Deccan Chargers on paper look one of the weakest sides in IPL Season V. The team from Hyderabad won the competition in 2009 under the captaincy of Adam Gilchrist in South Africa. But this team is a lot different from what Gilly led to title win in the second edition of IPL. For starters they don’t have their winning captain who himself has been traded to Kings XI Punjab. The dashing Andrew Symonds, who played a pivotal role in 09, is also missing from the team. Along with the international players, Indian stars Rohit Sharma and Pragyan Ojha who did brilliantly for this team in previous editions have been transferred to different franchisees.

Deccan played with the same team in the last season and finished seventh in the points table with only six wins against their name. The Chargers would be hoping to change their fate this season but will have to play out of their skins to do that.

BATTING

International Batsmen:
Deccan has some good international batsmen in their ranks. Deccan’s batting will be led by their captain Kumar Sangakkara. The elegant left-hander is a treat to watch and can up the run-rate whenever required. He will be supported by either JP Duminy or the Australian Cameron White. Both the players are hard-hitters and can turn their arm over whenever required.

Chargers are likely to field the Aussie all-rounder Daniel Christian. He hits the ball a long distance and can provide the late burst whenever needed. He played some decent innings in the last year’s edition but was not able to have much influence on the result.

Domestic Batsmen:
Deccan chargers look weak in this area. They do not have any Indian batsman who represents his country on a continuous basis. Wicket-keeper batsman Parthiv Patel has played at the international level and has opened for India in T-20’s, he is most likely to open the innings and the Chargers will be banking heavily on him. Shikhar Dhawan also has some good experience at the domestic level but his style of batting is not apt for this format and he has struggled in the previous editions. Bharat Chipli, Sunny Sohal and Dwaraka Ravi Teja played some good innings in IPL 4 and the Hyderabad team would be keeping their fingers crossed for these youngsters to come good.

BOWLING

International Bowlers
Dale Steyn is the leading fast bowler in the world and the Chargers will be relying heavily on this ace fast bowler. Steyn is yet to prove his worth in IPL and would be striving very hard to change that. Juan Theron is another good option that Deccan has in the fast bowling department. He changes his pace really well and is an expert in the shortest format. He may find it tough to find a place in the team with the presence of Steyn. Then there is Christian who will play a role in the death overs of their innings.

Domestic Bowlers
Deccan got a severe blow as their leading fast bowler Ishant Sharma is out of the tournament with injury still they are relatively strong in this department as they have Amit Mishra in their rank who is one of the leading wicket takers in IPL history. They have Manpreet Gony who on his day can dismantle any top order which he has shown in the past. Gony can swing the new ball and can be a handy partner for Dale Steyn up-front.

Players to watch out from Deccan Chargers: Kumar Sangakkara, Dale Steyn

Deccan Chargers Complete Squad
Abhishek, Akash Bhandari, Akshath Reddy, Amit Mishra, Anand Rajan, Ankit Sharma, Arjun Yadav, Ashish Reddy, Atchuta Rao, Bharat Chipli, Biplab Samantray, Cameron White, Chris Lynn, Dale Steyn, Dan Christian, Daniel Harris, Darren Bravo, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, Ishank Jaggi, Ishant Sharma, Jean-Paul Duminy, Juan Theron, Kumar Sangakkara, Manpreet Gony, Parthiv Patel, Shikhar Dhawan, Sneha Kishore, Sunny Sohal, Syed Quadri, Tanmay Mishra, Tanmay Srivastava, TP Sudhindra, Veer Pratap Singh

By Gaurav Jha
Indian Sports News