Who were the winners and losers of the IPL mega-auction? Part 2/2.
After one of the longest, eventful mega-auctions the league has ever seen, the 2022 IPL teams are set and there are a lot of signings that need to be picked apart. I will be giving each team a rating, predicting their XI, and breaking down every big-name signing they made.
Mumbai Indians
Retentions: Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard, Suryakumar Yadav, Jaspirit Bumrah.
Signings: Ishan Kishan, Dewald Brevis, Basil Thampi, Murugan Ashwin, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande, N Tilak Varma, Sanjay Yadav, Jofra Archer, Daniel Sams, Tymal Mills, Tim David, Riley Meredith, Mohammad Arshad Khan, Anmolpreet Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Rahul Buddhi, Hrithik Shokeen, Arjun Tendulkar, Aryan Juyal, Fabian Allen.
Before the auction, everyone knew that Mumbai needed to strengthen its bowling; spin, and pace. The batting already had a strong skeleton of Rohit, Surya, and Pollard, but the bowling attack was sparse with the only recruit being an injured Jaspirit Bumrah. The key was to get at least one quality Indian pacer to replace Bumrah if he struggles to recover or to play alongside him. They went out and got Basil Thampi, Jaydev Unadkat, and Arjun Tendulkar. Not one of these 3 players is truly deserving of a spot in an IPL side and definitely can not compensate slightly for Jaspirit Bumrah. Unadkat is a contender for the most disappointing IPL player of all time alongside Eoin Morgan, Yuvraj Singh, and Shakib al Hasan. In Thampi’s last 5 IPL games he has bowled 20 overs with overall figures of 1/226. Tendulkar is simply in the team because of his last name which was proven by Mumbai’s reluctance to buy him when Gujarat jokingly raised his price. Inevitably, one of them will have to play and I would probably favor Unadkat and hope he can return to the form he had in 2017. Mumbai did decide to go big on overseas pace which may cause problems in selection. Sams is an experienced T20 player with bat and ball and there is a good chance he could find his way into the starting XI. Mills is one of my favorite pace bowlers in the world because of his wide range of slower balls. He is the first big success story of The Hundred as he found his way back to the England team because of his victory with the Southern Brave. Riley Meredith was one of the biggest buys last year but did not live up to his hype. He took a big pay cut this year and it is unlikely he will play much. Archer was interesting as he won’t play this year but he is a player you want to lock up for the future. Bumrah and Archer terrorizing batting lineups for years to come is a dream for cricket fans. After losing Rahul Chahar they needed to replace him and they looked no further than one of their past stars in Mayank Markande who had a breakout season in 2018 taking 15 wickets with a 4 wicket haul against Hyderabad. He had 2 bad games the following year and was dropped immediately. Hopefully, he can return towards the top of the Purple Cap this season. They also got Murugan Ashwin, it will be a toss-up between him and Markande considering Ashwin has played more recently, but he only took one wicket last season after he was pushed out of the side by Ravi Bishnoi. Tilak Verma is probably the front runner of all the uncapped Indian players to get a spot on the team. Varma surprised many by smashing 215 runs in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 at a strike rate of 147.26. This was impressive as he often plays the anchor role in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Brevis and David are 2 great pickups for MI. Brevis had a successful U19 World Cup campaign for South Africa, scoring 506 runs which is more than Dhawan, Cook, Gayle, and Markram hit in their U19 WC campaigns. Last season, Tim David became the first Singaporean in the IPL after impressing in the BBL. Ishan Kishan was unsurprisingly the biggest buy of the tournament and will most likely keep for Mumbai. His explosiveness at the top compliments Rohit Sharma perfectly and hopefully they can mirror the success Rohit had with De Kock. My favorite pick for Mumbai is Fabian Allen who is an underrated T20 all-rounder and he has earned his spot by playing explosive innings in the CPL. He has become one of the most feared finishers in the Caribbean and has picked up a knack for taking important wickets.
