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Indian Premier League How the teams stack up - II March 11, 2008 The second round of IPL auctions are done with and it's time once again to look at how the franchises have built their teams for the 44-day tournament.
Tuesday's show wasn't as high-profile but was as important for a few franchises. Some, like Hyderabad, had already settled their squads while others like Jaipur had plenty of money left to spend. Others still, like Kolkata and Jaipur, may have ended up with too many overseas signings while Bangalore and Mumbai used the second opportunity to plug the gaps. Like we did after the first auction, we run the rule over the eight sides.
Bangalore Bangalore have a far more balanced look after the second auction. Just when the batting order appeared too conventional for Twenty20, they poached Misbah-ul-Haq, someone who will add the X-factor. Shreevats Goswami, the Under-19 player acquired on Tuesday, will be the second-choice wicketkeeper. With a bowling attack that's one of the best in the tournament, Bangalore look a far more flexible unit. Probable XI: 1 Bharat Chipli, 2 J Arunkumar, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Jacques Kallis/Misbah-ul-Haq 5 Virat Kohli, 6 Cameron White, 7 Mark Boucher (wk), 8 Zaheer Khan, 9 Anil Kumble, 10 Nathan Bracken, 11 Dale Steyn/Vinay Kumar.
Chennai It was a quiet day for Chennai, having bought most of their players in the first auction. It's a squad with a fine balance of local and foreign talent and plenty of options in both batting and bowling. It's a side with quality fast bowlers, handy medium-pacers, fine spinners, big hitters, and accumulators. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the captain, couldn't have asked for more. Probable XI 1 Matthew Hayden, 2 Stephen Fleming/ Abhinav Mukund, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 Jacob Oram, 5 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 Michael Hussey/S Badrinath, 7 Albie Morkel/Parthiv Patel, 8 Joginder Sharma, 9 Napoleon Einstein, 10 Muttiah Muralitharan/ Makhaya Ntini, 11 Sudeep Tyagi/R Ashwin.
Delhi A balanced side with an outstanding fielding unit, it also has enough local talent to give it good shape. The pace department is impressive but Delhi may still be pondering about spin. Daniel Vettori continues to be the lone specialist spin option, with Virender Sehwag backing up. Overall a side that looks like serious contenders. Probable XI 1 Virender Sehwag (capt), 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 Shikhar Dhawan, 4 AB de Villiers/Shoaib Malik/Tillakaratne Dilshan, 5 Rajat Bhatia, 6 Manoj Tiwary, 7 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 8 Daniel Vettori, 9 Farveez Maharoof/Yo Mahesh, 10 Mohammad Asif, 11 Glenn McGrath.
Hyderabad No need for the second auction here. The franchise spent most of their money the first time and quickly went about signing others from the catchment areas. It's a power-packed side with a fine mix of local and foreign players. Hyderabad are making the least noise among all the franchises but don't be surprised if you see them on top of the podium. Probable XI: 1 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 2 DB Ravi Teja, 3 VVS Laxman (capt), 4 Arjun Yadav, 5 Andrew Symonds/Herschelle Gibbs, 6 Venugopal Rao/ Rohit Sharma, 7 Scott Styris/Shahid Afridi/Chamara Silva, 8 Pragyan Ojha, 9 Chaminda Vaas/Nuwan Zoysa, 10 RP Singh, 11 D Kalyankrishna.
Jaipur They've no doubt gained the most from the second auction but are still too reliant on foreign talent. Shane Warne has plenty of options in the squad but he's allowed only four foreign players - a fact which will restrict the selection of the side. DImitri Mascarenhas, Morne Morkel and Sohail Tanvir are wonderful additions but all might struggle to get picked regularly. Probable XI: 1 Taruwar Kohli, 2 Graeme Smith, 3 Yusuf Pathan, 4 Mohammad Kaif, 5 Anup Revendkar, 6 Kamran Akmal (wk), 7 Shane Watson, 8 Ravindra Jadeja, 9 Shane Warne (capt) 10 Pankaj Singh, 11 Munaf Patel.
Kolkata Sourav Ganguly is the only high-profile Indian in the batting line-up. With only four foreign players allowed in the playing XI, it leaves them with a brittle middle order. Their only purchases on Tuesday were Iqbal Abdulla and Siddharth Kaul, both bowlers. It means the likes of Laxmi Ratan Shukla and other local players would need to fill the void in the middle. Probable XI 1 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 2 Chris Gayle, 3 Brendon McCullum (wk), 4 Ricky Ponting, 5 Laxmi Ratan Shukla, 6 Ajit Agarkar, 7 Murali Kartik, 8 Iqbal Abdulla/Saurasish Lahiri, 9 Shoaib Akhtar/Umar Gul, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Siddharth Kaul.
Mohali A good second auction but the batting still looks thin on paper. Most of the options are foreign recruits and Yuvraj Singh might struggle to put a balanced XI in place. Ajitesh Argal and Tanmay Srivatsava, though, could be fine picks in the long run, with both players touted as future international stars. The bowling line-up has a fine mix - well represented in both pace and spin. Probable XI 1 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 2 Irfan Pathan, 3 Tanmay Srivastava, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Mahela Jayawardene/ Ramnaresh Sarwan/ Simon Katich, 6 James Hopes, 7 Piyush Chawla, 8 Ramesh Powar, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Ajitesh Argal, 11 Sreesanth.
Mumbai Mumbai have a more settled unit now with Manish Pandey and Saurabh Tiwary beefing up the batting order. The only team without a foreign wicketkeeper [Delhi have AB de Villiers as a back-up option to Dinesh Karthik], Mumbai will rely on Pinal Shah from Baroda and Maharashtra's Yogesh Takawale. Expect fireworks from the top order: Ajinkya Rahane and Robin Uthappa following the two masters, Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya. Probable XI: 1 Sachin Tendulkar (capt), 2 Sanath Jayasuriya, 3 Ajinkya Rahane, 4 Robin Uthappa, 5 Manish Pandey, 6 Sourabh Tiwary, 7 Shaun Pollock, 8 Pinal Shah (wk), 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10, Lasith Malinga, 11 Dilhara Fernando. Siddhartha Vaidyanathan is an assistant editor at Cricinfo © Cricinfo
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