IPL Season 5: Curtain Raiser (Part 3)

Team Bellevision

(Indian Premier League or IPL- season 5 is about to begin.  In this series of articles on IPL 5 leading to the tournament, we bring you team overview & compositions, past performances, IPL 5 schedule and much more…)

 

01 April 2012: Following the poor performance of Indian cricket team in England and then Australia, will Indian cricket fan still follow IPL is the question everyone is asking.  We will get an answer to this, in a week’s time.  In between, India played a one off T20 Friendship Cup 2012 match against South Africa and lost on the basis of Duckworth-Lewis method in a rain interrupted match.

 

At the same time, the Pune Warriors India has signed Tamim Iqbal of Bangladesh to fill the last overseas player slot.

 

In this part-3 of IPL5 preview, we will bring you the details of Kings XI Punjab, Deccan Chargers and Pune Based Pune Warriors India.

 

Kings XI Punjab

Kings XI Punjab are Captained by Ace wicketkeeper batsman Adam Gilchrist of Australia.  He will be filling the spot of coach as well this year.  The team from Punjab reached semi-finals in the first edition of the tournament. After that their performance has be mediocre.  In IPL 4 season Kings XI Punjab let go their Captain of previous years Yuvraj Singh while they bought some other big players. But, the overall performance has not improved much in the season.

 

     

 

They have some top notch players in the team with the likes of Adam Gilchrist, who is very explosive at the top of the order. Shaun Marsh, David Hussey, David Miller and English Bowler Stuart Broad give some solidity to the side.  In the last season, lesser known Paul Valthaty played some sensational knocks for the team.  KXIP which also include some good Indian players like Praveen Kumar and India discard Piyush Chawla will look to better their pervious performances in this edition of the tournament.

 

 

Owner(s):
Ness Wadia
The Oberoi Group
Karan Paul
Mohit Burman

Squad: 

 

Captain & coach:
Adam Gilchrist

 

Home Ground(s):
Punjab Cricket Association Ground
Himachal Pradesh Association Ground

 

Performance 

 

Matches 

 

Deccan Chargers

Deccan Chargers, as the name suggests is owned by the Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited.  DC are one of the stronger teams in IPL 5 season.  They have spent a lot of money on some of their top players.  They won the event in 2009 which was the 2nd edition or IPL.  Other than that glory, their performance in the tournament has been average.

 

    

 

In 2011, they appointed Darren Lehmann as their head coach and they bought some big players.  Captain Kumar Sangakkara has played well in recent tournaments and will be looking to cash on his form.  Deccan Chargers has some talented players like JP Duminy of South Africa, Cameron White, Daniel Christian of Australia who is a regular in Australian one day side, fast bowler Dale Steyn etc.  Deccan Chargers are an interesting package going into the IPL 2012.  There are always expectation attached with this team and this year would not no different.

 

 

Owner(s):
The Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd.

 

Squad: 

 

Captain:
Kumar Sangakkara

 

Coach:
Darren Lehmann

 

Home Ground(s):
Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad
ACA-VDCA Stadium, Vishakapatnam
Barabati Stadium, Cuttack

 

Performance: 

 

Matches: 

 

Pune Warriors India

The new entrant to IPL in 2011, Pune Warriors India was captained by Yuvraj Singh in IPL4.  They bought Sourav Ganguly when Kolkata Knight Riders didn’t want Ganguly’s services.  Ganguly will lead the team in Yuvraj’s absence this year as Yuvraj is recovering from cancer after his treatment in the US.  Pune bought some exiting talents of the game like Graham Smith, Robin Uthappa, Jesse Ryder etc.  Pune Warriors withdrew from IPL just before the auctions.  They later joined back when they were allowed replacement for ailing Yuvraj Singh.

 

   

 

Last year Pune Warriors stood 9th out of 10 teams.  This year they may benefit from Ganguly’s experience as captain.  They have signed Australian Captain Michael Clarke who is in good form lately.  Jesse Ryder who had some personal issues and opted out of New Zealand team will be playing now for PWI with support system.  Along with these players, Graeme Smith, Robin Uthappa, Tamim Iqbal, Alfonso Thomas, Rahul Sharma, Marlon Samuels, Wayne Parnell make them a formidable side.

 

 

Squad:

 

Performance:

 

 

Matches: