Team Preview – Kolkata, Gujarat & Punjab

The two-time Indian T20 League champions, Kolkata had a bizarre auction to say the least. In the end, the team looks okay as they have invested a lot in young and uncapped players. Gujarat, on the other hand, had a very decent auction and the team owners should be proud of the effort they have made in their very first time in the bidding table of Indian T20 League. Punjab however has surprised everyone. In every season, they come with a big purse, invest heavily on some exciting talents but eventually fail to show their game when the time comes. This time, the team looks very balanced and they should definitely challenge for the title.

Coming back to Kolkata, the team signed a lot of their former players. The likes of Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Sheldon Jackson, Pat Cummins, Umesh Yadav and Shivam Mavi will once again dawn the purple and gold. The team has also signed two promising English talents, Sam Billings and Alex Hales. However, the highlight of their auction will be getting Shreyas Iyer for 12.25 crores. He’s very likely to lead the troops. As mentioned, The Kolkata franchise invested a lot on uncapped Indians. They have signed Baba Indrajith, Anukul Roy, Rasikh Dar, Aman Khan and others who can win them matches but can be very inconsistent for the first couple of seasons. If Kolkata can groom these talents, only then they will get the result from them. When it comes to the pacers, the team signed Cummins and Southee but only one will be playing in the XI. Umesh Yadav normally goes for a lot of runs and Mavi is relatively inexperienced. They have signed Mohammed Nabi as Sunil Narine’s backup which can be considered a good buy. Chamika Karunaratne can also give a run for money to Southee and Cummins. Overall, they have got a decent squad but it will take some time for them to find success.

Kolkata Squad - Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Varun Chakravarthy, Nitish Rana, Pat Cummins, Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Mavi, Sheldon Jackson, Ajinkya Rahane, Rinku Singh, Anukul Roy, Rasikh Dar, Baba Indrajith, Chamika Karunaratne, Abhijeet Tomar, Pratham Singh, Ashok Sharma, Sam Billings, Alex Hales, Tim Southee, Ramesh Kumar, Mohammad Nabi, Umesh Yadav, Aman Khan

Team Rating – 7/10

Gujarat has built a decent squad in their first season of the tournament. In the auction table, they have signed some of the absolute match winners like Lockie Ferguson, Jason Roy, Rahul Tewatia and Mohammed Shami. They have a good balance to their squad as well. The pair of Jason Roy and Shubman Gill can be very dangerous to start with. They will have a bit of a problem setting their team though. They have too many finishers in the likes of Pandya, David Miller, Vijay Shankar and Matthew Wade. The only positive thing in this is that Pandya will get to face a lot of balls and thus he can improve his batting ability massively. The bowling line-up however looks perfect. Lockie Ferguson, Mohammed Shami and Hardik Pandya will be in charge of the pace department while Rashid Khan, Jayant Yadav and Rahul Tewatia will take care of the spin department. The only problem is that they don’t have a proper middle order. The management needs to sort that out but overall, a decent team who can compete for the top four.

Gujarat squad - Hardik Pandya (c), Shubman Gill, Rashid Khan, Mohammed Shami, Jason Roy, Lockie Ferguson, Abhinav Sadarangani, Rahul Tewatia, Noor Ahmad, R Sai Kishore, Dominic Drakes, Jayant Yadav, Vijay Shankar, Darshan Nalkande, Yash Dayal, Alzarri Joseph, Pradeep Sangwan, David Miller, Wriddhiman Saha, Matthew Wade, Gurkeerat Singh, Varun Aaron, B Sai Sudarshan.

Team Rating – 8/10

After the auction, it can be said with absolute certainty that Punjab has one of the best squads of the Indian T20 League. They have signed the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Jonny Bairstow, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Chahar, Kagiso Rabada, Liam Livingstone, Raj Bawa and so many other match winners. They came to the auction room with the highest purse and they have done some really good shopping. Mayank and Dhawan are very likely to open the batting. Either of them will also be elected as the captain of the team but nothing has been made public yet. Liam Livingstone, Odean Smith and Bhanuka Rajapaksa are also some brilliant buys. Rabada and Harpreet Brar will lead the pace department while Chahar will have a tough job to take care of the spin department. Overall, the team should compete for their maiden title.

Punjab squad - Mayank Agarwal, Arshdeep Singh, Shikhar Dhawan, Kagiso Rabada, Jonny Bairstow, Rahul Chahar, Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Prabhsimran Singh, Jitesh Sharma, Ishan Porel, Liam Livingstone, Odean Smith, Sandeep Sharma, Raj Angad Bawa, Rishi Dhawan, Prerak Mankad, Vaibhav Arora, Writtick Chatterjee, Baltej Dhanda, Ansh Patel, Nathan Ellis, Atharva Taide, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Benny Howell

Team Rating – 9.5/10