The biggest cricketing carnival will get underway in a few days. The Indian Premier League (IPL) is now a ten-team affair. The new format of the IPL will see ten teams divided into two different groups as they fight for the title of the cash-rich league. The auctions are done and dusted.
All ten teams have assembled the best possible squad. So, it's time for us to look at the strongest possible playing XI that all the five teams in Group B. Namely, Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Punjab Kings (PBKS), Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), and Gujarat Titans (GT).
Chennai Super Kings
CSK is one of the most successful teams in the history of IPL. They have been the most consistent team regarding their performances and how they assemble their squad. The Chennai-based franchise is the league's defending champions and will be looking to add the fifth trophy in their cabinet in the 2022 edition of the league.
Ahead of the IPL auction, they decided to retain Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni, Moeen Ali, and Ruturaj Gaikwad. CSK went into the mega-auction with a similar strategy. They looked to bring back most of their players from the previous edition, and they managed to do so. They did miss out on Faf du Plessis and Shardul Thakur, but they still look like a solid unit that can challenge the title.
Strongest Playing XI: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Robin Uthappa/Devon Conway, Moeen Ali, Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja, Shivam Dube, MS Dhoni(c), Dwayne Bravo, Deepak Chahar(Currently Injured)/Chris Jordan/KM Asif, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Adam Milne.
Royal Challengers Banglore
RCB is one of the most followed franchises in the IPL because of the star names that they have had over the years. Faf du Plessis is one of their latest recruits and will now be taking over the captaincy role from Virat Kohli.
Ahead of the IPL mega-auctions, they retained Kohli, Glenn Maxwell and Mohd. Siraj, sending shockwaves as they axed Devdutt Padikkal and Yuzvendra Chahal. However, their auction strategy was a bit weird as they did not push hard for the players that have done well for them in the past. The Bangalore-based franchise assembled a decent squad but will it be good enough to break the deadlock for the IPL title?
Strongest Playing XI: Anuj Rawat, Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Dinesh Karthik, Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Shahbaz Ahmed, Mohammed Siraj, Josh Hazlewood.
Punjab Kings
One of the teams yet to win an IPL title, PBKS, was formerly known as Kings XI Punjab before their rebranding in 2021. The Mohali-based franchise featured in the final of the 2014 edition and would love to take one step further this season.
Mayank Agarwal will take over the captaincy role as they failed to keep hold off their star man and former skipper KL Rahul. Mayank was their first retention, and the other one was uncapped bowler Arshdeep Singh. PBKS went into the auction with a huge pursue and they did spend it on some of the best players in the toughest twenty.
Strongest Playing XI: Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal(C), Jonny Bairstow, Liam Livingstone, Shahrukh Khan, Odeon Smith, Raj Angad Bawa, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh, Kagiso Rabada, Ishan Porel.
Sunrisers Hyderabad
SRH was the talk of the town in the last edition for all the wrong reasons. The treatment to their IPL-winning captain David Warner midway into the season shocked one and all. As a result, things started to fall apart for the franchise.
The 2016 champions failed to retain Rashid Khan, the Afghan spin-king, ahead of the mega-auction, which perplexed their fan base. Hyderabad's choice to retain two uncapped players in Abdul Samad and Umran Malik, along with skipper Kane Williamson, a bold move by the franchise.
Hopefully, they prove it was the right call. However, they had an auction to forget as they made considerable blunders. The most shocking thing was that they were not going all out on either Jason Holder or Mitchell Marsh. Nevertheless, the Hyderabad based franchise has managed to assemble a playing XI that looks decent.
Strongest Playing XI: Abhishek Sharma, Kane Williamson(C), Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Abdul Samad, Romario Shepherd, Washington Sundar, T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik.
Gujarat Titans
GT is one of the two new franchises in the lucrative league that CVC Capital Partners own. They will be featuring in the 2022 IPL edition under the leadership of Hardik Pandya, whom they drafted in ahead of the mega-auction. GT also drafted in Afghan spin-wizard Rashid Khan and young Shubhman Gill.
The Ahmedabad-based franchise drafted in some of the best in the business, but things did not go well in the auction room. The Titans lack a reliable Indian middle-order batter, which might haunt them later. GT's best buy in the auction was Jason Roy for just INR 2 crores, but he decided to pull out of the tournament due to bio-bubble fatigue.
So they were in a spot of bother but signing Rahmanullah Gurbaz has indeed settled a few nerves. Hardik's team does have a few major issues that will surely get exposed in the tournament, but this is the strongest playing XI they can field for the time being.
Strongest Playing XI: Shubman Gill, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Matthew Wade, Abhinav Sadarangani, Vijay Shankar, Hardik Pandya(c), Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Mohammed Shami, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Aaron/Pradeep Sangwan.