The IPL - Teams

Here are the teams and the players to watch out for:

Deccan Chargers

VVS Laxman, Sanjay Bangar, Halhadar Das, Herschelle Gibbs, Adam Gilchrist, Doddapaneni Kalyankrishna, Pragyan Ojha, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, Sarvesh Kumar, Shahid Afridi, Rohit Sharma, Chamara Silva, RP Singh, Scott Styris, Andrew Symonds, Chaminda Vaas, Venugopal Rao, Paidikalva Vijaykumar, Arjun Yadav, Nuwan Zoysa.

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Gilly in any team will be a person to watch for, fireworks from him will please the crowd. Big hitters in Afridi,Symonds,and Gibbs might hit or miss while Laxman,Rohit, and Styris provide a calming influence. The bowling does not look ideal with Vaas,RP,and Zoysa leading the pack.

My man to Watch
The mercurial Shahid Afridi can create havoc if he gets going and his bowling will be useful too.

Kings XI Punjab

Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan, Ramesh Powar, Sreesanth, James Hopes, Simon Katich, Brett Lee, Shaun Marsh, Luke Pomersbach, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Kyle Mills, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Ajitesh Argal, Piyush Chawla, Pankaj Dharmani, Rishi Dhawan, Karan Goel, Uday Kaul, Sahil Kukreja, Wilkin Mota, Nitin Saini, Vikram Singh, Sunny Sohal, Tanmay Srivastava

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A very interesting combination. Yuvraj,Jayawardene,Sangakkara, and Sarwan form a formidable batting core with hitters in Hopes and Pomersbach providing the thrust. Lee,Sreesanth,Pathan, and Chawla form a good bowling combination. A very well balanced team.

My man to Watch
Yuvraj Singh is certainly a force to reckon with in T20 cricket. Can he replicate the six 6s?

Rajasthan Royals

Shane Warne, Aditya Angle, Swapnil Asnodkar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammad Kaif, Kamran Akmal, Sumit Khatri, Taruwar Kohli, Justin Langer, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Parag More, Morne Morkel, Pankaj Singh, Munaf Patel, Niraj Patel, Yusuf Pathan, Mahesh Rawat, Anup Revandkar, Dinesh Salunke, Jaydev Shah, Graeme Smith, Sohail Tanvir, Siddharth Trivedi, Shane Watson, Younis Khan.

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The least spending franchise and arguably the weakest team on paper. Kaif,Langer,Smith & Younis form the core of the batting and will be relying on Yusuf Pathan,Shane Watson,& Mascarenhas to provide the big hits. Warne leads a weak bowling attack and he will be hoping the younsters can perform.

My man to Watch
Morne Morkel just had a wonderful test series in India and he will be tough to get away. If Dmitri Mascarenhas plays he will make an impression.

Delhi Daredevils

Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Manoj Tiwary, Mohammad Asif, Daniel Vettori, Dinesh Karthik, Shoaib Malik, Glenn McGrath, AB de Villiers, Tillekeratne Dilshan, Farveez Maharoof, Rajat Bhatia, Shikhar Dhawan, Brett Geeves, Yo Mahesh, Mithun Manhas, Pradeep Sangwan, Mayank Tehlan.

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The name really suits this team and its captain. Sehwag leads a good bunch of cricketers. This looks to be the best fielding team on paper with Dilshan,Tiwary,DK,Malik, and De Villiers. McGrath and Asif in tandem will be brilliant to see and the batsman might struggle to get going against these two. Sangwan did well for India U19 and will be interesting to see how he goes.

My man to Watch
Gautham Gambhir had a wonderful T20 world cup and given his good form is likely to score heavily. It might also be the chance for Manoj Tiwary to showcase his talent.

Kolkata Knight Riders

Sourav Ganguly, Ishant Sharma, Murali Kartik, Ajit Agarkar, Chris Gayle, Ricky Ponting, David Hussey, Brendon McCullum, Mohammad Hafeez, Salman Butt, Umar Gul, Tatenda Taibu, Laxmi Shukla, Saurasish Lahiri, Siddarth Kaul, Iqbal Abdulla, Wriddhiman Prasanta Saha, Rohan Banerjee, Yashpal Singh, Aakash Chopra, Debabrata Das, Cheteshwar Pujara.

