Indian Premier League 2023 Tips: Squad changes and possible XIs

• Sunrisers and Mumbai well-placed

• Holders Gujarat make odd picks

• Stokes and Root could be duds

---

Bangalore Royal Challengers 7.613/2

Bangalore have yet to win an IPL title. And it would be a major surprise if this mob changed that. They are hugely reliant on Glenn Maxwell balancing the XI despite picking up seven all-rounders. There's a lack of middle-order power, too, whether the use Virat Kohli as an opener or not. The spin threat looks minimal.

Squad - openers: Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli, Finn Allen
Middle-order: Rajat Patidar, Suyash Prabhudessai
Wicketkeepers: Dinesh Karthik, Anuj Rawat
All-rounders: Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed , Mahipal Lomror, Wanindu Hasaranga, Will Jacks, Manoj Bhandage, Sonu Yadav
Spinners: Karn Sharma, Himanshu Sharma
Fast bowlers: Harshal Patel, David Willey, Mohammed Siraj, Josh Hazlewood, Siddarth Kaul, Akash Deep, Reece Topley, Rajan Kumar, Avinash Singh

Possible XI: Kohli, Du Plessis, Patidar, Maxwell, Shabaz, Karthik, Hasaranga, Harshal, Topley, Siraj

---

Chennai Super Kings 11.521/2

Chennai's fortunes rest on getting their players in the right battig order. Getting Moeen Ali in as quickly as possible will be key. Likewise Ambati Rayudu. To that end Devon Conway and Ruturaj Gaikwad must not stand on ceremony. Few punters will be enamoured by the pick up of Ben Stokes. He's a player who puts folks off backing a team for a title, rather than the other way round. The fast-bowling stocks are a worry if Deepak Chahar suffers another injury.

Squad - openers: Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ajinkya Rahane, Shaik Rasheed
Middle order: Ambati Rayudu, Subhranshu Senapati
Wicketkeepers: MS Dhoni
All-rounders: Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Dwaine Pretorius, Mitchell Santner, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajay Mandal, Nishant Sindhu, Bhagath Varma
Spinners: Prashant Solanki, Maheesh Theekshana
Fast bowlers: Tushar Deshpande, Mukesh Choudhary, Matheesha Pathirana, Simarjeet Singh, Deepak Chahar, Kyle Jamieson

Possible XI: Conway, Gaikwad, Moeen, Rayudu, Stokes, Jadeja, Dube, Dhoni, D Chahar, Theekshana, Choudhary

---

Delhi Capitals 6.611/2

Delhi could field a fearsome front five batting line-up. But they could also go round the park with the ball. Mitchell Marsh is a key player as he may be required to balance the XI as the sixth bowling option. Many an IPL franchise has been wooed by Sarfaraz Khan's hitting power but returns are yet to be seen. There's a possibility of fast starts and weak finishes. Rishabh Pant's particpation could well be in jeopardy following a car accident, in which case they will be in the market for a wicketkeeper.

Squad - openers: David Warner, Prithvi Shaw, Yash Dhull, Phil Salt
Middle order: Sarfaraz Khan, Manish Pandey, Rilee Rossouw
Wicketkeeper: Rishabh Pant
All-rounders: Ripal Patel, Rovman Powell, Mitchell Marsh, Lalit Yadav, Axar Patel, Aman Khan, Vicky Ostwal
Spinners: Kuldeep Yadav, Praveen Dubey
Fast bowlers: Anrich Nortje, Chetan Sakariya, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Khaleel Ahmed, Lungi Ngidi, Mustafizur Rahman, Ishant Sharma, Mukesh Kumar

Possible XI: Warner, Shaw, Rossouw, M Marsh, Pant, Sarfaraz, Axar, Kuldeep, Ishant, Sakariya, Ngidi

---

Gujarat Titans 9.417/2

The champs. Last season their batting looked terribly weak. And it was. Yet it didn't matter because their bowlers - and Hardik Padya - were excellent. Hopes that they could win back-to-back titles should have been rested on a statement signing with the willow. Sadly, they decided to go for Kane Williamson. It's a face-palm moment to be frank.

