IPL 2021 Team Squads

Inarguably the biggest T20 extravaganza of the cricketing world, the Indian Premier League (IPL) is just around the corner. While the teams get ready for yet another season of exciting action even with the threat of COVID-19 hanging over, Desibets presents to you IPL 2021 team squads.

The three-time IPL champions (2010, 2011, and 2018) are trying to rebound from their worst season of all time. Having finished 7th in 2020, the MS Dhoni led side will look to prove their naysayers wrong. The return of seniors like Suresh Raina and Dwayne Bravo to go with the additions of Moeen Ali and Robin Uthappa lends variety to CSK.

Chennai Super Kings Squad: MS Dhoni (C), Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Sam Curran, Faf Du Plessis, Deepak Chahar, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Narayanan Jagadeesan, Lungi Ngidi, Shardul Thakur, Ambati Rayudu, R Sai Kishore, Mitchell Santner, Karn Sharma, Imran Tahir, KM Asif, Krishnappa Gowtham, Moeen Ali, Cheteshwar Pujara, Harishankar Reddy, Bhagath Verma, C Hari Nishanth, Robin Uthappa.

The injury to Shreyas Iyer has opened the door for Rishabh Pant’s captaincy debut. The Capitals have been steady improvers over the last two seasons and have been runners-up last season. Iyer’s absence leaves the door for the likes of Sam Billings to step up.

Delhi Capitals squad: Rishabh Pant (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Ishant Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane, Axar Patel, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan, Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Praveen Dubey, Lalit Yadav, Chris Woakes, Steve Smith, Umesh Yadav, Ripal Patel, Vishnu Vinod, Lukman Meriwala, M Siddharth, Tom Curran, Sam Billings.

The two-time champions (2012 & 2014) have struggled to leave their mark in the recent years and have finished fifth in consecutive seasons. Eoin Morgan will captain for an entire season and the side will hope his aggressive blueprint with England will help revive their hopes in IPL.

Kolkata Knight Riders squad: Eoin Morgan (C), Dinesh Karthik, Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Gurkeerat Singh (replacement of Rinku Singh), Rahul Tripathi, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Pat Cummins, Prasidh Krishna, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi, Varun Chakravarthy, Andre Russell, Tim Seifert, Sunil Narine, Shakib Al Hasan, Sheldon Jackson, Harbhajan Singh, Vaibhav Arora, Karun Nair, Ben Cutting, Venkatesh Iyer, Pawan Negi.

Two-time defending Champions and a tournament-record five times winner, the Mumbai Indians will once again be the team to beat. With captain Rohit Sharma leading an array of T20 stars from across the globe, Mumbai Indians have a tough ask in finding who should sit on the bench!

Mumbai Indians squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Quinton De Kock, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Chris Lynn, Amolpreet Singh, Saurabh Tiwary, Aditya Tare, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Anukul Roy, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Rahul Chahar, Jayant Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Mohsin Khan, Adam Milne, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Piyush Chawla, James Neesham, Yudhvir Singh, Marco Jansen, Arjun Tendulkar.

The 2014 edition runners-up haven’t done anything worthwhile otherwise and are desperate for success. A change of name is the first change attempted, as KL Rahul looks to improve their consecutive sixth-place finishes.

Punjab Kings squad: KL Rahul (C), Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Nicholas Pooran, Mandeep Singh, Sarfaraz Khan, Deepak Hooda, Prabhsimran Singh, Mohammed Shami, Chris Jordan, Darshan Nalkande, Ravi Bishnoi, Murugan Ashwin, Arshdeep Singh, Harpreet Brar, Ishan Porel, Jhye Richardson, Riley Meredith, Dawid Malan, Shahrukh Khan, Moises Henriques, Jalaj Saxena, Utkarsh Singh, Saurabh Kumar, Fabian Allen.

The inaugural champions in 2008, the Royals couldn’t do anything noteworthy in the next editions. The last two seasons saw them finish 7th and 8th respectively, so a reboot is needed. New captain Sanju Samson will hope that Jofra Archer’s absence doesn’t hurt their chances.

Rajasthan Royals squad: Sanju Samson (C), Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Riyan Parag, Shreyas Gopal, Rahul Tewatia, Mahipal Lomror, Kartik Tyagi, Andrew Tye, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anuj Rawat, David Miller, Manan Vohra, Chris Morris, Shivam Dube, Mustafizur Rahman, Chetan Sakariya, KC Cariappa, Liam Livingstone, Kuldip Yadav, Akash Singh.

The Royal Challengers have never won the IPL title and the closest they have come is finishing as runners-up in 2009, 2011, and 2016. Virat Kohli will be desperate to prove his mettle in this format and tournament, considering the purple patch he’s enjoying in the international arena.

Royal Challengers Bangalore squad: Virat Kohli (C), AB De Villiers, Yuzvendra Chahal, Devdutt Padikkal, Navdeep Saini, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj, Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa, Shahbaz Ahmed, Pavan Deshpande, Daniel Sams, Harshal Patel, Kyle Jamieson, Glenn Maxwell, Sachin Baby, Rajat Patidar, Daniel Christian, Mohammed Azharuddeen, Suyash Prabhudessai, KS Bharat, Finn Allen (overseas replacement for Josh Philippe).

The Sunrisers are the 2016 winners and are coming off a third-place finish last year. In fact, they have been very consistent with five consecutive playoff appearances. With David Warner back in the leadership saddle, they will hope to repeat the 2016 heroics.

Sunrisers Hyderabad squad: David Warner (C), Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey, Priyam Garg, Virat Singh, Jonny Bairstow, Wriddhiman Saha, Shreevats Goswami, Abdul Samad, Abhishek Sharma, Vijay Shankar, Mohammad Nabi, Jason Roy (overseas replacement for Mitchell Marsh), Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Sandeep Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed, Siddharth Kaul, Basil Thampi, Shahbaz Nadeem, Kedar Jadhav, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Jagadeesha Suchith.