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Follow UsThere are two ways to approach the word ‘irreplaceable’ in franchise cricket. One describes the star player of the side, the Superman expected to carry the season on his shoulders. Identifying them is quite obvious. They are irreplaceable in terms of the impact they can have on the game.
The others are the key players. They may not be considered a superhero but you take them out of the XI and the whole balance crumbles. They are the tactical MVPs of the team, the irreplaceables, as they keep the side well-oiled. The team cannot afford these players to suffer an injury. We explore one such player for every side in this piece ahead of the IPL 2024.
Lucknow Super Giants - Ravi Bishnoi
Ravi Bishnoi was Lucknow's leading wicket-taker last season. He is actually the leading wicket-taker of the franchise overall. At the spinner’s paradise home ground for Lucknow, he picked up nine wickets, once every 15 balls, at an elite economy of 7.2.
What makes him their MVP is that Bishnoi was pretty much Lucknow’s lone spinner away from Ekana. He was their most economical bowler (econ 8.2) on the road as well, averaging an acceptable one wicket per game overall. He played his role well by keeping his economy in check (7.3) on spin-friendly venues in Delhi and Chennai. As for other spinners in the Lukcnow camp, in seven away games Krunal Pandya bowled in, he picked only three wickets, while Amit Mishra picked only two in the four games he was part of. Those were at an economy of 9.6.
So when it comes to spin, though Lucknow have options on paper, it is Bishnoi or nothing on the ground.
Punjab Kings - Jitesh Sharma
One thing common among all Punjab batters is their aversion to facing spin. As a team, they have had the lowest run rate against spin in the last two seasons. Alongside having the second-worst average and balls-per-wicket record against the tweakers. All their premiere batters - Shikhar Dhawan, Jonny Bairstow and Liam Livingstone - like pace on the ball.
One batter who can take up the mantle of counter-attacking spin in the middle overs is Jitesh Sharma. Though he primarily plays as a finisher, there is an argument in favor of him batting at five ahead of Liam Livingstone, who stuck at over 200 against pace but under 100 against spin last season. Jitesh’s strike rate against spin of 144+ in the last two seasons combined makes him more than capable of taking up the challenge, given that he also averaged close to 35 against spin last season.
Prabhsimran Singh is also a beast against spin, striking above 200 while averaging close to 140 against them in all T20s since 2023, but given he is an opener who averaged around 20 against pacers means that in most games, he is dismissed by the time spin is introduced. Punjab can also experiment with opening with either Bairstow or Taide to accommodate Prabhsimran at four to take down spin along with Jitesh.
Mumbai Indians - Suryakumar Yadav
Mumbai’s star-studded batting depth allows it to be bigger than the sum of its parts. While each Mumbai batter till number eight can chip in with a 15-ball 25, the only one who guarantees fewer bad days than the others or has the largest ceiling after getting his eye in is Suryakumar Yadav. In the 2023 season, he played six 50+ knocks, twice more than any other. Mumbai went on to win four of those games.
While there is an argument in favor of Hardik Pandya being the MVP given the balance he provides, he is more of a podium for other Mumbai players to climb to greater heights. His style of batting worked for Gujarat but he will have to be more fluent for Mumbai, and his workload might not allow him to be a frontline bowler. The case for Jasprit Bumrah is strong too but such is Mumbai’s bench that they can field a solid top seven with only one overseas batter, allowing them to field three overseas bowlers to cover for Bumrah if needed.
SKY is that rare package that provides consistency while batting with a colossal strike rate (181.1 last season). Despite being an envious unit, Mumbai’s fortunes might be directly proportional to SKY’s.
Rajasthan Royals - Trent Boult
In the 2023 season, Trent Boult took ten wickets in the powerplay. All other Rajasthan bowlers took seven wickets combined. On days when Boult did not pick wickets with the new ball, it had a cascading effect on the bowling line-up.
Yuzvendra Chahal has probably been Rajasthan’s most crucial wicket-taker since 2022. Along with Mohammed Shami (48), he has the joint-most wickets in IPL in this period. In the last season, Chahal went for over nine runs an over in seven games. He ended up picking only two wickets in these games. In five of those games, either Trent Boult was out injured or did not pick even one wicket in the powerplay (he picked only one in the other two).
Boult’s new ball partner in 2022, Prasidh Krishna is ruled out. Of the new recruits, Avesh Khan did not pick a single wicket in the 12 powerplay overs for Lucknow last season and Nandre Burger is an untested commodity in the league of this magnitude. Thus, if Boult doesn’t get them wickets with the new ball, Rajasthan might be left chasing the leather for the rest of the innings.
Gujarat Titans - Rashid Khan
A tough one to call. Perhaps Shubman Gill is the obvious choice given the kind of season he had last year. Now that he is the captain too, Gujarat will need a big season from him once more. Especially so that others can bat around him. However, based on the glimpses that Sai Sudharshan displayed last season, it is fair to say that Gill will have good support in the top order.
There is a case for David Miller too. He has scored the most runs for the franchise in the death overs, and his improved spin game has now ensured that he can act as both a collapse arrester or a finisher, as needed. But, in a team that has found heroes in almost every game, Vijay Shankar and Rahul Tewatia have chipped in often to lighten Miller’s load.
That leaves us with one answer. It is difficult to look beyond Rashid Khan as the MVP if he is in any XI. Now one can say that Gujarat will have an equally able Noor Ahmed to partner him, but as we saw last year, Noor’s presence makes Rashid even more lethal given teams cannot play his overs out. Also, Noor in the XI will mean no room for Azmatullah Omarzai. That will leave Rashid as the lone all-rounder in the team. An ever-improving batter, he has struck at an insane strike rate of 212.5 for Gujarat in the last two seasons. This, to go with an average of 27.6, makes him the best number eight in the league.
