If I was the captain............(part II)

WHAT THE CAPTAINS NEED TO DO FOR IPL-6 (part-2)

 (in my opinion)---

PUNE WARRIORS INDIA- Michael Clarke

Michael Clarke

             After finishing second last and last in the previous years of IPL under the captaincy of Yuvraj Singh and Sourav Ganguly respectively, Pune Warriors India will be looking for change of fortunes after appointing Clarke as their new captain! In the longest form of (test) cricket, Clarke surely is in decent form. After missing the last season of IPL, comeback of Yuvi will lift the morale of team. They have good combination of overseas and domestic players. Players like Samuels, Steven Smith, Ross Taylor, Mathews, A. Mendis will be looking to give their best to the team along with Uthappa, Yuvi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, A. Nayar, Ashoke Dinda, Manish Pandey etc. This team doesn't have the big names, but all they need is to gel up and perform  better this year!

 

Rahul Dravid

RAJASTHAN ROYALS- Rahul Dravid

        Under the captaincy of Shane Warne, young team of Rajasthan Royals won the inaugural edition of IPL!! But since then, they didn't qualify for the play-offs in next four seasons. The Wall, Rahul Dravid took over the captaincy from Shane Warne in the 5th edition of IPL. Ajinkya Rahane was brilliant in that season but did not get the support he needed from his other teammates! This is the team which doesn't have big domestic as well as international names apart from Watson, Dravid, Rahane, Hodge, Hogg, Shreesanth etc. So, like PWI this team also needs to gel up well and prove the talent like they did in 2008!

 

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGLORE- Virat Kohli 

Virat Kohli

      Royal Challengers Banglore- big franchise, having lots of big players- hasn't won the IPL title so far in 5 seasons! They came closest to it, reaching the finals in 2009 and 2011, but couldn't rise to the occasion. Last season under the leadership of Vettori they failed to qualify in the play-offs. Big problem for the team then was the selection of 4 overseas players with Vettori being one of them. That meant they only had 3 spots to select from the players like Gayle, Dilshan, Muralidharan, AB de-Villiers etc. So this time around they have chosen young Indian star batsman Virat Kohli as captain of RCB! Along with the players mentioned above they have Zaheer Khan, Saurabh Tiwary, Vinay Kumar, Pujara and new buy R.P.Singh. It will be good for Virat Kohli to have such talented players, he must lead all of them well to their first ever IPL victory this year!

  

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD- Kumar Sangakkara

Kumar Sangakkara

           Kumar Sangakkara has led KXIP and Deccan Chargers(old franchise of Sunrisers Hyderabad) in previous seasons of IPL. In his leadership neither of the two teams has qualified for the play-offs. DC won the second edition of IPL under Gilly and qualified for the semis in the 3rd edition, but since then the team hasn't performed as a unit. They have some good players in their squad like Shikhar Dhawan, Cameron White, Ishant Sharma, news buys Thisara Perera and Darren Sammy, Amit Mishra!! But Sanga's trump card will be the pacer Dale Steyn, who has been bowling well with a good speed for over an year...!!! Tom Moody, who was the coach of Sri Lankan team, has been named as the head coach of SH,  which may help Sanga!!

CHENNAI SUPER KINGS- M.S.Dhoni

M.S.Dhoni

       M.S.Dhoni is the only captain to lead the team in all the seasons of IPL. Chennai Super Kings is the most consistent team in the history of IPL, qualifying for play-offs in every season. CSK lost in final of IPL-1(2008) and IPL-5(2012), lost in semi final of IPL-2(2009) where as they won the IPL trophy in consecutive seasons IPL-3 and 4 (2010,2011)! They also won the Champions League T-20 played in 2010 in South Africa. The reason behind the success of CSK is that, they haven't changed their side much! In the auctions they bought the same players, they had in their squad in the previous seasons. Hence, they don't take time to gel up and can play as a unit any time! CSK has match winners like Albie Morkel, R.Jadeja, Raina, Badrinath, M.Hussey, Faf duPlessis, Bravo, Nannes, Jakati, Vijay etc. Though one weakness of CSK is that they just peep into the play-offs, in the sense that the team isn't consistent in the league stage, which has to be improved this time around in IPL-6!

That is all what I think about all the teams and what they need to do in IPL-6! Hope you liked it and you agree with it, if you think differently, then you are welcome to share your views with me! Thank You!