IPL 2018: Complete SWOT analysis of All Teams (Updated)

Hello everyone. I am sorry because I did not publish any article in last four weeks for some problems. But now I'm back. And IPL fever is on. World's costliest Cricket League is going to start from tomorrow. Star India will pay Rs. 54.4 Crore to BCCI per match for IPL !! Just WOW !! :O

Yes, we will miss David Warner and Steve Smith in this IPL 2018. For Sunrisers Hyderabad it's a huge blow as they can't get their main pillar of the team - David Warner in this season. Although Rajasthan Royals may not miss Steve Smith as a player as much they will really miss the captaincy of Smith. Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Daredevils will also miss Mitchel Stark and Kagiso Rabada respectively, while Ravichandran Ashwin and Ajinkya Rahane will try to prove their worth as a Captain as well as a player.

IPL 2018 is starting from tomorrow and here check the complete SWOT analysis of every team.

CHENNAI SUPER KINGS:

Strength:  Home Matches

CSK is always a King in the Home i.e. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Chennai. In Chinnaswamy, there is a dry and dusty pitch as always and CSK has a great spin attack- Ravindra Jadeja, Bhajji, Karn Sharma, Imran Tahir. They also have a good Indian batting core to back up the bowling. And they have the X-factor - Mahendra Singh Dhoni!

Weakness: Fast Bowling

Yes, they have only Mark Wood and Lungi Ngidi. Where are the Indian fast bowlers? No big names. Only they do have Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar. Although Bravo is there as an allrounder. Fast Bowling will be a big concern for MS Dhoni!

Opportunities:

Opportunities are endless. When you are playing in the MSD's team, there are always umpteen opportunities. He allows everyone to go in the field and express themselves! Especially the opportunities for Suresh Raina, Jadeja, Kedar Jadhav, Rayudu to prove their worth.

Threat: Away Games

In this season there is no explosive batsman in this CSK team. In away games when they get flat pitches where 190+ scores are obvious, CSK will get massive threat. Because they do not have strong finishers neither they have strong death bowlers who can restrict opponents in the close matches!

DELHI DAREDEVILS:

Strength:  Batting

Batting is always Delhi's strength. But the difference is this time also Delhi has lots of explosive batsmen with a great leader like Gautam Gambhir. They have Youngsters like Rishav Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Prithvi Shaw, V. Shankar, S. Lamichaane as well as they have some experienced candidates like Maxwell, Munro, Morris, Nadeem, Boult. They have the compact team. DD is one of the most Powerful teams in IPL 2018.

Weakness: Rabada

DD does not have any apparent weakness. They have all things - explosive openers, stable middle orders, great finishers like Morris, Spinners, Fast Bowlers...everything! One big blow for them is Kagiso Rabada is out of the IPL 2018 for his injury at the last moment. So they do miss him. This is the only weakness I can see.

Opportunities:

Opportunities are plenty. There are lots of young talents in this team like Pant, Iyer, P. Shaw, Avesh Khan, Lamichhane (1st Nepal Cricketer in IPL), they should use this opportunity and express their talents. There is Opportunity for Vijay Shankar. He will eager to prove himself after his poor show in the Nidahas Trophy final.

Threat: Death Overs

DD don't have good death bowlers instead of Morris. Rabada is out of the tournament so they will miss Rabada's service. Boult, Shami and other bowlers have a tendency to give away too many runs. Although they have batting powerhouse to back up the bowlers!

KINGS XI PUNJAB:

Strength: Packing Punch

Batting is really strong and packing punch. They do have Chris Gayle, Finch, Yuvi, Miller, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Mayank Agarwal. They also have all types of bowlers, Off-spinner Ashwin, Left arm spin Axar Patel. So really a strong team on paper.

Weakness: Bench Strength

KXIP has a really good first 11 players. But they do not have a quality back up players. If any injury happens or any player is in out of form, then they could struggle to find a proper replacement. Besides that, I can't see any other weakness in this team.

