The 12th edition of the Indian Premier League will be played in 2019 and before we even know where it would be played or its schedule, the big question on everyone’s mind is which team will bring in which player during the IPL auction. Latest IPL squads for the 2019 edition of the competitions have been updated and will keep getting tweaked as and when we get more information around the retained players, trades, auction or even pull-outs at a later stage.
The same eight teams that played in the previous season of the Indian Premier League will continue to play this year too with the Chennai Super Kings entering the tournament as defending champions. Mumbai Indians, who like the Super Kings, have won three titles, will continue to be a huge threat while the rest of the list consists of two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders, 2016 winners and previous finalists Sunrisers Hyderabad, 2008 winners Rajasthan Royals, multiple time finalists Royal Challengers Bangalore, and perennial underperformers Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab.
And the squads for this new season will be nailed once the IPL auction is done in December 2018, the date of which is yet to be announced. However, for now, teams have made their retentions and trades known and some interesting players have either been released or traded between teams.
What Happened Before 2019 IPL Auction:
Mumbai Indians Squad for 2019 IPL
The Mumbai Indians retained most of their players, not wishing to change a combination that has done them a lot of good over the years. They also traded in Quinton de Kock from Royal Challengers Bangalore in what was a surprise move given the number of keepers they already have but he might come in to open the innings.
Also, guys like Pat Cummins, Akila Dananjaya and Mustafizur Rahman were all released by the franchise for a variety of reasons.
Squad:
Rohit Sharma (captain), Aditya Tare, Adam Milne, Ben Cutting, Anukul Roy, Krunal Pandya, Hardik Pandya, Evin Lewis, Jason Behrendorff, Ishan Kishan, Kieron Pollard, Jasprit Bumrah, Mayank Markande, Quinton de Kock, Rahul Chahar, Siddhesh Lad, Mitchell McClenaghan, Lasith Malinga, Suryakumar Yadav, Barinder Sran, Anmolpreet Singh, Pankaj Jaswal, Yuvraj Singh, Jayant Yadav
Rajasthan Royals Squad for 2019 IPL
After returning back to the IPL fold, Rajasthan Royals did reasonably well in making it to the playoffs last season and they have also done well to retain most of their players. There were no trades before the auction for them but the likes of Anjinkya Rahane, K Gowtham, Sanju Samson and Shreyas Gopal from India and Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Steven Smith and Jofra Archer from overseas should do well enough to push them towards another title.
D’Arcy Short’s horrid season ended his time with the Royals, and among others dropped were Ben Laughlin, Heinrich Klaasen and Indian seamer Jaydev Unadkat.
Squad:
Ajinkya Rahane, Ben Stokes, Aryaman Birla, Ish Sodhi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jos Buttler, Jofra Archer, Mahipal Lomror, Prashant Chopra, Krishnappa Gowtham, Rahul Tripathi, S. Midhun, Sanju Samson, Steve Smith, Shreyas Gopal, Stuart Binny, Varun Aaron, Jaydev Unadkat, Shashank Singh, Oshane Thomas, Shubham Rajane, Liam Livingstone, Manan Vohra, Ashton Turner, Riyan Parag
Sunrisers Hyderabad Squad for 2019 IPL
Hyderabad came into the fold after Deccan Chargers packed up and despite being late entrants, the Sunrisers have been at it. They won the title in 2016 and were runner-up in 2018 and with a team that they have, they look like they don’t need to change too many things around going into the 2019 IPL. Sunrisers Hyderabad have a gamut of fast bowlers to choose from, a tactic that has worked well for them but in Rashid Khan they have a spinner who can run through the opposition with ease.
This is also why what they would be aiming at during the IPL auction would be a few hard-hitting batsmen after releasing the likes of Sachin Baby, Tanmay Agarwal and Alex Hales from the squad. Shikhar Dhawan was also traded to Delhi in lieu of Abhishek Sharma, Vijay Shankar and Shahbaz Nadeem.
Squad:
Basil Thampi, Billy Stanlake, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Hooda, David Warner, Khaleel Ahmed, Kane Williamson, Mohammad Nabi, Manish Pandey, Rashid Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Vijay Shankar, Ricky Bhui, Shakib Al Hasan, Siddarth Kaul, T Natarajan, Shreevats Goswami (wk), Yusuf Pathan, Abhishek Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem, Wriddhiman Saha, Jonny Bairstow, Martin Guptill
Chennai Super Kings Squad for 2019 IPL
The Chennai Super Kings were called a lot of names midway during the previous IPL auction, namely around the squad being a Granddad’s army but they seemed to have got what they wanted and went on to win the IPL too, their third triumph and first on return. What that allows them is the luxury of retaining most of their players from last season, led by MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Shane Watson and Kedar Jadhav among others.
Only three players were let go in the form of Mark Wood, Kanishk Seth and Kshitiz Sharma and that means they will have a very quiet auction given only two slots need to be filled for this upcoming season. Why change a winning combination, as they say.