Additionally, if Gujarat leave out Noor for an extra batter, Rashid will be the lone strike spinner and thus an obvious MVP.
Delhi Capitals - Axar Patel
Delhi still haven’t solved their finishers’ conundrum. In IPL 2023, they had the lowest run-rate (8.3) and average (14.3) in the final five overs with the bat. They added Tristan Stubbs, a specialist in the role. However, the Protea player has featured in only four IPL games and 17 T20Is. The other options that lie with Delhi are Ricky Bhui (two IPL games for Hyderabad back in 2018/19) and Kumar Kushagra, a talented young batter yet to make his IPL debut who is more in the mold of ODI cricket than T20s.
This again brings Axar Patel into the equation, Delhi’s only constant figure in the death overs ever since he joined the side in 2019. Even last year, Axar scored nearly one-third of Delhi’s runs in this phase.
If Axar doesn’t click or is unavailable for selection, his absence will be deeply felt as a batter alone. Not to forget, Delhi don’t have a deep batting line-up, with the hitting prowess nose-diving post number seven.
In addition, Axar is invaluable as a restrictive finger spinner. His bowling partnership with Kuldeep Yadav is one of the few positive aspects of Delhi’s squad this season. Axar’s experience and fielding abilities are an add-on to his package.
Thus, the southpaw becomes indispensable for Delhi, even over the likes of Mitchell Marsh and Rishabh Pant, players for whom the side don’t have a like-for-like replacement available.
Kolkata Knight Riders - Andre Russell
The Jamaican all-rounder is KKR’s only overseas player without a like-for-like replacement in the squad. Mitchell Starc has Dushmanta Chameera, Sunil Narine has Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Phil Salt can be swapped for each other. But Kolkata’s best bet to come in for Andre Russell would be Sherfane Rutherford, a pure batter with little bowling in the last few years (only nine overs bowled since 2021).
Thus, Russell becomes an irreplaceable player in the KKR line-up, primarily because of his secondary skill which is his bowling. Let us explain.
The way KKR operate, they would like to play at least three spinners every game, including the Impact Player rule. That reduces the room for pacers in the XI, making Russell the third seamer in their XI. On pitches with less help for spinners, Kolkata will be banking on the Jamaican to support Starc, especially during the death overs.
From the batting point of view, Rinku Singh’s rise as a bonafide finisher has reduced some dependency on Russell.
The 35-year old’s form has gone through its ups and downs. But for the sake of their bowling plans, KKR will hope their premier all-rounder is in good shape in the tournament.
Royal Challengers Bangalore - Mohammed Siraj
After a few seasons under Mike Hesson when RCB assembled a decent bowling attack, they are back to the days when bowling is their weaker suit. And whenever that is the case, their death bowling comes under the scanner because of their home venue and past results.
In 2023, Bangalore had the fourth-best bowling average (19.2) in the last five overs but the joint second-worst economy (11.1). They bought three specialist overseas seamers alongside having Reece Topley in their roaster already. However, their team combination will allow them only one overseas seamer in the XI which puts the onus on Indian seamers again.
Mohammed Siraj was RCB’s best death bowler last year among regular seamers in terms of economy (10.2) and average (16.6). In Will Jacks, they already have the backups for Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell. But Siraj is Bangalore’s only Indian seamer with international experience in the white-ball format. Hence, his presence and form will be crucial for the franchise to plug one of their perennial problems.
Chennai Super Kings - Maheesh Theekshana
The defending champions have several key links in their squad. With Devon Conway not joining the squad till the start of May, the dependency on Ruturaj Gaikwad increases manifolds. Shivam Dube is CSK’s bonafide spin-hitter. Matheesha Pathirana was pivotal to their success in the death overs last season. However, his international form post IPL 2023 has been a hit-and-miss. In addition, there are question marks on his fitness and CSK have already covered up for him with the signing of Mustafizur Rahman.
But what if Maheesh Theekshana isn’t fit or in form? CSK, as always, are heavily dependent on their spinners to come good. They have four left-arm orthodox spin bowling options in Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Santner, Rachin Ravindra and Nishant Sandhu.
In the right-arm version of finger-spin, they have only Theekshana and Mooen Ali. The latter seems to be out of favor for the XI and is primarily a batter. Hence, Theekshana becomes important, especially with the element of mystery spin he brings on board.
The Sri Lankan had a mixed bag season last year but as stated above, there won’t be the cushion of Moeen Ali covering up for him this season.
Sunrisers Hyderabad - Heinrich Klaasen
On paper, SRH have a strong XI and probably the strongest set of backup options, both in overseas and Indian contingent. That eventually takes dependency away from any particular player so we will just pick their most impactful player here, which brings us to Heinrich Klaasen.
Two reasons: he performs a tough role as a middle-order basher and he does it exceedingly well. 15 batters have scored over 1400 runs in T20s since 2023. Klaasen is one of the few middle-order batters on that list and has the highest strike rate by a distance (181.2). Be it batting in the middle-overs, in the slog overs, or facing spin, Klaasen’s numbers are far ahead of any of his contemporaries, especially the strike rate.
Despite batting in the middle-order, the Protea batter was Hyderabad’s highest run-scorer last year by a margin of 175 runs.
The Orange Army have a ready replacement for Klaasen in Glenn Phillips but based on form, no one comes close to the South African batter. In fact, Klaasen is one of the most in-form batters coming into the season.
