Sweet 16

CHENNAI: Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians will be determined to rediscover their glorious past while Gujarat Titans will do everything in its power to defend the coveted title when the 16th edition of the Indian Premier League begins on Friday in Ahmedabad.

Four-time champion Chennai and five-time title-winner Mumbai, two of the most successful franchises in the League’s history, had finished ninth and 10th respectively last year.

The MS Dhoni-led CSK and Rohit Sharma’s MI will welcome the return of the home-and-away format as the teams had enjoyed enviable success at their home grounds – the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai and the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai – in the past.

Since Chepauk is expected to assist the slow bowlers, the spin department, led by left-armer Ravindra Jadeja, will be tasked with performing the bulk of the duty.

The bowling unit will be boosted by the comeback of new-ball specialist Deepak Chahar, who had missed the previous edition due to an injury.

Premier English all-rounder Ben Stokes will lend a new dimension to the CSK team that is not short on experience.

Mumbai too has a lot of firepower in its squad and will be keen to make its first play-off appearance in three years.

Australia all-rounder Cameron Green, the side’s marquee acquisition at the recent auction, would hope to be the point of positive difference.

While MI will be delighted with the availability of England speedster Jofra Archer – he was picked at the IPL 2022 auction but could not play because of an injury – it will miss a match-winner in Jasprit Bumrah.

Bumrah, struggling with injuries recently, underwent a back surgery and is unlikely to be rushed back, keeping the home 50-over World Cup later this year in mind.

The Hardik Pandya-led Gujarat, which surprised many by going all the way in its debut season, will have its task cut out during its title defence.

GT could rue the decision to let go of New Zealand fast bowler Lockie Ferguson, who was a vital cog in its wheel last year and later joined Kolkata Knight Riders in an off-season trade.

But, Titans can rely on the ever-cool Kane Williamson, with the versatile batter likely to feature in the eleven consistently.

Lucknow Super Giants, one of the two new teams in the IPL bandwagon along with Gujarat, has retained its core while spending big on West Indian batter Nicholas Pooran at the auction.

Kolkata will be without its regular captain Shreyas Iyer for at least the first half of the season as the middle-order batter is nursing a back injury.

Two-time champion KKR’s fortunes could once again depend heavily on the form of Andre Russell, who was not in the best of touch last year.

After making the play-offs for three consecutive years, Royal Challengers Bangalore, still chasing its maiden IPL crown, will be eager to go a few steps further.

Punjab Kings will be hungry to end the barren run – it last advanced to the final-four in 2014, when it eventually finished runner-up. But, Punjab, now led by Shikhar Dhawan, has been dealt a blow even before the start of the tournament as Jonny Bairstow, one of its frontline batters, failed to receive an

NOC from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). Regular skipper and wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant will be a major absentee from the Delhi Capitals set-up that has announced David Warner as its new captain.

Having fallen at the final hurdle in the previous season, inaugural winner Rajasthan Royals will aim to add a second IPL trophy to its cabinet.

With a new-look batting line-up and a potent bowling attack, Sunrisers Hyderabad cannot be taken lightly.

CHENNAI SUPER KINGS

Captain: MS Dhoni

Head coach: Stephen Fleming

Best performance overall: Champion (2010, 2011, 2018 and 2021)

How team fared in IPL 2022: Ninth

Home venue: MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai

SQUAD: MS Dhoni, Devon Conway (o), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Subhranshu Senapati, Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwaine Pretorius (o), Mitchell Santner (o), Bhagath Varma, Moeen Ali (o), Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Shivam Dube, Deepak Chahar, Maheesh Theekshana (o), Mukesh Chaudhary*, Prashant Solanki, Simarjeet Singh, Ajinkya Rahane, Tushar Deshpande, Ben Stokes (o), Matheesha Pathirana (o), Shaik Rasheed, Nishant Sindhu, Sisanda Magala (o) (Kyle Jamieson injury replacement) and Ajay Mandal.

MUMBAI INDIANS

Captain: Rohit Sharma

Head coach: Mahela Jayawardene

Best performance overall: Champion (2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020)

How team fared in IPL 2022: Tenth

Home venue: Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai

SQUAD: Rohit Sharma, Dewald Brevis (o), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Arjun Tendulkar, Hrithik Shokeen, Jofra Archer (o), Mohd. Arshad Khan, Tilak Varma, Ramandeep Singh, Tim David (o), Jasprit Bumrah*, Cameron Green (o), Jhye Richardson* (o), Kumar Kartikeya, Tristan Stubbs, Piyush Chawla, Akash Madhwal, Shams Mulani, Jason Behrendorff (o), Nehal Wadhera, Vishnu Vinod, Raghav Goyal and Duan Jansen (o).

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE

Captain: Faf du Plessis

Head coach: Sanjay Bangar

Best performance overall: Runner-up (2009, 2011 and 2016)

How team fared in IPL 2022: Third (lost Qualifier 2)

Home venue: M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru

SQUAD: Faf du Plessis (o), Finn Allen (o), Rajat Patidar, Virat Kohli, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, David Willey (o), Glenn Maxwell (o), Harshal Patel, Mahipal Lomror, Shahbaz Ahmed, Suyash Prabhudessai, Wanindu Hasaranga (o), Akash Deep, Josh Hazlewood (o), Karn Sharma, Siddharth Kaul, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley (o), Himanshu Sharma, Rajan Kumar, Avinash Singh, Sonu Yadav, Manoj Bhandage and Michael Bracewell (o) (Will Jacks injury replacement).

