Batting superstars - David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan and Kane Williamson - will be heavily relied upon by SRH to do bulk of the scoring. The likes of Yuvraj Singh, Ben Cutting and Moises Henriques can not only deliver lusty blows, but also slip in crucial overs in the middle and towards the death. Deepak Hooda and wicketkeeper-batsman Naman Ojha have shown what they are capable of in this format and add depth to SRH batting.
SRH were propelled to the top in 2016 by their strong bowling line-up. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Barinder Sran, Ashish Nehra, Mustafizur Rahman, Siddharth Kaul and Abhimanyu Mithun give Tom Moody's side plenty of options through the hectic schedule. Bhuvneshwar, Sran and Rahman in particular were star performers last season. SRH will also look to Mohammad Siraj and Laughlin to contribute with the ball.
SRH have enough firepower to mount a strong challenge in IPL 2017 and their finding a place in the top four should not come as a surprise to any cricket fan.
Complete squad: David Warner (capt), Naman Ojha (wk), Yuvraj Singh, Ashish Nehra, Mustafizur Rahman, Bipul Sharma, Vijay Shankar, Deepak Hooda, Barinder Sran, Moises Henriques, Ricky Bhui, Ben Cutting, Mohammad Nabi, Eklavya Dwivedi, Pravin Tambe, Tanmay Agarwal, Rashid Khan, Kane Williamson, Shikhar Dhawan, Abhimanyu Mithun, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddarth Kaul, Mohammad Siraj, Chris Jordan, Ben Laughlin
2)Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), after a disappointing start to the Indian Premier League (IPL), have grown from strength to strength in the last couple of seasons, ever since Gautam Gambhir took over the reins from former India captain Sourav Ganguly. KKR were in contention to win the tournament last year when they qualified for the play-offs but lost to eventual winners Sunrisers Hyderabad. The Gambhir-led side won the tournament in 2012 and 2014 and IPL 2017 looks promising for the Shah Rukh Khan-owned side after some pretty good picks in the auctions.
Knight Riders will miss the services of Andre Russell, who has been banned for a year from cricket for a whereabouts clause violation by an independent anti-doping panel in Kingston.
While it might go on to hurt the Kolkata-based side but with players like Gambhir, Yousuf Pathan, Manish Pandey and Robin Uthappa in the ranks, it still looks a very balanced team.
Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib-al Hasan, along with Sunil Narine, will keep the side in good stead in a low, slow turning Eden Gardens pitch. The Kiwi seamer Trent Boult and England all-rounder Chris Woakes along with the talented West Indian Rovman Powell were very good picks from the auction that might go on to serve them well for the upcoming season.
KKR will open their campaign against Gujarat Lions in the 10th edition of the tournament at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot, on April 7.
It will be a surprise if the team fails to qualify for the play-offs, given the kind of arsenal they have in their squad.
Complete squad: Gautam Gambhir (capt), Trent Boult, Chris Woakes, Rishi Dhawan, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav, Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Robin Uthappa, Shakib Al Hasan, Chris Lynn, Umesh Yadav, Yusuf Pathan, Sheldon Jackson, Ankit Singh Rajput, Rovman Powell, R Sanjay Yadav, Ishank Jaggi, Darren Bravo, Sayan Ghosh
3)Gujarat Lions (GL), led by Suresh Raina, had a brilliant first season in the Indian Premier League (IPL) last year when they won nine out of their 14 matches and topped the points table, going into the play-offs. Unfortunately, they lost the first qualifier against Royal Challengers Bangalore and then went out of the tournament by losing the next one too against the eventual winners Sunrisers Hyderabad.
The Lions this year bought as many as 11 players in the auction with the intention of strengthening their bowling line up. They picked up a couple of good seamers from the auctions like Manpreet Gony, Nathu Singh and the veteran Munaf Patel but their only big buy was the England opener, Jason Roy. The batting boasts the likes of Brendon McCullum, Aaron Finch, Dwayne Smith and the skipper himself, who would be eyeing to make a mark after being overlooked on a contract with the BCCI.