Predicted XI:
- Rohit Sharma (C)
- Ishan Kishan (WK)
- Suryakumar Yadav
- Tim David
- Tilak Varma
- Kieron Pollard
- Fabian Allen
- Daniel Sams
- Jaspirit Bumrah
- Jaydev Unadkat
- Mayank Markande
Rating:
Mumbai goes into this year’s IPL with the weakest side I have ever seen them field. There are a lot of weaknesses on this side, most notably the middle order. David has little experience in Indian conditions, Varma is too young to play but there is no other option, Pollard has a lot of pressure on him in the middle-order, Allen and Sams have played a bit in the IPL but have had no success. The pace attack also looks weak as they have to play Sams over Meredith/Mills for batting depth and Bumrah is their only good Indian pacer. If something goes wrong with the top 3, there is too much pressure on a fairly inexperienced batting lineup and because of this, I am giving Mumbai a 5/10.
Punjab Kings
Retentions: Mayank Agarwal, Arshdeep Singh.
Signings: Shikhar Dhawan, Kagiso Rabada, Jonny Bairstow, Rahul Chahar, Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Prabhsimran Singh, Jitesh Sharma, Ishan Porel, Liam Livingstone, Odean Smith, Sandeep Sharma, Raj Bawa, Rishi Dhawan, Prerak Mankad, Vaibhav Arora, Writtick Chatterjee, Baltej Dhanda, Ansh Patel, Nathan Ellis, Atharva Taide, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Benny Howell.
Punjab only retained 2 players ahead of the auction which freed up their funds allowing them to go big on superstars and that is exactly what they did. Shikhar Dhawan, Kagiso Rabada, Jonny Bairstow, Liam Livingstone, and Rahul Chahar. Punjab made it clear they are going to make an almighty push for the title this season. Dhawan is the perfect partner for Bairstow at the top order. Dhawan has something to prove going into this year’s IPL as his position in the India team is slowly being given to Ishan Kishan. Rabada is the 35th highest wicket-taker in IPL with 76 wickets. The craziest thing about this is that Rabada has only played 50 games. In the top 60 wicket-takers in IPL history, only 2 players have played fewer games than him (Shreyas Gopal-48 games, 48 wickets, and Nathan Coulter-Nile-38 games, 48 wickets). Bairstow has achieved similar levels of crazy, breaking into the top 100 scorers in IPL history after just 28 innings (1038 runs). The only player with fewer innings in the top 100 is Ruturaj Gaikwad with 839 runs in 22 innings. Livingstone hasn't had a great start to his IPL career, scoring 112 runs in his first 9 innings but you have to remember that AB de Villiers scored 95 runs in his first 6 innings (His second season was in South Africa which is the main reason why he was successful, scoring 465 runs. When the IPL moved back to India, AB scored 111 runs in that season). Livingstone does not need to worry, everyone knows how destructive he can be, especially his new teammate, Kagiso Rabada. Rahul Chahar is one of the most creative leg spinners in the world right now, which is a bold claim considering leg spinners have the most variations, but he has experimented and perfected bowling ‘through’ the wicket instead of ‘over’ or ‘round’. They bought back Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, and Nathan Ellis. Shahrukh Khan has had a lot of success since the last IPL. Just recently he smashed a 148-ball-194 and he won Tamil Nadu the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 trophy and made the final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. He has evolved as a finisher and is one of the more exciting Indian players coming into this year’s IPL. Harpreet Brar played 7 games last season and was quite impressive with bat and ball. He took the wickets of Kohli, Maxwell, AB de Villiers, Shaw, and Jaiswal. He had a top score of 25* against RCB showing his versatility. Ellis only played 3 matches last season and impressed more with the bat than with the ball. He has played well in the BBL which has earned him another stint with Punjab but he will have to compete with Odean Smith and Benny Howell for the 4th overseas spot. Odean Smith has been a good find for the West Indies after good performances in the CPL and then good numbers against Pakistan, Ireland, India, and England. Benny Howell is one of the most skilled knuckleball bowlers in the world, coming to the spotlight in the Bangladesh Premier League, T10 League, and The Hundred. He may get a spot in the side solely to be a death bowler who can score a few, handy runs at the death. Rishi Dhawan is a useful all-rounder who attacks the stumps with his skiddy pace and is a composed batter at any stage of the innings. He is a very rare type of player in Indian cricket which is why I think he is one of the biggest steals of the auction. Sandeep Sharma is another steal as he can keep the powerplay quiet; in recent years he has mastered the art of swinging the new white ball. My favorite pick for Punjab is Raj Bawa, who picked up 9 wickets and scored 252 runs in the U19 World Cup with a top score of 162*. He won Man of the Match in the Final and was the second most successful all-rounder behind Sri Lanka’s Dunith Wellalage.
