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Strengths: Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s uncanny ability to guide his side under duress is certainly the edge CSK have over most other teams. A strong line-up of foreign players will come in handy, but it is the local boys, who are going to play crucial roles and the ones to look out for. The likes of Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay, spinners Shadab Jakati and R Ashwin are the envy of rivals. Ravindra Jadeja, who was bought for 2$m, will add more teeth to CSK’s strength with his batting, smart bowling and excellent fielding. Another factor that will really aid the CSK is that they have mastered the slow conditions at the Chidambaram stadium.
Weaknesses: Even though it might not matter when playing at home, pace bowling is one of CSK’s biggest worries at this point. Apart from the fiery Doug Bollinger, none of the other seamers -- namely Ben Hilfenhaus, Albie Morkel, Nuwan Kulasekara -- seem to have enough in them to make as much of an impact. The other cause for concern is CSK’s reputation of being slow starters. In the past, they have gotten off to slow starts but have managed to claw their way back into title contention. However, they wouldn’t want to stretch their luck beyond a point of no return.
Key players: Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Michael Hussey, R Ashwin.
IPL record: 2011: Winners; 2010: Winners; 2009: Fourth; 2008: Runners up.
Squad: MS Dhoni (capt), Murali Vijay, Abhinav Mukund, Srikkanth Anirudha, George Bailey, Michael Hussey, Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina, Subramaniam Badrinath, Dwayne Bravo, Yo Mahesh, Albie Morkel, Ben Hilfenhaus, Ravichandran Ashwin, Doug Bollinger, Faf du Plessis, Shadab Jakati, Joginder Sharma, Suraj Randiv, Nuwan Kulasekara, Sudeep Tyagi, K Vasudevadas, Ganapathi Vignesh.
Strengths: The gritty Gautam Gambhir’s influence will definitely help the Shah Rukh Khan-owned franchise punch well above their weight. The resilient opener has been in breathtaking touch and will once again prove vital to the team’s chances in the tournament. KKR have also added another dimension to their impressive battery of pacers in James Pattinson. And the move to pick the Australian, who just returned from a foot injury, will certainly make this one of KKR’s best bets to claim a title or at least finish some where on top.
Weaknesses: With an array of foreign and domestic players who have proved their mettle in the past, it will be tough for the selectors to pick a balanced eleven. And even if they do, the pressure of having done poorly in the past (barring the late surge last season) might come back to haunt them. Wicket-keeper Brad Haddin could miss the season and head home to resolve some personal issues and that could turn out to hurt KKR’s campaign.
Key players: Gautam Gambhir, Jacques Kallis, Yusuf Pathan and Brendon McCullum.
IPL record: 2011: Fourth; 2010: Sixth; 2009: Eighth; 2008: Sixth.
Squad: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Brendon McCullum , Jacques Kallis, Eoin Morgan, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan, Manoj Tiwary, Ryan tenDoeschate, Laxmi Shukla, Brad Haddin, Merchant de Lange, Rajat Bhatia, Iqbal Abdulla, Brett Lee, James Pattinson, Laxmipathy Balaji, Sarabjit Ladda, Mavinder Bisla, Debabrata Das, Chirag Jani, Sunil Narine, Sanju Samson, Pradeep Sangwan, Iresh Saxena, Shami Ahmed, Jaidev Unadkat.
Strengths: The team with the wooden spoon last year has gone through a significant overhaul in the batting order, picking heavyweights Kevin Pietersen, Mahela Jayawardene and Ross Taylor for the fifth edition. The trio has enough firepower to smash any bowling attack and Delhi Daredevils will be banking on them to reverse their fortunes. The maturity of the dangerous David Warner will be a huge plus and along with the mercurial Virender Sehwag, the two will make a cracker of an opening pair. With Sehwag at the helm, Daredevils will never be short of aggression it lacked last year but is going to miss some of the overseas stars in the initial stages.
Weaknesses: The bowling has mainly Indian recruits comprising of medium pacers Ajit Agarkar, Irfan Pathan, Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron. Pathan and Agarkar lack consistency and Aaron is recovering from an injury. South African quick Morne Morkel is the only bowler with an ability to produce genuine pace even on placid tracks. Given the state of slow pitches at the Ferozeshah Kotla, spin department is obviously a concern with Daredevils relying heavily on South African Roelof van der Merwe and Shahbaz Nadeem. The temperament of young spinners Sunny Gupta and Pawan Negi is yet to be tested on the big stage.
Key players: Virender Sehwag, Kevin Pietersen, David Warner, Mahela Jaywardene, Morne Morkel
IPL record: 2011: Tenth; 2010: Fifth; 2009: Third; 2008: Fourth.