Squad - openers: Shubman Gill, Kane Williamson
Middle order: Abhinav Manohar, David Miller, B Sai Sudharsan
Wicketkeepers: Matthew Wade, Wriddhiman Saha, KS Bharat, Urvil Patel
All-rounders: Hardik Pandya, Darshan Nalkande, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Rashid Khan, Odean Smith
Spinners: Jayant Yadav, Noor Ahmed, R Sai Kishore
Fast bowlers: Pradeep Sangwan, Alzarri Joseph, Mohammed Shami, Yash Dayal, Shivam Mavi, Joshua Little, Mohit Sharma

Possible XI: Gill, Wade, Manohar, Hardik, Miller, Tewatia, Kishore, Dayal, Joseph, Shami

---

Hyderabad Sunrisers 12.011/1

Hello, sunshine. Sunrisers have done the best work of any franchise. Hitherto stymied by Kane Williamson's go-slows (take note Gujarat) and a complete lack of middle-order power, Sunrisers are stacked. Allied with the excellent bowling attack for which they are famed, it would be a surprise if they didn't make the top two. There's even the option of replacing opener Abhishek Sharma, who could be a bit ponderous, with Rahul Tripathi and being flexible with extra spinners or batters.

Squad - openers: Abhishek Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Rahul Tripathi
Middle order: Aiden Markram, Harry Brook, Abdul Samad, Anmolpreet Singh
Wicketkeepers: Glenn Phillips, Heinrich Klaasen, Upendra Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy
All-rounders: Washington Sundar, Vivrant Sharma, Sanvir Singh, Samarth Vyas, Mayank Dagar
Spinners: Adil Rashid, Mayank Markande, Akeal Hosein
Fast bowlers: Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Marco Jansen, Kartik Tyagi, Umran Malik, T Natarajan, Fazalhaq Farooqi

Possible XI: Sharma, Agarwal, Tripathi, Markram, Brook, Phillips, Sundar, B Kumar, Rashid, Natarajan, Umran

---

Kolkata Knight Riders 9.417/2

KKR are very 'meh'. Again. When you've got squillions to spend it just seems rather reckless to hope that Jagadeesan, untried as opener in IPL, does the business. You know they'll be in trouble when they start opening with Sunil Narine again. Litton Das and Shakib-al-Hasan are also curious signings. Shardul Thakur is going to have to play out of his skin one suspects. We'll give credit for signing David Wiese as they needed back-up for when Andre Russell gets injured.

Squad - openers: Venkatesh Iyer, Rahmanullah Gurbaz
Middle order: Shreyas Iyer, Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Mandeep Singh
Wicketkeepers: N Jagadeesan, Litton Das
All-rounders: Andre Russell, Anukul Roy, David Wiese, Shakib Al Hasan
Spinners: Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy, Suyash Sharma
Fast bowlers: Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Tim Southee, Harshit Rana, Umesh Yadav, Vaibhav Arora, Kulwant Khejroliya

Possible XI: Venkatesh, Jagadeesan, Shreyas, Rana, Russell, Wiese, Narine, Thakur, Ferguson, Umesh, Chakravarthy

---

Lucknow Super Giants 8.615/2

Lucknow's decisions to spend almost two million bucks on Nic Pooran perhaps tells you all you need to know about their interest in pragmatism. He'll probably bat at No 3 but he wouldn't even make our best XI. Deepak Hooda is crucial and we're not sure whether that's a good thing. There opbsession with all-rounders (just the ten of them) means they're light on specialist middle-order batters in the event of an injury crisis. The splurge on Pooran means that if Mark Wood plays, Krunal Pandya could be batting at No 6.

