IPL Retention 2019: Ranking the teams based on retained players
Auctions in IPL are said to be the place where half the battle is won. The trading window is the pre-battle preparation for the teams. The eight teams have retained some of the key players, traded some and have released the rest of underperforming players.
This does not mean that the teams are evenly placed currently. The teams head to the auction with their own set of strategies and chinks in their armour. Here is an effort to rank the teams on how they stand before the auctions based on their composition and balance.
#8 Kings XI Punjab
The team management of KXIP has been revamped, with Mike Hesson coming in as head coach and Virender Sehwag resigning from his role as mentor. However, there has been no major improvement on the front of strategies.
Their squad already boasts of quality Indian batsmen like KL Rahul, Karun Nair, and Mayank Agarwal. They also have Chris Gayle to open the innings. In this case, their only trade of Mandeep Singh for Marcus Stoinis does not call for merit.
KXIP already had a quality middle order player in Manoj Tiwary who has proved to be a pressure soaking batsman, unlike the inexperienced Mandeep Singh whom they brought from RCB. Losing an Aussie all-rounder for an inexperienced domestic player does not fit into the scheme of KXI composition.
The team is still searching for balance and might be heading the RCB way of previous seasons. Kings XI should soon search for quality all-rounders to have any chances for a playoff berth this season.
Retained: Lokesh Rahul, Chris Gayle, Andrew Tye, Mayank Agarwal, Ankit Rajpoot, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Karun Nair, David Miller, and Ravichandran Ashwin
Released: Aaron Finch, Axar Patel, Mohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Barinder Sran, Ben Dwarshuis, Manoj Tiwary, Akshdeep Nath, Pardeep Sahu, Mayank Dagar and Manzoor Dar
Traded: Marcus Stoinis for Mandeep Singh
Salary cap available: 36.20 cr
Available slots: 15; Indian 11, Overseas 4