There's a huge amount of talent in this IPL, it's clear why they increased the number of teams.
From my memory of IPL3, bowling matters more than batting, as long as you have some people who can hold a bat. Remember Harby clubbing everyone for sixes at the death out of nowhere? At the end of the day a bowler can hit and giggle the bat balls and claim the 5wides as they fly past, but your mongoose wielding stars can't pick up a ball and bowl a maiden at the 19th.
This isn't to discount batsmen, they're certainly important. Strike rates and personality comes into T20, you don't have time to piss around. A lesson that hopefully certain players have learned.
CSK: Strong bowling attack, with capable batting to back it up, they have a good 6 hitters in Murali Vijay and Dwayne bravo. I have concerns this team could be a bit too inconsistent to go the distance though, I see a collapse in the semis for these guys.
Deccan: OK Christ these guys can really bowl. Rusty had a rubbish IPL last time around, but if he's firing properly this time around the bowling attack here could be inpenetrable. If he's the same as last time though that's a huge liability, but when you've got Mishra, Ojha, Steyn bowling half your overs, you might not even need to bowl him. Batting, there's not a huge amount there, but we might see some people come up unexpectedly here. I've got a feeling Lumb might smash this IPL up.
Delhi: Sehwag was actually the tidiest bowler in IPL3 (by economy), but overall his other performances didn't make up for that. The rest of the squad is ok but the international picks are firmly average. Roelof van der Merve is the player to watch in this team I think.
KXIP: Poor Broad! I'm not sure how to price this team up since there seem to be a lack of cricketers listed? Looks like half a squad. KXIP likely will play that way anyway.
Kochi: I was hoping the new teams would be great, but seeing Sreesanth listed makes me cry. Perhaps they didn't watch IPL3? 19-0-191-3-63.67-10.05-38.00
That's 19 overs, 3 wickets for 191 runs! Avg of 64 for an economy just over 10.
The rest of the squad? Jayawardene was great last time around, but hasn't really been on form so far in the WC. Muralitharan, VVS Laxman, the names are there but not in depth. This team isn't rounded enough to survive a 10 team round robin.
KKR: This is the most interesting squad. Hopefully Kallis will realise he needs to work on his strike rate in T20, and that team wins are more important than 100/no off 120 balls ;) Having said that, this is a team that's gone for batting power and the bowling is a concern. I had to google James Pattinson. He's played just 10 T20 matches.
MI: Sachin! Harby! KP! Malinga! These are the players that made them favourites last time around, and surely they'll be up there again. Symonds is a good addition to the team and I'll admit that my research is getting thinner as the post goes on.
RR: I was hoping that read Shane Warne (retained), Shane Watson (retired), but alas no such luck. Well with 8 players listed there, I'm not sure they can even field a team, I'll leave pricing this one too harshly but they're not making the cut-off this time around unless they announce the rest of their squad . Botha, Colly, TAIT??? These guys are favourites for the wooden spoon. FIIIILTH.
RCB: R! C! B! These guys should have won it last year, but had some players with some real sucky attitude to the game of T20. Zaheer Kahn is one of the best bowlers in the game right now and can win matches on his own.
Pune: A nicely balanced squad that can do damage with bat and ball.
Right, prices time!
I was going to assign points to each player, then run it through a program to run monte carlo simulations of batting and bowling on each of the pitches in the IPL (home grounds make a difference) then run the whole league simulated 100000 times to produce a decent set of statistics of what could happen, but instead I'm going to go with GUT FEELING.
| RCB | 7.1 |
| CSK | 7.7 |
| MI | 7.7 |
| KKR | 8.25 |
| Pune | 8.25 |
| Deccan | 9.9 |
| Delhi | 9.9 |
| RR | 12.375 |
| Kochi | 19.8 |
| KXIP | 49.5 |