TEAM ANALYSIS
Follow UsWe are just left with three days until the start of the 15th edition of the Indian Premier League that kicks off on March 26th 2022. Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders will face off in the curtain riser on Saturday. Before that, in the mid-week of February, the all expected mega auction happened with two new teams, Lucknow Super Giants and Gujarat Titans.
In every mega auction, each team’s agenda is to get back the balance they had in the previous edition. As the retention policies allow only four players, teams look to buy back their previous players in the auction. However, most of the released players are in the bucket list of other teams and most of them end up playing in different teams.
In any case, the conditions do not apply to the two new teams, Lucknow and Gujarat, as they are starting from scratch. The remaining eight teams have made a constant effort to buy back the players who have already represented them (played at least one match). Basically, we will look into the eight teams and categorize which team has the least new look and the newest look.
Each of the eight teams, excluding the two new teams, have managed to buy back at least five players who have earlier represented the franchise in an edition of the IPL, including the retained players that is. 11 players have represented Chennai and Kolkata in last season or the previous editions, four retained and seven brought in the auction.
On the other hand, Punjab Kings have nine players who have represented the team and seven of them were brought back in the auction. Rajasthan Royals have the least number as they have only six players who had previously been a part of the franchise, three retained and three bought in auction. Delhi Capitals, Royal Challengers Bangalore & Sunrisers Hyderabad have eight players who have represented them in earlier editions and Mumbai Indian have seven.
Chennai Super Kings
“Thala” MS Dhoni has been the integral part of Chennai since the start of IPL in 2008. Apart from the two years in which Chennai was restrained from IPL (2016-17), Dhoni has been a part of the franchise in each of their playing years. Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo are the other two players who have played 100+ matches for Chennai in the current squad apart from Dhoni.
Ambati Rayudu (61) who made a shift to Chennai from Mumbai in 2018 has played over 50 matches for the team. After playing under Dhoni in the now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiants in 2016 & 2017, Deepak Chahar started his IPL journey in Chennai colors from 2018 and has played 58 matches. Rururaj Gaikwad, after his sensational 2021 season was one among the four retained players. Moeen Ali as well was retained before the auction on the back of a good 2021 season. Mitchell Santner, Narayan Jagadeesan, Robin Uthappa and KM Asif were brought back in the auction too.
Delhi Capitals
The biggest of all news for Delhi is the return of David Warner in the 2022 edition of the IPL. Starting his IPL journey with Delhi in 2009, Warner made a move to Sunrisers in 2014. After being sacked from captaincy in 2021, far worse, even dropped from the playing XI, Warner came into the 2022 auction as one of the main attractions. Alongside the skipper Rishabh Pant and Prithvi Shaw, Warner also has the experience of playing 50+ matches for Delhi.
Anrich Nortje and Axar Patel were also retained ahead of the auction. In the auction, they brought back Lalit Yadav who played seven matches in 2021 for Delhi. Praveen Dubey and Ripal Patel were the other two buy backs for Delhi.
Kolkata Knight Riders
Just like Chennai, Kolkata have 11 players who have represented the franchise in previous years. Since the start of 2012, when Sunil Narine made his debut in IPL, he hasn’t been released by Kolkata. Likewise, after his shift to Kolkata from Delhi, Andre Russell has been their premier all-rounder and has been retained each year post 2014.
Nitish Rana made his debut for Kolkata in 2018 and was retained each year till 2021. In the 2022 auction, they brought him back. After playing four years from 2014 till 2017 Umesh Yadav will be making his comeback to Kolkata. The mystery spinner in form Varun Chakravarthy and the new all-round sensation of India Venkatesh Iyer were the other two retained players before the auction. Pat Cummins was brought back in the auction alongside Shivam Mavi.
Mumbai Indians
The five-time champions Mumbai, came into the mega auction with a completely different strategy. There was no doubt on the retention of Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard and Jasprit Bumrah. Alongside the big three, Suryakumar Yadav was also retained.
During the auctions, they went all-out for Ishan Kishan, but for none of their players from the 2021 squad did they break a sweat, apart from Mayank Markhande and Anmolpreet Singh. Hence, they have only seven players who have represented them in previous editions.
Punjab Kings
There are few teams in IPL that juggle a lot with their players and Punjab is one among them. Entering into the 2022 mega auction, Mayank Agarwal and Arshdeep Singh were the only two players who were retained, which meant they had a bigger purse.
This is one of the reasons why they brought back seven players who have represented them in earlier seasons. Sandeep Sharma and Rishi Dhawan are making a comeback into the team after 4+ years. Sandeep played his first IPL match in Punjab colors in 2013, post that, he was a part of the Punjab team till the 2017 edition. Later on, he was a part of the Sunrisers unit till 2021. Rishi was a part of Punjab in the inaugural season in 2008, but didn’t get a chance to play. However, he played a match for Punjab in the 2014 season and played till 2016.
Rajasthan Royals
Rajasthan has been the other team that has followed the footsteps of Punjab. However, they have always been one of those teams that invest in a lot of youngsters. Heading into the mega auction, Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler and Yashaswi Jaiswal were retained.
In the auction, Riyan Parag who represented them in the last three years was brought back. Apart from him, Karun Nair was brought back. The last time he played for Rajasthan was in 2015. Apart from Sanju, no player has played 50+ matches for Rajasthan earlier.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Virat Kohli, the first thing that comes to mind when we hear about the Bengaluru-based franchise. He has been the heart of this team since the inception of IPL, the only player to represent a single franchise in all the seasons. Since AB de Villiers retired from all forms of the game, Bangalore will be playing their first season without the marquee player since 2011. Glenn Maxwell, their star performer with the bat last year was retained ahead of the auction alongside Mohammed Siraj.
In the auction, they brought back Harshal Patel, the purple cap holder last year. Wanindu Hasaranga and Shahbaz Ahmed were also among the buybacks. Dinesh Karthik who represented Bangalore in 2015, will be making a comeback to the franchise this year.
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Following the sacking of Warner as captain, Sunrisers chose not to retain their premier player. Instead, Kane Williamson was retained alongside Abdul Samad and the speedster Umran Malik.
In the auction, they brought back their primary bowler Bhuvaneshwar Kumar. T Natarajan and Priyam Garg had represented the franchise since 2020 and were brought back. The young left hander, Abhishek Sharma was also retained in the auction.
Note: Highlighted players were retained before auction
