IPL 5 - What's New and what to expect ?
Indian Premier League 2012 will be the fifth edition of the IPL. The IPL can be compared to the Harry Potter Series of films where every new version is bigger and better but we wish there is never an end to this ultimate entertainment when cricket is concerned. The cash rich league of the richest cricketing body in the world, the IPL is one fantastic occasion where players showcase their talent to prove their mettle and in a way impress their franchise owners. Cricket coupled with Bollywood – the IPL continues to be the most awaited extravaganza in 2012.
4th April is the date that it is all set to kick off and we will see the opening ceremony in Chennai and followed by the largely awaited match between the Chennai Super Kings and the Mumbai Indians. For the first time since its inception, the IPL will feature nine teams following the termination of the Kochi Tuskers franchise, however, KTK’s former players will participate in this season’s competition after being listed on list of players to be auctioned in the players’ auction held on 4th February, 2012.
2012 IPL Auction and Transfers:
IPL-5 has proved to be the most productive year in terms of player transfers between teams. Apart from CSK and KKR, all the teams were involved in player transfers though it would be very interesting if the transfer deals are disclosed to the people the same way as it happens in football. The auction was pretty interesting with all the teams having only $2 million with them to spend. The auction started by a whopping USD 2 million dollar bid for all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja made by two franchises – Chennai Super Kings and Deccan Chargers. The player was sold to the Chennai franchise on the basis of tie-breaker involving a silent bid (later reported to be around Rs. 30 Crores). The smartest buyers of the day were Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians both spending effectively to get players of their choice. Mumbai Indians bought South Africans – Herschelle Gibbs and Robin Peterson for $50,000 and $100,000 respectively, Australian fast bowler Mitchell Johnson for $300,000, R. P. Singh for $ 600,000 and Sri Lankan all-rounder Thisara Perera for $ 650,000. On the other hand, Rajasthan Royals secured the services of Brad Hodge, Dinesh Chandimal, S Sreesanth, Brad Hogg and Kevon Cooper for effectively low prices.
OPENING CEREMONY : The Opening Ceremony of IPL-5 is slated to have it all : glitz, glamour and game. From Katy Perry to Priyanka Chopra, Salman Khan to Prabhu Deva to Amitabh Bachchan’s poetry recitation to Colonial Cousins, all will set the stage on fire.
Expected Team Compositions : Players assumed to be certain to feature in the team of 11.
Chennai Super Kings : 
Indians: MS Dhoni, S Raina, R Ashwin, M Vijay, R Jadeja, S Badrinath.
Foreigners : M Hussey, A Morkel, D Bravo, D Bollinger.
Reserve Spots : 1 of W Saha, S Jakati, A Srikanth, A Mukund will be the 7th Indian Player.
Foreign Reserves : S Styris, N Kulasekara, G Bailey, B Hilfenhaus, S Randiv, F du Plessis.
Dark Horse : G Vignesh . He was one of the best performers in the ICL. A hard hitting batsman and a effective medium pacer , Vignesh can prove to be a valuable asset to the team if given a chance.
Review: They are the defending champions and are ready to prove it … again.
Royal Challengers Bangalore :
Indians: V Kohli, S Tiwary, Z Khan, R Vinay Kumar.
Foreigners : C Gayle, AB D Villers, T Dilshan, D Vettori.
Reserve Spots : 3 of M Agarwal, S Mohammed, A Mithun, C Pujara, S Aravind, M Kaif will complete the team of 11.
Foreign Reserves : A Mc Donald, L Pomersbach, D Nannes, C Langevelt, M Muralitharan, R Rossouw.
Review : The Indian youngsters have been a letdown. If they fire with the others, this mighty lineup will be hard to stop.
Mumbai Indians :
Indians: S Tendulkar, H Singh, R Sharma, A Rayudu, D Kartik, 2 of M Patel, RP Singh, Pragyan Ojha.
Foreigners : K Pollard, L Malinga, R Levi , M Johnson.
Reserve Spots : T Suman, D Kulkarni, A Nechim.
Foreign Reserves : H Gibbs, J Franklin, C Mc Kay, D Jacobs, T Perera, A Blizzard
Watch out for : Richard Levi.
Review : The team to have the best pool of Indian players who have proved themselves in earlier editions of IPL. They have played well but have not been able to continue winning all the way. Harbhajan won them the Champions League last year and he will be expected to do the same in the IPL this year. Some good luck to them and this team can beat the best any day.