Predicted XI:
- Shikhar Dhawan (C)
- Jonny Bairstow (WK)
- Mayank Agarwal
- Liam Livingstone
- Shahrukh Khan
- Raj Bawa
- Odean Smith
- Harpreet Brar
- Kagiso Rabada
- Rahul Chahar
- Arshdeep Singh
Rating:
Punjab cleared out to rebuild their side and that is exactly what they did. Investing in stars for this season and the future, Punjab is set up to make many runs for the title in the coming years. There is a good balance in the side as they bat down to number 9 and 7 bowling options in the side. Punjab will hope that Shahrukh and Bawa can hold down the middle-order but with the power in the top 4, they will most likely be playing finisher roles in most games. Punjab has built a strong side with a mix of experience and youth which is why I am giving them an 8.5/10.
Rajasthan Royals
Retentions-Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Signings-R Ashwin, Trent Boult, Shimron Hetmeyer, Devdutt Padikkal, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal, Riyan Parag, KC Cariappa, Navdeep Saini, Obed McCoy, Anunay Singh, Kuldeep Sen, Karun Nair, Dhruv Jurel, Tejas Baroka, Kuldip Yadav, Shubham Garhwal, Jimmy Neesham, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rassie van der Dussen, Daryl Mitchell.
Rajasthan retained 3 batsmen, so went into the auction top-heavy. They planned to recruit the best bowlers out there and that’s exactly what they did. They picked up Ashwin, Chahal, Boult, Saini, Krishna, McCoy, and Coulter-Nile. Ashwin and Chahal is arguably the best pairing of Indian white-ball spinners, Ashwin has 61 T20I wickets and Chahal has 66. Only Bumrah is on their level with 66 wickets but he has played more games than both spinners. Boult has been the best powerplay bowler in the league throughout the last few seasons, as his uncanny ability to swing the new ball troubles the best of the best. Saini has been injured recently but before that, he had 2 games of horrible form in the IPL which led to RCB dropping him. He will have to fight extremely hard to get back on the side with Prasidh Krishna’s recent success for India. McCoy has had a great start to his career in a West Indies shirt, taking 19 wickets in 13 matches. He has also proved useful with the bat with a strike rate of 138.46. Coulter-Nile is a strong backup for Boult, but once again will be in his shadow just like in Mumbai. He is perhaps one of the most unlucky players in recent IPL history as he has had to sit on the bench behind Boult, Bumrah, and Milne. However, when he was given his opportunity last season, he took 7 wickets in 5 games with an economy rate of 6.35. Even though they had already packed the top order, that did not stop them from going after Hetmeyer, Padikkal, and Mitchell. Hetmeyer had a breakout season for Delhi, scoring 242 runs at a rate of 168.08. He was a huge steal and fits perfectly amongst the inexperienced top order. Padikkal is another steal that fits perfectly alongside Jaiswal. He has big boots to fill at the top as he has to replicate Evin Lewis’ aggressiveness at the top. Mitchell will most likely not play but rather will be a backup for his New Zealand teammate, Jimmy Neesham who will play as an experienced character in the middle order. Neesham hasn't always had the best time in the IPL as he averages 8.71 with the bat and has an economy rate of 9.24 with the ball but this maybe is because he has always played as the ‘2nd’ choice behind Pollard and Chris Jordan. Hopefully, his success with bat and ball for New Zealand can pass over to the IPL otherwise Rajasthan may have trouble