Opportunities:

Ravichandran Ashwin is the new captain of KXIP. Right now he is also out of Indian team in the shorter format. So, for Ashwin, it's a huge opportunity to prove himself. It can be a big year for Captain Ashwin. There is Opportunity for Yuvraj Singh to prove that he is not finished yet. There is an opportunity for KL Rahul as a Wicketkeeper, if he gets success, he can be a permanent member of Indian Cricket team. Opportunities also for Mayank Agarwal and Karun Nair to show their talents.

Threat: Fast Bowling and Forms

They do have Andrew Tye but beside him, no other good fast bowling option is there for KXIP. Mohit Sharma, Sran are struggling heroes, I really don't know how useful they are! Besides that, there are concerns on the form of Yuvraj, Miller, and Gayle.

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS:

UPDATE: Mitchell Starc is out of the tournament. Replacement: Bowling Allrounder of England - Tom Curran.

Strength: Bowling

Bowling is the main strength of KKR as always. Maybe they will miss Starc, but they have the other Mitch i.e., Mitchel Johnson. Replacement of Starc, Tom Curran is not bad at all. They also have two U19 Indian Stars Nagarkoti and S. Mavi. They also have the experienced Vinay Kumar and Russel is also there as an allrounder. And their Spin department is just excellent- Sunil Narine with Kuldeep and Piyush Chawla.

Weakness: Batting

Their batting totally depended on Chris Lynn and Dinesh Karthik. Robin Uthappa is no more threatening! Russel is not consistent, moreover, he is coming after one year ban. Nitish Rana is there, but not sure about his batting position! They don't have proper finisher as well. In this messy situation, U19 star Indian Subhman Gill may get chance to play in the first eleven.

Opportunities:

This is a big year for Dinesh Karthik. He is in the best form of his life. There is really a vast opportunity for the new Captain of KKR, Dinesh Kartik, although he can feel a huge pressure as he is replacing a big and successful personality (Gautam Gambhir). There is an opportunity for Gill, Mavi, and Nagarkoti to showcase their talents. There is an opportunity for Nitish Rana also to continue his flying form of last year IPL.

Threat: Chasing Big scores and Injuries

When KKR need to chase a big score, there are only two power hitters in their team - Lynn, and Russell and both these players are prone to injury. This is a big threat for KKR. Besides that, they do not have finishers instead of Russell, this is a big challenge for them.

MUMBAI INDIANS:

Strength: Batting

The explosive batting line up till the end. They may chase any target. The debutant in IPL, Evin Lewis on top, Rohit in the middle order with Pandya brothers and Pollard as a finisher. They also have Duminy as an allrounder.

Weakness: Spin Bowling Dept

They lost Bhajji in the auction and didn't get any replacement as well. So their Spin bowling department is really weak. They do have a young leggie Rahul Chahar and SriLankan spinner Akila Dananjaya. Besides these, they have U19 Indian left-arm spinner, Anukul Roy.  Krunal Pandya and JP Duminy will help them with other options.

Opportunities:

Endless opportunities for the Youngblood of MI. It's a great opportunity for Pandya brothers, especially for Krunal. If he can grab the opportunity, it may guide him to knock the door of the national team. And for Hardik, he definitely will want to prove his worth as an 11 cr player! Opportunities for S. Yadav, Rahul Chahar, Anukul Roy as well.

Threat: Depth of the Squad

They do have a great first eleven players bunch but they don't have many alternative options available. So if anyone is out of form or gets injured, they may have face trouble.

RAJASTHAN ROYALS:

UPDATE: Steve Smith is not available for this IPL. New Captain is Ajinkya Rahane. And Replacement is - South African Wicket Keeper Heinrich Klaasen

Strength: Batting Line Up

Maybe they will not get Steve Smith, still, they have an explosive batting line up. Captain Ajinkya Rahane on the top (Maybe he will act as an anchor) with D'Arcy Short, Rahul Tripathy, Samson in the middle and Buttler and Stokes as finishers. This is a team of 180+ score team.