LUCKNOW SUPER GIANTS

Captain: KL Rahul

Head coach: Andy Flower

Best performance overall: Fourth (lost Eliminator)

How team fared in IPL 2022: Fourth

Home venue: Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow

SQUAD: KL Rahul, Manan Vohra, Quinton de Kock (o), Ayush Badoni, Deepak Hooda, Krishnappa Gowtham, Karan Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Kyle Mayers (o), Marcus Stoinis (o), Avesh Khan, Mark Wood (o), Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan*, Ravi Bishnoi, Jaydev Unadkat, Yash Thakur, Romario Shepherd (o), Nicholas Pooran (o), Amit Mishra, Daniel Sams (o), Prerak Mankad, Swapnil Singh, Naveen-ul-Haq (o) and Yudhvir Singh.

DELHI CAPITALS

Captain: David Warner

Head coach: Ricky Ponting

Best performance overall: Runner-up (2020)

How team fared in IPL 2022: Fifth

Home venue: Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi

SQUAD: David Warner (o), Rishabh Pant*, Prithvi Shaw, Rovman Powell (o), Axar Patel, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Lalit Yadav, Mitchell Marsh (o), Pravin Dubey, Ripal Patel, Sarfaraz Khan, Vicky Ostwal, Yash Dhull, Aman Khan, Anrich Nortje (o), Chetan Sakariya, Kuldeep Yadav, Lungi Ngidi (o), Mustafizur Rahman (o), Khaleel Ahmed, Phil Salt (o), Ishant Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Manish Pandey and Rilee Rossouw (o).

GUJARAT TITANS

Captain: Hardik Pandya

Head coach: Ashish Nehra

Best performance overall: Champion (2022)

How team fared in IPL 2022: Champion

Home venue: Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad

SQUAD: Hardik Pandya, Abhinav Manohar, David Miller (o), Shubman Gill, Matthew Wade (o), Wriddhiman Saha, B Sai Sudharsan, Darshan Nalkande, Jayant Yadav, Pradeep Sangwan, Rahul Tewatia, Shivam Mavi, Vijay Shankar, Alzarri Joseph (o), Mohammed Shami, Noor Ahmad (o), R Sai Kishore, Rashid Khan (o), Yash Dayal, Kane Williamson (o), Josh Little (o), Odean Smith (o), Urvil Patel, KS Bharat and Mohit Sharma.

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS

Captain: Shreyas Iyer*

Head coach: Chandrakant Pandit

Best performance overall: Champion (2012 and 2014)

How team fared in IPL 2022: Seventh

Home venue: Eden Gardens in Kolkata

SQUAD: Shreyas Iyer*, Rinku Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (o), David Wiese (o), Kulwant Khejroliya, Suyash Sharma, Nitish Rana, Anukul Roy, Lockie Ferguson (o), Andre Russell (o), Venkatesh Iyer, Umesh Yadav, Harshit Rana, Tim Southee (o), Shardul Thakur, Sunil Narine (o), Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakravarthy, Narayan Jagadeesan, Litton Das (o), Mandeep Singh and Shakib Al Hasan (o).

RAJASTHAN ROYALS

Captain: Sanju Samson

Head coach: Kumar Sangakkara

Best performance overall: Winner (2008)

How team fared in IPL 2022: Runner-up

Home venues: Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur and Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati

SQUAD: Sanju Samson, Devdutt Padikkal, Jos Buttler (o), Shimron Hetmyer (o), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Riyan Parag, KC Cariappa, Kuldeep Sen, Kuldip Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Obed McCoy (o), KM Asif, Trent Boult (o), Murugan Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Akash Vashisht, Jason Holder (o), Donovan Ferreira (o), Kunal Rathore, Abdul PA, Adam Zampa (o) and Joe Root (o).

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD

Captain: Aiden Markram

Head coach: Brian Lara

Best performance overall: Champion (2016)

How team fared in IPL 2022: Eighth

Home venue: Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad

SQUAD: Aiden Markram (o), Abdul Samad, Rahul Tripathi, Glenn Phillips (o), Abhishek Sharma, Marco Jansen (o), Washington Sundar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Fazalhaq Farooqi (o), Kartik Tyagi, Thangarasu Natarajan, Umran Malik, Harry Brook (o), Mayank Agarwal, Akeal Hosein (o), Heinrich Klaasen (o), Anmolpreet Singh, Adil Rashid (o), Mayank Markande, Vivrant Sharma, Mayank Dagar, Samarth Vyas, Sanvir Singh, Upendra Singh Yadav and Nitish Kumar Reddy.

PUNJAB KINGS

Captain: Shikhar Dhawan

Head coach: Trevor Bayliss

Best performance overall: Runner-up (2014)

How team fared in IPL 2022: Sixth

Home venues: PCA IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali and HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala

SQUAD: Shikhar Dhawan, Bhanuka Rajapaksa (o), Jitesh Sharma, Matt Short (o) (Jonny Bairstow injury replacement), Prabhsimran Singh, Atharva Taide, Harpreet Brar, Liam Livingstone (o), Raj Bawa, Rishi Dhawan, Shahrukh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Baltej Dhanda, Kagiso Rabada (o), Nathan Ellis (o), Rahul Chahar, Sam Curran (o), Sikandar Raza (o), Harpreet Bhatia, Vidwath Kaverappa, Mohit Rathee and Shivam Singh

*Players currently recovering from injuries. No update from their respective franchises yet