnerships every now and then.

However, their problem last season was their middle order who couldn’t deliver with the bat on a few occasions.

Manish Pandey terribly lost form in the latter stages of the season and had to be dropped for the last few games due to his terrible form with the willow.

He had to be replaced with Carlos Brathwaite, who did well with the bat in the limited opportunities he had.

Yusuf Pathan and Shakib-al-Hasan did smack a few in a couple of games but the required consistency was missing. It was their bowling that bailed them out every now and then.

Hence, Tom Moody and co would need to solidify their middle order by recruiting some good players for the upcoming season.

#7 Kolkata Knight Riders – Overseas Fast Bowlers

KKR will need a few overseas fast bowlers to add to their arsenal

Kolkata Knight Riders have had a good season last time around by making it to the playoffs. They ended up in the third position in the table and the critics have applauded the way Dinesh Karthik has handled the team.

In the second playoff, their bowlers leaked too many runs in the final stages of Sunrisers Hyderabad batting, which was the reason why they lost the game.

Before the season they suffered a major setback with Mitchell Starc dropping out due to injury. Mitchell Johnson played few games and was kept out in the remainder of the games.

Shivam Mavi and Prasidh Krishna lead the fast bowling attack, aided by Andre Russell for KKR and although they did put up fine performances every now and then, their inexperience was felt in the qualifier game last season.

Hence the team management would need to look to add some overseas fast bowlers who would lead the way along with the young Indian fast bowlers for the next season in 2019.

#8 Chennai Super Kings – Spinner

The return of Mitchell Santner could help CSK a long way

The reigning champions have been the near best side in the last edition of Indian Premier League.

Their opening pair of Shane Watson and Ambati Rayudu have literally taken the game away from the opponents with a solid start in many of the games.

Shane Watson’s magical form along with Ambati Rayudu’s aggressive batting had dented the oppositions badly and this has been an integral reason for their triumph last year.

Aided by a strong opening pair, the likes of Suresh Raina, M.S Dhoni, Dwayne Bravo and Ravindra Jadeja have all turned up time and again to win games for CSK.

However, there is one weak point in the CSK side that is a front-line spinner. Despite having Harbhajan Singh and Imran Tahir in the squad they didn’t feature regularly in the squad and were kept out for many games.

Jadeja was their frontline spinner and although the left-arm spinner did well picking up wickets he was smashed around the park in a couple of games.

Hence the management of CSK would need to have a strong spinner in their squad for their upcoming season. A young spinner in the form of Mitchell Santner could do wonders for CSK in their upcoming season.