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King Khan has got himself a good team. Sourav leads an explosive batting line up with the likes of Gayle,Ponting, and McCullum. The absence of Shoaib was a blow and Ishant Sharma leads the attack alongwith Gul,Agarkar, and Murali Kartik. Iqbal Abdulla is a young left arm spinner India will be watching closely. The participation of the foreign players is a concern and might leave the team a bit thin.

My man to Watch
Sourav Ganguly is dangerous when he thinks he needs to prove people wrong. He is sure to play some spectacular innings at the top of the order. David Hussey is talked about a lot and it will be interesting to see how he goes.

Mumbai Indians

Sachin Tendulkar, Loots Bosman, Ankeet Chavan, Siddharth Chitnis, Gaurav Dhiman, Dilhara Fernando, Harbhajan Singh, Sanath Jayasuriya, Musavir Khote, Dhawal Kulkarni, Lasith Malinga Abhishek Nayar, Ashish Nehra, Manish Pandey, Rajesh Pawar, Shaun Pollock, Ashwell Prince, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohan Raje, Luke Ronchi, Pinal Shah, Swapnil Singh, Yogesh Vijay Takawale, Dominic Thornely, Saurabh Tiwary, Robin Uthappa, Vikrant Yeligati.

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Sachin leads a team with a few stellar names and a lot of unknown commodities. Sachin and Sanath at the top promises a few fireworks. Uthappa,Bosman, and Rahane will fill the middle order. Manish Pandey and Saurabh Tiwary are a couple of talented batsmen to watch out for. Pollock leads the bowling attack with Harbhajan as the spin option. Injuries to Malinga and Fernando leaves the bowling a bit thin.

My man to Watch
When Sachin Tendulkar plays you have to watch him. This version of the game is new to him and he will surely be looking to leave a mark.

Banglore Royal Challengers

Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Jacques Kallis, Zaheer Khan, Cameron White, Wasim Jaffer, Dale Steyn, Ashley Noffke, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Mark Boucher, Misbah-ul-Haq, Ross Taylor, Abdur Razzak, KP Appanna, Balachandra Akhil, Jagadeesh Arunkumar, Bharat Chipli, Shreevats Goswami, Sunil Joshi, Virat Kohli, Praveen Kumar, Devraj Patil, Vinay Kumar.

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Dravid leads a team with possibly the best bowling attack. Dale Steyn is red hot and he is supported by Zaheer,Praveen Kumar,Kumble,Kallis, and White. Dravid,Kallis,Jaffer,Chanderpaul might not look to be the best for T20 but as Chanders showed recently they have the experience to adapt to the situation. Boucher,White, and Razzak provide the firepower. India U19 captain Virat Kohli will be looking to impress one and all. Martin Crowe as coach could also bring in a few innovations to the table.

My man to Watch
Misbah-ul-Haq had a wonderful T20 and almost pulled it off for Pakistan. His cool head under pressure will help the Royals.

Chennai Super Kings

MS Dhoni, Matthew Hayden, Stephen Fleming, Mike Hussey, Jacob Oram, Makhaya Ntini, Muttiah Muralitharan, Albie Morkel, Joginder Sharma, Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel, Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, Abhinav Mukund, Suresh Kumar, Arun Karthik, Shadab Jakati, Napoleon Einstein, Subramaniam Badrinath, Lakshmipathy Balaji, R Ashwin, Srikkanth Anirudha, Viraj Vilas Kadbe, Palani Amarnath, Manpreet Gony.

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The costliest man in the league captains my home team. MS Dhoni leads a good Chennai team with a wonderfully balanced batting line up. With Fleming and Hayden opening the batting followed by Hussey,Raina,Dhoni,Oram, and Morkel they have the ability both to build and to explode. Parthiv will be keeping wickets while Dhoni plays as a batsman. Bowling will depend on Ntini, Murali, Morkel, and Joginder Sharma. It will be interesting to see how the local lads Mukund,Vidyut, and Badrinath perform.

My man to Watch
Albie Morkel can hit the ball a long way and can keep things quiet at the death with the ball. Dhoni as captain will get the best out of this team.