The Writer's Blog

Kolkata Knight Riders Captain – G Gambhir      Coach – D Whatmore Ground ·          Eden Gardens, Kolkata Squad Gautam Gambhir (Captain), Lakshmipathy Balaji, Brad Haddin (wk), Jacques Kallis, Brett Lee, Eoin Morgan, Yusuf Pathan, James Pattinson , Shakib Al Hasan, Ryan ten Doeschate, Manoj Tiwary, Jaidev Unadkat, Pradeep Sangwan, SS Ladda, Iqbal Abdulla, Shami Ahmed, Rajat Bhatia, MS Bisla Best Performance in IPL – Never made it to the knockouts Strengths ·          Gambhir high in confidence after his 97 in the WC final ·          Presence of mr. dependable Jaques Kallis ·          World class allrounders in Shakib Al Hasan, Ryan Ten Doeschate & Morgan ·          Explosive Pathan and Impulsive Lee ·          Very good domestic players Weakness ·          Curse of Ganguly ·          Jinxed Past ·          Nothing else Prediction ·          Too strong, might make it to the finals MY RATING – 8.5/10 ·          Batting : 9/10 ·          Bowling: 8.3/10 ·          Fielding

Kochi Tuskers Kerala Captain – M Jayawardene           Coach – G Lawson Ground ·          Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Kochi ·          Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore Squad Mahela Jayawardene (Captain) , Brad Hodge , Ravindra Jadeja, Michael Klinger, VVS Laxman, Brendon McCullum (wk) , Muttiah Muralitharan, Steve O'Keefe , Parthiv Patel (wk), Thisara Perera , Ramesh Powar, Owais Shah, RP Singh , Steven Smith, S Sreesanth , Vinay Kumar, Tanmay Srivastava, Deepak Chougule , Kedar Jadhav, Y Gnaneswara Rao, Sushant Marathe, Chandan Madan, Raiphi Vincent Gomez, Balachandra Akhil, Yashpal Singh, P Prasanth Best Performance in IPL – New Entrants Strengths ·          Jayawardene is a seasoned campaigner ·          Explosive opener in McCullum, he keeps wickets too ·          Brad Hodge is the highest run getter in domestic Twenty20 cricket ·          Spin King Muralitharan gets a chance to spin to his Chennai keeper Parthiv Patel ·          Parera is explosive with the bat as well as ba

Kings XI Punjab Captain – A Gilchrist      Coach – M Bevan Ground ·          PCA Stadium, Mohali ·          HPCA Stadium, Dharamshala Squad Adam Gilchrist (Captain & wk) , Shaun Marsh , Paras Dogra, David Hussey , Sunny Singh, Siddharth Chitnis, Mandeep Singh, Abhishek Nayar, Piyush Chawla , Ryan McLaren, Bipul Sharma, Ryan Harris, Dmitri Macarenhas , Paul Valthaty, Dinesh Karthik (wk) , Stuart Broad, Nitin Saini, S Srivastava, V Malik, Praveen Kumar , Bhargav Bhatt, Amit Yadav, Nathan Rimmington Best Performance in IPL – Champions 2009, Semi finalists 2010 Strengths ·          Gilchrist magical leadership ·          Good batting lineup in Gilchrist, Marsh, Dogra, Hussey, Nayar & Karthik ·          Praveen Kumar will form the core of the bowling unit along with Harris ·          Piyush Chawla might get the ball to turn Weakness ·          Yuvraj Singh wasn’t retained, so it’s a huge blow for Punjab ·          Missing out on Brett Lee is a blow ·          Sangakkara &

Delhi Daredevils Captain – V Sehwag         Coach – G Shipperd Ground ·        Feroze Shah Kotla, New Delhi Squad Virender Sehwag (Captain) , Travis Birt,Ashok Dinda ,Aaron Finch,Robert Frylinck,James Hopes, Colin Ingram, Andrew McDonald, Morne Morkel ,Irfan Pathan ,Roelof van der Merwe, Venugopal Rao, Matthew Wade, David Warner,Umesh Yadav, Unmukt Chand, Robin Bist, Prashant Naik, Yogesh Nagar, Avishkar Salvi, Rajesh Pawar, Vivek Yadav, Vikas Mishra, Shahbaaz Nadeem, VR Aaron, Tejashwi Yadav, Sridharan Sriram, Naman Ojha (Wk) Best Performance in IPL – Semi Finalists 2008, Semi finalists 2009 Strengths ·          Sehwag & Warner’s presence at the top ·          Seasoned domestic players in Sriram, Venugopal Rao and Salvi ·          A good list of all rounders – Pathan, Hopes, Ingram, Van der Merwe ·          Naman Ojha, Umesh Yadav and Yogesh Nagar are important domestic players ·          Morne Morkel’s in good touch Weakness ·          Absence of Gambhir would surely hi

Deccan Chargers   Captain – K Sangakkara                 Coach – D Lehmann        Ground ·          Rajiv Gandhi Intl Stadium, Hyderabad ·          ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Vishakhapatnam  Squad Kumara Sangakkara (Captain & wicketkeeper), Daniel Christian,Shikhar Dhawan,Jean-Paul Duminy Manpreet Gony,Michael Lumb, Chris Lynn ,Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha,Kevin Pietersen, Ishant Sharma Dale Steyn,Rusty Theron,Cameron White, Harmeet Singh, Akash Bhandari, DB Ravi Teja, AS Yadav, S Sohal, Bharat Chipli, Ishank Jaggi, Jaydev Shah, I Malhotra, AA Reddy, Anand Rajan, Ankit Sharma Best Performance in IPL – Champions 2009, Semi finalists 2010 Strengths ·          Sangakkara’s recent tryst till the World Cup finals ·          Steyn’s presence along with Rusty Theron, Ishant Sharma and Pragyan Ojha makes Chargers a formidable Bowling side ·          Cameron White & Daniel Christian are explosive allrounders ·          Jean Paul Duminy holds the key to keeping the batting orde