Weakness: Spin

Shane Warne was the first captain of this team in 2008 but in 2018 they don't pick any good spinner in the auction. Yes, K. Gawtham is only known name spinner in this squad. Besides that, there is a question about the spin playing ability of the batsman of this team also!

Opportunities:

Opportunities for the young guns to fire. Sanju Samson, Rahul Tripathy, K. Gawtham, S. Gopal should use the opportunities. Opportunity is also there for Ajinkya Rahane. He is the captain of this side for the whole season the first time. We saw his leading abilities in just one test match (India vs Australia, 4th Test) and he impressed all of us. He will look forward to using this opportunity as a ladder to fix his position in the national side.

Threat: Away Games

Spin is the weakness for RR. And in most of the away games, they will get dry and dusty pitches. So that can be a great challenge for the team RR.

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE:

Strength: Batting...obviously!

When Virat Kohli and AB DeVilliers is on your side, then batting will be your strength, that is obvious and as always. In past few seasons, the Bowling of RCB was always a weak point but not this time, they have allrounders, they have good fast bowlers and spinners also.

Weakness: Finishers & Death Bowlers

RCB do have a batting powerhouse on the top and the middle, like De Cock, McCullum, Virat, AB but they don't have experienced finishers. Sarfaraz Khan, De Grandhome, Woakes are inexperienced and inconsistent as finisher role. So, Virat or AB may have to take more responsibilities to finish off the game! Beside this, death bowling could be another weakness as they don't have any specialist death bowlers. Umesh has the habit to give away runs in death overs.

  

Opportunities:

Opportunities are endless and especially for the bowlers. RCB bowlers will try to prove that they are not bad at all. Navdeep Saini, the new domestic star bowler will get an opportunity to showcase his talent. Washington Sundar can be a star of this IPL if he uses the opportunity well.

Threat: Death Bowling

Umesh Yadav, Chris Woakes, Siraj - they are not the well-known death bowlers at all. RCB has to practice hard to overcome this Death Bowling threat. Although they have a powerhouse batting line-up, which can chase any kind of total!

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD:

UPDATE: David Warner is not available for this IPL. New Captain is Kane Williamson. And Replacement is - English Opener Alex Halex.

Strength: Depth of the Squad

David Warner is not available, still, there are minimum two players for every position of the team. The depth of this SRH team is just awesome. Replacement of David Warner i.e., Alex Hales is not a bad option. SRH has batting depth as well as they have great bowlers - fast bowlers, spinners. A compact team. If David Warner was there then SRH would be the best team on paper in this IPL 11.

Weakness: Batting balance

David Warner was the main pillar of this team. SRH will miss him heavily, SRH will miss his batting as well as his captaincy, his aggression...everything! Now the new Captain of SRH is Kane Williamson, he is just the contrary character of Warner, calm and quiet. And because of the absence of Warner, the batting balance of the SRH became a mess. Generally, David-Dhawan pair used to an explosion in the top, but now it's a question that who will open with Dhawan? Wriddhiman Saha is an option because in domestic cricket he is in great form. Recently in club cricket tournament in Kolkata, Wriddhiman was in flying form and in a match he played a 20 ball- century knock while opening the batting!

Opportunities:

Deepak Hooda, captain of Boroda is knocking the door of the national team. It's a great opportunity for him to flourish his talents. Opportunity for Wriddhiman as well, to prove his worth in limited overs' cricket. Big opportunities for Manish Pandey, Basil Thampi, Kaul as well.

Threat: 4th and; 5th Bowlers

SRH has main bowlers but fewer all-rounders. Shakib is the only proper all-rounder. And rest of the all-rounders are all batting all-rounders. There is a threat to give away too many runs by these 4th and 5th bowlers. Otherwise, I can't see any threat in SRH team.

Photo Courtesy: Google

Stats Courtesy: Cricbuzz

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