finishing games that they chase in. Rajasthan bought back Parag who will most likely play the staple role at number 5/6 and will bowl a few overs of leg-spin if needed. Statistically, he is getting worse with the bat every season, but he has always shown glimpses of the full potential that he displayed in his first season. From 2014 to 2018, Nair was one of the better batters in the IPL, scoring 1450 runs in that stretch. He went on to score 21 runs in his next 4 innings and was eventually dropped, however, this isn't the first time that Nair has been dropped due to a string of bad games. After hitting 303* in just his 3rd innings against England in 2016, he was dropped from the Test squad just 15 months later with a career average of 62.33. My favorite pick was Rassie van der Dussen who was supposed to go for big money after averaging 59.00 in the T20 World Cup, but his lack of experience in Indian conditions meant he fell to the last round of the auction for a cheap price. RVD will know that he will be the replacement for Hetmeyer but in my opinion, the Royals should not hesitate to bring Rassie in if the opportunity presents itself.
Predicted XI:
- Jos Buttler (WK)
- Yashasvi Jaiswal
- Devdutt Padikkal
- Sanju Samson (C)
- Riyan Parag
- Shimron Hetmeyer
- Jimmy Neesham
- Ravi Ashwin
- Yuzvendra Chahal
- Prasidh Krishna
- Trent Boult
Rating:
Rajasthan has built a side that complements each other well, the only weakness is the 6–7 spot. Without Stokes, the lower/middle-order looks quite empty. I think they should have tried to get an all-rounder that has already proved themselves in the IPL as there is a lot of pressure on Parag and Ashwin to fire if Neesham is in bad form. They could have gone for Shakib, De Grandhomme, Brathwaite, Henriques, or Cutting. Apart from that, they did pretty well but lack a bit of depth so I am giving them an 8/10.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Retained-Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammed Siraj.
Signings-Faf du Plessis, Harshal Patel, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dinesh Karthik, Anuj Rawat, Shahbaz Ahmed, Akash Deep, Josh Hazlewood, Mahipal Lomror, Finn Allen, Sherfane Rutherford, Jason Behrendorff, Suyash Prabhudessai, Chama Milind, Aneeshwar Gautam, Karn Sharma, Siddharth Kaul, Luvnith Sisodia, David Willey.
Before the auction, RCB had one big aim to replace AB de Villiers, but how exactly do you do that? RCB started on the right foot, signing ABD’s South African teammate, Faf du Plessis. In terms of T20 form, Faf is in the upper echelon of players in the world and he will pair with Kohli at the top of the order, taking pressure off of Virat. Harshal Patel was the next player they bought and they went big on him. Before last season, one of RCB’s biggest problems was death bowling but last year, Patel put on a death bowling masterclass by taking 19 of his 32 wickets in the final 4 overs. Hasaranga was one of the most hyped players in recent history but ended up being smacked around the park and scoring only 1 run which was more than his 0 wickets, However, he went on to have a T20 World Cup to remember, scoring 119 runs and taking 16 wickets. Dinesh Karthik is the experienced figure that they needed to pair with Kohli and he brings a winning DNA to the side. Rawat is a 22-year-old with an average of 30+ across all 3 formats in domestic cricket with a strike rate of 118.02 in T20s. His youth will bring a different dynamic that RCB hasn't had in their top order for the past few (apart from Padikkal). Hazlewood