The cricket carnival of India “IPL” is back for the fifth successive time and this time it promises to bigger than ever before. The IPL Season V starts on April 4 and the fever of the event is already on the rise. More than a month long tournament, it did in past came under scrutiny for corruption, drew criticism for disintegrating the interest of international players amongst others.
But come what, since its advent in 2008, IPL has been a huge success and did change the face of domestic cricket around the world. The tournament goes by a simple logic of money, talent and complete entertainment.
IPL has been instrumental in helping the country find new talents and did throw limelight on some of the budding talents of the country such as Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Vinay Kumar amongst other. With mood all set and the country is ready yet again for one more gala season.
Here is an anticipated list of as to which four teams are likely to reign in this IPL season and rock again.
Chennai Super Kings: Defending champions and two time consecutive winners and the 2011 T20 Champions league winner, they start as a clear favorite again in this season. They have all the elements that make a good and their biggest strength is their captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Dhoni has done terrific job with the Chennai team and has immense trust in his players.
The team boasts of some of the best players in the modern day cricket and with players like Dhoni, Albie Morkel, Dog Bollinger, Ben Hilfenhaus makes them definitely a force to reckon again in this year’s IPL.
Mumbai Indians: The fact that the biggest name in the World cricket Sachin Tendulkar is the captain of the team is a reason enough as they need to be dreaded. Mumbai Indians have the perfect combination of experience, young blood and the aura of the great man Sachin. Ideally it should have worked for them in earlier editions but they have chocked at crucial time and have been able to make it to the finals of the event once in 2010 where they lost to the Chennai outfits.
Some of the key players they would be banking on turn around their fortune this time would be Sachin, Lasith Malinga, Kieron Pollard and Herchelle Gibbs amongst others.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Runners up of the last edition, Bangalore arguably has the best team, but lack of consistency caught them on the wrong foot in the previous occasions. They made it to the finals twice and did lose twice once in the year 2008 when they lost of Deccan Chargers and last year they lost against the Super Kings.
Their team boasts of two of the biggest hitters of the game, Chris Gayle who single handedly took them to the finals of the last season and Virat Kohli the king of run chases. And both are going through a purple patch with Gayle excelling in BPL and Kohli taking the international arena by storm. If they can keep it up in IPL this time, then definitely no one would have enough power to counter their blitzkreig.
Delhi Daredevils: The biggest underachievers of the league, Delhi Daredevils always flattered to deceive. Despite being a good outfit they faltered in earlier four editions as their players could live up to their reputation. This made the management think over it seriously and this time around they have selected a team tailor made for the shorter format of the game. Led by the dashing Virender Sehwag, and followed by Kevin Pieterson, David Warner, Andre Russel, Mahela Jayawerdene, Morne Morkel amongst others, things can seriously turn around for the Delhi provided they perform to best of their reputation.
By Samikshan Dutta Choudhury
Indian Sports News