Squad - openers: Manan Vohra, KL Rahul
Middle-order: Ayush Badoni
Wicketkeepers: Quinton de Kock, Nicholas Pooran
All-rounders: Karan Sharma, Marcus Stoinis, K Gowtham, Deepak Hooda, Kyle Mayers, Krunal Pandya, Daniel Sams, Romario Shepherd, Prerak Mankad, Swapnil Singh
Spinners: Ravi Bishnoi, Amit Mishra
Fast bowlers: Avesh Khan, Mohsin Khan, Mark Wood, Mayank Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Yash Thakur, Naveen-ul-Haq, Yudhvir Charak

Possible XI: KL Rahul, De Kock, Pooran, Hooda, Stoinis, Sams, Krunal, Bishnoi, Avesh, Unadkat, Mohsin

---

Mumbai Indians 8.07/1

If Mumbai can keep their best players on th park they will take some stopping. But already that is in question. Cameron Green's broken finger has the potential to derail their season. If fit, where does Green bat? Given that he was so destructive in the role for Australia it could be that he opens with Ishan Kishan, taking a consistently disappointing Rohit Sharma out of the powerplay. Combining fragile Jofra Archer and Jasprit Bumrah in the pace department is title-winning but, again, what if an injury occurs? They appear to have overlooked an high-quality spin option.

Squad - openers: Rohit Sharma
Middle order: Suryakumar Yadav, Tim David, Dewald Brevis, Tilak Varma
Wicketkeepers: Ishan Kishan, Tristan Stubbs, Vishnu Vinod
All-rounders: Cameron Green, Arjun Tendulkar, Ramandeep Singh, Shams Mulani, Nehal Wadhera, Hritik Shokeen, Arshad Khan, Duan Jansen
Spinners: Piyush Chawla, Kumar Kartikeya, Raghav Goyal
Fast bowlers: Jasprit Bumrah, Jofra Archer, Jhye Richardson, Jason Behrendorff, Akash Madhwal

Possible XI: Green, Ishan, Rohit, Yadav, Varma, David, Stubbs, Chawla, Shokeen, Archer, Bumrah

---

Punjab Kings 9.28/1

Punjab broke the money record to sign all-rounder Sam Curran. They get a dynamic hitter and an expert death bowler. Their desperation for Curran probably stems from the fact that they are shy on domestic talent. Shikhar Dhawan will have to go to the well again and Arshdeep Singh is top-notch with the new and old ball. Apart from that, they've got very little going for them.

Squad - openers: Shikhar Dhawan, Harpreet Bhatia
Middle-order: Shahrukh Khan, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Atharva Taide
Wicketkeepers: Jonny Bairstow, Prabhsimran Singh, Jitesh Sharma
All-rounders: Sam Curran, Sikandar Raza, Raj Bawa, Rishi Dhawan, Liam Livingstone, Shivam Singh
Spinners: Rahul Chahar, Harpreet Brar, Mohit Rathee
Fast bowlers: Arshdeep Singh, Baltej Singh, Nathan Ellis, Kagiso Rabada, Vidwath Kaverappa

Possible XI: Dhawan, Bairstow, Livingstone, Jitesh, S Curran, Sharukh Khan, R Dhawan, Harpreet, R Chahar, Rabada, Arshdeep

---

Rajasthan Royals 8.07/1

The Royals were excellent last season, losing in the final to Gujarat. Are they stronger this season? Probably. They needed an all-rounder and got one. Jason Holder is an excellent pick up. Less so Adam Zampa considering Ravi Ashwin and Yuv Chahal. Joe Root isn't a great pick, either. We don't expect him to play much and they really need an enforcer at the top of the order. Instead Dev Paddikal will have to reinvent himself.

Squad - openers: Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal
Middle order: Sanju Samson, Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag, Joe Root
Wicketkeepers: Dhruv Jurel, Donovan Ferreira, Kunal Singh Rathore
All-rounders: Jason Holder, Akash Vasisht, Abdul Basith,
Spinners: Yuzvendra Chahal, R Ashwin, Adam Zampa, KC Cariappa, M Ashwin
Fast bowlers: Prasidh Krishna, Trent Boult, Navdeep Saini, Obed McCoy, Kuldeep Sen, Kuldip Yadav, KM Asif

Possible XI: Buttler, Jaiswal, Paddikal, Samson, Hetmyer, Parag, Holder, Ashwin, Krishna, Chahal, Boult