IPL will kick off in a few hours from now. With my favorite players in all teams it was really hard to pick one team to support. After much contemplation I have zeroed in on the Chennai Superkings. Close contenders were the Mohali Kings XI. Both sides look well balanced with good players in all departments. While the Mohali team has some inexperienced spinners in the side (Chawla and Powar), the Chennai team seems to be having veteran names throughout. However, Mohali Kings XI can boast of some pretty consistent batters like Yuvi, Sarwan, Sangakkara, Jayawardena. The middle overs in bowling for the Mohali team does look weak. After Lee and Sreesanth, the onus will lie on VRV, Pathan and the two spinners, none of which seem reliable to me.
Chennai Superkings on the other hand can boast of a good batting line up – Hayden, Fleming, M. Hussey, Dhoni, with A. Morkel and Ntini looking after the pace battery, Murli coming one change. Jacob Oram and the T20 superstar Joginder Sharma will complete the lineup. The remaining bunch of Indian players will have to be nurtured and used wisely.
Having watched a decent amount of ICL matches, I have come to infer that the spinners hold the key to a teams victory in T20 matches in India. The Lahore Badshahs really dominated the scene with Saqlain n Mustaq Ahmed. Imagine bith in your team n ending up with figures of a minimum 1-17 off their 4 overs each! Also the emphasis will be on players who can play a considerable long and quick innings and not short quick cameos. Team spirit too, is of prime importance. As one always witnesses, many all-star teams do fail due to the lack of it.
Of course, all the big guns need to click, as every team will be hoping and praying for.
And, I will end as I have always ended any talk on IPL: Just hope it lives up to its hype…
The team I will be supporting: Chennai Superkings
Vanishd! 