IPL 2019: Analysing each team's strengths and weaknesses

The IPL Auction was held at Jaipur on 18th December. Each team had released its retention list earlier this month.

Carlos Braithwaite, Mohammed Shami, and Axar Patel were some of the unexpected releases. Axar Patel and Sarfaraz Khan were the only two players who were retained in the previous season but were dropped this time.

The banned duo of Steve Smith and David Warner were retained by Rajsthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad respectively. Mandeep Singh was traded for Marcus Stoinis while Shikar Dhawan was traded for Abhishek Singh, Vijay Shankar, and Shahbaz Nadeem.

Each team targetted a few players to rectify the weaknesses which were there in the team before auctions. Teams after tomorrow look equally strong and set for the IPL 2019. Here are the strengths and weaknesses of each team:

Rajasthan Royals

Strengths: The team will be boosted by the return of their skipper and best batsman Steve Smith, whose one-year long suspension from international cricket would have ended by that time.

The team has a good batting order with the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler, and Ben Stokes as a finisher. Jos Buttler was one of the top batsmen in the previous season. This provides a healthy competition among the batsmen.

They have some good spinners as well including Krishnappa Gowtham, Ish Sodhi and Shreyas Gopal.

Weaknesses: The form of Ajinkya Rahane might be a concern for the team. He has not been able to get his form back in T-20 cricket since the past one year, due to which he has been dropped from the team very frequently.

The fast bowling department also looks a bit fragile. There is no in-form fast bowler in the team other than Jofra Archer. Jaydev Unadkat too will be in pressure to perform after a disappointing season last year.