has elevated his game at CSK and is now one of the best all-format bowlers in the world. He is the only bowler in the top 10 ICC rankings for every format right now, ahead of Rabada, Boult, Bumrah, Cummins, and Shaheen. Lomror has proven to be destructive in domestic cricket and has carried on through to his IPL career. He can also offer a few overs of useful off-spin. Shahbaz Ahmed is another off-spinner-all-rounder who has already broken into the league by taking the wickets of S Dhawan, S Iyer, KL Rahul, Bairstow, and Samson. His batting is yet to shine through but he can score runs as he has 6 domestic 50s and 1 domestic 100. Finn Allen has been a great discovery for New Zealand in T20 cricket as he is striking the ball at 190.24 in his first 6 T20I innings. Sadly, we won’t see much of him with Faf at the top but he will get invaluable experience from playing with the likes of Kohli, Faf, Maxwell, and Karthik. Rutherford’s IPL batting career has been pretty ordinary but it is his bowling that has let him down as he has only taken 1 wicket; with Willey in the side, Rutherford is playing a backup for him, so won’t much, if any time on the pitch. Behrendorff’s white-ball economy of 5.84 makes him a valuable asset to RCB but with Harshal on the side, there is little need for him. Karn Sharma is one of the most underrated spinners in the league as he has 59 IPL wickets at an average of 27.29 which is better than IPL legends, Piyush Chawla, Ravi Ashwin, and Ravi Jadeja. He is also useful with the bat as he has an IPL high score of 39*. After Shane Watson took Siddarth Kaul apart in the 2018 Final, Kaul never recovered and took only 15 wickets over the next 3 seasons. His 2017 and 2018 seasons were two great seasons for Kaul considering he played in Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s shadow. His experience may be able to earn him a spot on the side. Willey is a Vitality Blast legend with 2400 runs and 121 wickets but he has never broken through to the IPL. With the great crop of overseas players in the RCB camp this season (Faf, Maxwell, Hasaranga, and Hazlewood), I doubt we will see much of Willey but he will keep his fingers crossed that he performs if the day comes.
Predicted Lineup:
- Faf du Plessis (C)
- Virat Kohli
- Anuj Rawat
- Glenn Maxwell
- Dinesh Karthik (WK)
- Mahipal Lomror
- Wanindu Hasaranga
- Shahbaz Ahmed
- Harshal Patel
- Mohammed Siraj
- Josh Hazlewood
Rating:
Since making the IPL final in 2016, RCB has struggled year in and year out because of poor auction decisions. They went big on Jameison, Christian, Morris, Finch, Dube, Woakes, and Mills who all turned out to be flops but drained their wallet, meaning they had little backup. This year, they have gone the other way, leaving a lot left in their wallet and not bringing in enough big names. Their bowling attack is deep but not experienced, their middle-order solely rests on Karthik doing well and Lomror, Hasaranga, and Ahmed all having breakout seasons with the bat. They do have strong backups though so they can change it around if it doesn't work, so I am giving them a 6/10.
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Retentions-Kane Williamson, Abdul Samad, Umran Malik.
Signings-Washington Sundar, Nicholas Pooran, T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Priyam Garg, Rahul Tripathi, Abhishek Sharma, Kartik Tyagi, Shreyas Gopal, Jagadeesha Suchith, Aiden Markram, Marco Jansen, Romario Shepherd, Sean Abbott, R Samarth, Shashank Singh, Saurabh Dubey, Vishnu Vinod, Glenn Phillips, Fazalhaq Farooqi.
