Guwahati: The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 kicks off on April 09, with Mumbai Indians (MI) taking on Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the opening match of the season. Most of the teams are not at full strength, both because of fitness and availability reasons.
While RCB will be missing Daniel Sams as the Australian all-rounder has tested positive for Covid-19, Mumbai Indians do not have Quinton de Kock available as certain South African players have only recently left the ODI series against Pakistan back home and will need to undergo quarantine before being available for selection.
The likes of De Kock, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje are among a few Proteas stars who are yet to complete their quarantine periods. Their respective franchises are set to open their campaigns without these players. While it may be a while before the franchises have their entire squad fit and available, here’s a look at what the ideal team combinations might look like when such a scenario arises:
Delhi Capitals: Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, Steve Smith, Rishabh Pant (C and WK), Marcus Stoinis, Axar Patel, Ravi Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje
Kolkata Knight Riders: Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Shakib Al Hasan, Eoin Morgan(C), Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik(WK), Pat Cummins, Varun Chakravarthy, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Prasidh Krishna
Chennai Super Kings: Robin Uthappa, Faf du Plessis, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Moeen Ali, MS Dhoni (C and WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Dwayne Bravo, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (C), Quinton de Kock (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Jimmy Neesham, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Rahul Chahar
Punjab Kings: KL Rahul (C and WK), Mayank Agarwal, Dawid Malan, Nicholas Pooran, Deepak Hooda, Shahrukh Khan, Jhye Richardson, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Shami, Riley Meredith, Murugan Ashwin
Rajasthan Royals: Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Sanju Samson(C and WK), Riyan Parag, Shivam Dube, Rahul Tewatia, Chris Morris, Shreyas Gopal, Jaydev Unadkat, Mustafizur Rahman, Kartik Tyagi
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli(C), Devdutt Padikkal, AB de Villiers(WK), Glenn Maxwell, Sachin Baby, Daniel Christian, Washington Sundar, Kyle Jamieson, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal
Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (C), Wriddhiman Saha (WK), Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Priyam Garg, Abdul Samad, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shahbaz Nadeem, T Natarajan