Squad:
MS Dhoni (captain), Chaitanya Bishnoi, Ambati Rayudu, Deepak Chahar, David Willey, Dwayne Bravo, Mitchell Santner, Dhruv Shorey, Harbhajan Singh, Imran Tahir, Faf du Plessis, Kedar Jadhav, Karn Sharma, Lungi Ngidi, KM Asif, Monu Kumar, M Vijay, N Jagadeesan, Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Billings, Shane Watson, Shardul Thakur, Suresh Raina, Mohit Sharma, Ruturaj Gaikwad
Kings XI Punjab Squad for 2019 IPL
The Kings XI Punjab have struggled a lot till the previous season, so much so that they have had to pull out an ace from the pack in the form of Mike Hesson. Hesson is the ex-New Zealand coach, one whose cricketing astuteness makes for a lot of sense. And one of the first things he’s done is to let go of a few players, retaining just the core of who he believes can do their job - KL Rahul, Chris Gayle, Andrew Tye, David Miller and R Ashwin among others.
Most of the others have been sent packing and Punjab will begin with a salary cap of 36.2 crore INR, the most for any team but they also have 15 slots that need to be filled. It looks like it’s going to be an exciting auction for them alright.
Squad:
Ankit Rajpoot, Andrew Tye, David Miller, Chris Gayle, Karun Nair, Mayank Agarwal, Lokesh Rahul, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mandeep Singh, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Nicholas Pooran, Moises Henriques, Sarfaraz Khan, Mohammad Shami, Varun Chakaravarthy, Sam Curran, Hardus Viljoen, Darshan Nalkande, Arshdeep Singh, Prabhsimran Singh, Agnivesh Ayachi, Harpreet Brar, Murugan Ashwin
Royal Challengers Bangalore Squad for 2019 IPL
If there’s one team that should have won a few titles in the IPL if not at least one, it’s the Royal Challengers Bangalore. However, the three-time finalists led by Virat Kohli are yet to win one and they will be hunting for their first as they look to bring in some bowling strength for the upcoming season. Despite that, they have released a few batsmen, including Brendon McCullum, de Kock, Mandeep and Sarfaraz Khan, and they will hope that the likes of Nathan Coulter-Nile, Mohammad Siraj, Navdeep Saini and Umesh Yadav deliver for them with the ball.
RCB have 10 slots to fill during this year’s auction and one can rest assure they will endeavour to bring in a couple of high quality bowlers and batsmen who can replace the likes of Baz and de Kock.
Squad:
Virat Kohli (captain), Colin de Grandhomme, AB de Villiers, Kulwant Khejroliya, Mohammed Siraj, Moeen Ali, Navdeep Saini, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Pawan Negi, Parthiv Patel, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Marcus Stoinis, Gurkeerat Singh, Shimron Hetmyer, Shivam Dubey, Devdutt Padikkal, Heinrich Klaasen, Himmat Singh, Milind Kumar, Prayas Ray Barman, Akshdeep Nath
Kolkata Knight Riders Squad for 2019 IPL
The Knight Riders did make it to the playoffs last season but they would have loved to do a lot better with their team they had. Some of the games were lost because of some poor bowling and captaincy but Dinesh Karthik, who has been retained as the skipper, will look to learn from it and gain from the presence of the likes of Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shubham Gill and Kuldeep Yadav, all of whom are match winners in their own right.
Among those let go include Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Tom Curran and Vinay Kumar, all seamers, giving an indication what they would want to do during the auction. And they also have 12 slots to fill at the most and have a salary cap of Rs.15.2 crore to use.
Squad:
Dinesh Karthik (captain), Chris Lynn, Andre Russell, Kuldeep Yadav, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Piyush Chawla, Prasidh Krishna, Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Robin Uthappa, Shubman Gill, Shivam Mavi, Carlos Brathwaite, Sunil Narine, Anrich Nortje, Lockie Ferguson, Naik, Prithvi Raj Yarra, Shrikant Mundhe
Delhi Daredevils Squad for 2019 IPL
If there’s one team that needs to start winning, it’s the Delhi Daredevils. For a top team to lose so regularly, to be at the receiving end of so many back to back disappointments, doesn’t augur well for their fans. The good news is that they have a nucleus of players who can do well, what with the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Prithvi Shaw and Colin Munro, not to mention a bowling line-up that consists of Chris Morris, Kagiso Rabada and Sandeep Lamichhane.
Among those released are Gautam Gambhir, Jason Roy and Mohammad Shami, along with Glenn Maxwell, who had a horror last season under coach Ricky Ponting.
Squad:
Amit Mishra, Shikhar Dhawan, Chris Morris, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Axar Patel, Colin Munro, Shreyas Iyer, Manjot Kalra, Kagiso Rabada, Prithvi Shaw, Rahul Tewatia, Rishabh Pant, Trent Boult, Sandeep Lamichhane, Hanuma Vihari, Ishant Sharma, Ankush Bains, Nathu Singh, Colin Ingram, Sherfane Rutherford, Jalaj Saxena, Bandaru Ayyappa