Sunrisers controversially let go of David Warner after his incredible T20 World Cup which left Hyderabad in a similar situation to RCB as they had to replace an irreplaceable T20 legend. Pooran and Markram appear to be the frontrunners to replace his role in the side with Williamson taking a bigger role than usual with Warner gone. After scoring 521 runs in his first 20 IPL innings, Pooran scored 85 runs last season at an average of 7.73. His T20 World Cup was better scoring 103 runs in his 5 innings but it is a risky move to bring Pooran in to run the middle-order after his poor form last year. There have been promising signs for SRH though as Pooran averaged 61.33 against India in conditions somewhat similar to those he will face in the IPL. Markram was an absolute steal at just over £250,000. He is averaging 29.20 in IPL and 39.20 in T20I but the biggest surprise has been his bowling as he has been able to open the bowling and his T20I economy is 7.44 which could come in handy in the powerplay. Washington Sundar should be making his return to the IPL after a finger and hamstring injury has kept him out for around a year. He has developed himself as an all-rounder at the domestic level and this came to the forefront of his game at RCB which earned him an impressive debut for India in Australia. Sundar is one of only 16 players with an IPL economy rate below 7 but his worrying stat comes with his bowling average which is 32.11. If he plays, he will most likely be the main spinner which will hopefully help him drop that average, as he is used to being the 2nd choice spinner behind Chahal. In the past few years, Sunrisers have prided themselves on their pace attack and their ability to keep teams below 200 (since the 2016 season, they have gone for 200+ only 4 times). Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been the leader of this attack, usually surrounded by Indian T20 specialists such as Sandeep Sharma, Siddarth Kaul, T Natarajan, etc… This year they have brought back Bhuvi and Natarajan, whilst adding Tyagi who has had a decent start to his IPL, taking 13 wickets in 14 games. He has proven himself as a death bowler with his dangerous wide yorker and changes of pace. Natarajan is one of the best Indian death bowlers with his incredible ability to bowl a yorker at any stage of the game. His slingy action that he developed from tennis ball cricket makes it difficult to pick his variations as he has some very reliable cutters. Bhuvneshwar Kumar completes this trio with his ability to swing the white ball, which perhaps makes him the best opening bowler in T20 cricket history. Despite Hyderabad’s obsession with Indian pace bowlers, I believe that Marco Jansen should be in the starting 11. He operates at a high pace and his height allows him to bowl at any length. He will also be raring to go after the incidents in South Africa vs India but Sunrisers will need to make sure he doesn't get ahead of himself. Sean Abbott returns to the IPL for the first time in 7 years. In 2015, it didn't go too well for him though as he conceded 57 runs in just 5 overs. Shepherd has had a great start to his career with the ball and bat for the West Indies but I don’t think he should get the spot over Jansen who has been impressive with the bat as well for South Africa. Over the past 2 years, Phillips has flourished in the T20 format and has since become of the biggest names in the T20 leagues around the world but he didn’t prove himself quickly enough last year in the IPL, scoring only 26 runs. With Williamson, Pooran, and Markram almost guaranteed a spot in the side, I doubt Phillips will find a way in. Garg was an exciting prospect when he debut 2 seasons ago but in his 15 innings, he only has 1 fifty which allowed Abhishek to pounce on his spot in the team. Abhishek has been tidy with the ball and has played important innings with the bat, he will be eyeing up the opening role alongside Markram. Gopal was the 4 highest wicket-taker in 2019 with 20 wickets but in his following 17 games, he has taken only 10 wickets. His handy batting may earn him a spot in the team as the second spinner but he will be behind Abhishek and Samad who have had a lot of faith invested in by Hyderabad. My favorite buy was Tripathi who has been one of the most underrated, consistent batters in the league in the past 5 years. He was a key part of KKR's rise back to the finals last year, averaging 28.36.
Predicted Lineup:
- Aiden Markram
- Abhishek Sharma
- Kane Williamson (C)
- Rahul Tripathi
- Nicholas Pooran (WK)
- Abdul Samad
- Washington Sundar
- Marco Jansen
- Bhuveneshwar Kumar
- Umran Malik
- T Natarajan
Rating:
Sunrisers required a complete rebuild after finishing dead last with 3 wins. They have done a pretty good job, building a deep, strong bowling attack with a mix of experience and youth. They bat down to number 9 and have 8 bowlers. The only thing I would change is a replacement for Samad. They could have gone for Shakib and then played Tyagi over Jansen but I don’t think Samad damages the side that much as he has a strong strike rate (146.05). They have reinvented the side successfully so I am going to give them a 7/10.