Squad: Virender Sehwag (captain), David Warner, Mahela Jayawardene, Ross Taylor, Kevin Pietersen, K. Venugopala Rao, Aaron Finch, Unmukt Chand, Irfan Pathan, Morne Morkel, Roelof van der Merwe, Naman Ojha, Ajit Agarkar, Andre Russell, Yogesh Nagar, Doug Bracewell, Umesh Yadav, Punit Bisht, Robin Bist, Avishkar Salvi, Shahbaz Nadeem, Sunny Gupta, Varun Aaron, Prashant Naik, Vikas Mishra, Zafir Patel, Kuldeep Raval, Manpreet Juneja, Glenn Maxwell, Gulam Bodi, Pawan Negi and Tejaswi Yadav. Coach: Eric Simons.
Strengths: The inaugural champions, Rajasthan Royals have since then failed to make same impact on the popular league. While Royals haven’t come close to the winning the title again after their 2008 fairytale run, they had remained a force to reckon with thanks to their leader Shane Warne. The Aussie legend retired last season, but Royals have found an equally good replacement in Rahul Dravid whose tactical nous and inspirational leadership can turn the tide for the Shipla Shetty-owned team. While there aren’t many players that will make your heads turn, Royals possess a deceptively strong batting and bowling line-ups.
Weaknesses: The non-availability of their big-ticket buy and impact player Shane Watson for a chunk of matches in the beginning is Royals’ biggest loss. A genuine game-changer with the bat and a handy medium pacer, the Aussie will be sorely missed. Fast bowler Shaun Tait, if on target, can be a match-winner on his own. The lack of quality spinners, apart from Johan Botha, in the side is also striking.
Key players: Dravid, Shane Watson, Dinesh Chandimal, Stuart Binny.
IPL record: 2011: sixth; 2010: seventh; 2009: sixth; 2008: winners.
Squad: Rahul Dravid (capt), Stuart Binny, Johan Botha, Deepak Chahar, Dinesh Chandimal, Ankeet Chavan, Aakash Chopra, Paul Collingwood, Kevon Cooper, Aditya Dole, Samad Fallah, Faiz Fazal, Shreevats Goswami (wk), Brad Hodge, Brad Hogg, Ashok Menaria, Sumit Narwal, Pankaj Singh, Amit Paunikar, Ajinkya Rahane, Abhishek Raut, Owais Shah, Pinal Shah, Amit Singh, S Sreesanth, Shaun Tait, Siddharth Trivedi, Shane Watson, Dishant Yagnik.
Strengths: In Sourav Ganguly, Pune Warriors have someone who can shepherd them to the path of success. Michael Clarke’s inclusion too is good news but he won’t be available for the first half of the event. There’s enough fire-power in the batting with the likes of Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey , Jesse Ryder and signings Tamim Iqbal and Clarke among others. In leggie Rahul Sharma in their ranks, they also have a game-changing bowler.
Weaknesses: In the news for all the wrong reasons which had put a big questions mark over their participation in the fifth edition, Warriors need to regroup in time. Injuries to some key foreign recruits will also hurt them. Batting was a big let down the last time around and without some key hitters like Yuvarj Singh, Graeme Smith and all-rounders Mitchell Marsh and James Hopes, Warriors have a tough task of fielding a balanced combination.
Key players: Robin Uthappa, Jesse Ryder, Tamim Iqbal, Rahul Sharma.
IPL record: 2011: Ninth.
Squad: Sourav Ganguly (capt), Imtiyaz Ahmed, Eklavya Dwivedi, James Faulkner, Callum Ferguson, Ganesh Gaikwad, Harpreet Singh, Dheeraj Jadhav, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Kamran Khan, Murali Kartik, Harshad Khadiwale, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Nathan McCullum, Mithun Manhas, Mohnish Mishra, Shrikant Mundhe, Ashish Nehra, Tim Paine (wk), Manish Pandey, Wayne Parnell, Sachin Rana, Jesse Ryder, Rahul Sharma, Jerome Taylor, Alfonso Thomas, Robin Uthappa, Shrikant Wagh.
IPL V factfile
* Number of teams: Nine
* Total number of matches: 76
* Number of venues: 12
* Total prize money: Rs 12 crore
* Format: Each team will play the other on home-and-away basis during the league phase. After the league phase, the top four teams will play three plays-offs (two Qualifiers and an Eliminator) to determine the finalists. The first Qualifier will be contested by the top two teams in the league and the winners of this tie will go through to the final.
* The Eliminator will be contested by Nos. 3 and 4 and the loser will be knocked out of the tournament. The second Qualifier will be played between the winner of the Eliminator and the loser of the first Qualifier, and the winners here enter the final.
* Super Over (to determine the outcome of a tied match): Three batsmen and one bowler for each team will be nominated before the start of the Super Over. The loss of two wickets ends the innings for a team. If Super Over score too is tied, the team with most sixes in the match and the Super Over emerges the winner. If this too is the same, the team with most boundaries wins.
Contributed by G Unnikrishnan, Madhu Jawali, Roshan Thyagarajan and Pragya Tiwari