Kolkata Knight Riders :
Indians: G Gambhir, M Tiwari, Y Pathan, I Abdulla, R Bhatia, L Balaji.
Foreigners : J Kallis, B Mc Cullum, Brett Lee, S Hasan.
Reserve Spots : 1 of R Shukla, J Unadkat, Shami Ahmed will be the 7th Indian Player.
Foreign Reserves : R Ten Doeschate, Eoin Morgan, B Haddin, J Pattison, M De Lange, S Narine.
Watch out for : S Narine.
Review : KKR have been smart buyers this year but there is already enough competition among the foreign players for the 4 places. They have a very good pool of T20 specialists. KKR advantage is its number of allrounders . This teams always had the potential but some how the scarcity of quality Indian players has let them down.
Dark Horse : LR Shukla. He has been performing well recently and can prove a handful both with the bat and the ball. Also his experience and knowledge of the Eden pitch will help.
Deccan Chargers :
Indians : D Teja, A Mishra, M Gony, S Dhawan, P Patel.
Foreigners : K Sangakkara, JP Duminy, D Steyn , Dan Christian.
Reserve Spots : I Jaggi, S Sohal, B Chipli, A Jhunjhunwala.
Foreign Reserves : D Harris, J Theron, C White, C Lynn.
Review : The team doesn’t have the names but with a captain like Sangakkara who leads from the from, they will be full of inspiration. This is a team with responsible foreign players but the Indian players will have a lot to prove. Lets hope some surprises from this team and is the surprises don’t come , they might be lagging behind others.
Rajasthan Royals :
Indians : R Dravid, S Sreesanth, A Rahane.
Foreigners : S Watson, J Botha, B Hodge, D Chandimal.
Reserve Spots : A Menaria, S Binny, F Fazal, A Raut, N Joshi, A Trivedi.
Foreign Reserves : K Cooper, S Tait.
Watch out for : D Chandimal.
Review : This ever inspired team looked ” not so good” before the IPL 5 Auction but smart buys have helped them build up a very good squad. This is a fighting squad under Dravid and you can always expect the unexpected from them.
Delhi Daredevils :
Indians : V Sehwag, I Pathan, U Yadav, V Aaron, N Ojha.
Foreigners : D Warner, M Jayawardene, K Peterson, R V Der Merwe.
Reserve Spots : A Agarkar, P Bisht, U Chand, V Rao, Y Nagar.
Foreign Reserves : A Finch, M Morkel, D Bracewell, A Russel, G Maxwell, G Bodi
Watch out for : A Russel.
Review : This is a team which is full of individual match winners who on their day can single handedly win them the game. They need to connect well and bring up a good team effort and the rest will fall into place automatically to shed the underachievers tag associated with them.
Kings XI Punjab :
Indians : A Nayar, P Chawla, P Valthaty, R Satish.
Foreigners : A Gilchrist, D Hussey, S Marsh, R Harris.
Reserve Spots : B Bhatt, P Dogra, R Powar, H Singh, V Malik.
Foreign Reserves : D Mascarenhas, D Miller, J Faulkner, S Broad, A Mahmood, N Rimmington.
Review : The foreign players in this side have to guide the Indian youngsters and get spirited performances out of them. This is a team of capable Indian youngsters. They need somebody to show them the light to win.
Sahara Pune Warriors India :
Indians : S Ganguly, A Nehra, M Pandey, R Uthappa, M Mishra, R Sharma, A Dinda.
Foreigners: A Thomas, L Wright, M Samuels, S Smith.
Reserve Spots : A Murtaza, B Kumar, M Kartik, K Khan, S Wagh.
Foreign Reserves : M Clarke, W Parnell, C Ferguson, T Iqbal
Watch Out for : M Clarke.
Review : They might be missing Yuvraj but under their ever fighting leader Ganguly , this team has all it needs to win it. Sports Loving owners and India’s most successful captain leading them, this is a team with promising youngsters raring to perform. They have the X factor required and they will be the upset creators most of the time.
The expectations are huge and CSK, MI, KKR, RCB sure seem to be the best bets to win this version of the IPL.
All in all , the 5th edition of IPL is all set to be a gala event and one hopes that the poor form of the Indian team will vanish by the time IPL ends and even the Indian fan is happy and hopeful for better results from the team .