James Faulkner, Dwayne Bravo and Ravindra Jadeja will fill in the all-rounders' slot with Dinesh Karthik behind the stumps. Although Bravo and Jadeja are likely to miss the first couple of weeks of the season owing to injuries, Lions still look a formidable line-up on paper.
The Rajkot-based team will play their first match of the tournament against Kolkata Knight Riders on April 7 on their home turf at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium.
With players of such calibre, Lions might just be the team to beat in the season and it won't be much of a surprise if they go the distance this time around.
Complete squad: Suresh Raina (capt), Akshdeep Nath, Shubham Agarwal, Basil Thampi, Dwayne Bravo, Chirag Suri, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Manpreet Gony, Ishan Kishan, Ravindra Jadeja, Shadab Jakati, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Shivil Kaushik, Dhawal Kulkarni, Praveen Kumar, Brendon McCullum, Munaf Patel, Pratham Singh, Jason Roy, Pradeep Sangwan, Jaydev Shah, Shelley Shaurya, Nathu Singh, Dwayne Smith, Tejas Baroka, Andrew Tye
4) Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have one of the most devastating teams in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Season 10, with the likes of Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Shane Watson, Kedar Jadhav and the captain himself -- Virat Kohli. The list would have also included the new sensation in Indian cricket -- KL Rahul -- had he not been sidelined due to the persisting shoulder injury which recurred during the Border-Gavaskar series. RCB's injury worries seems to have no end, as Virat Kohli will be out of action for at least two weeks, and even his replacement as captain, South African AB de Villiers, is now out with a back injury picked up during his domestic season.
Young Sarfaraz Khan, who was brought in as a possible replacement for Kohli, too injured his leg in practice and is likely to miss the tournament altogether.
This leaves Shane Watson, now named captain, with a list of problems that could be telling.
The team has specialist bowlers for Twenty20 cricket who, on their day, are capable to take the game away from the opposition single-handedly.
Samuel Badree, Yuzvendra Chahal and Sreenath Aravind are certain to feature in the playing XI. The franchise spent big on getting Tymal Mills, the left-arm fast bowler from England.
In 2016, RCB fancied their chances of winning the tournament but suffered the heartbreak of losing their third final, to Sunrisers Hyderabad.
RCB began the tournament very poorly, winning just two of their first seven matches, before making a stunning comeback. They won seven out of their next eight games and qualified for the final.
Complete squad: Virat Kohli, Shane Watson (capt), Sreenath Aravind, Avesh Khan, Samuel Badree, Stuart Binny, Yuzvendra Chahal, Aniket Choudhary, AB de Villiers, Praveen Dubey, , Chris Gayle, Travis Head, Iqbal Abdulla, Kedar Jadhav, Mandeep Singh, Tymal Mills, Adam Milne, Pawan Negi, Harshal Patel, Sachin Baby, Tabraiz Shamsi, Billy Stanlake
5)When one speaks of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Mumbai Indians (MI) are always spoken of as the big boys. Even though they didn't have best of seasons in 2016, the Mumbai outfit has always been one to follow. The big guns in the side have fired in the past, giving them two IPL titles, in 2013 and 2015. Though least year was middling, with the franchise finishing fifth, there always seems to be something cooking in the side. One to watch out for.
What may be different could be the impact Mahela Jayawardene may have as coach, when he combines with skipper Rohit Sharma. Both will be tested, since this is the Sri Lankan's first foray here as a coach, while Sharma, out with an injury for long, will be seeking redemption, in both IPL and potentially India colours.
MI's purchases include Australian fast bowler Mitchell Johnson, who has been in the news off late for tweeting more than playing. His potential face-off with Royal Challenger Bangalore (RCB) skipper Virat Kohli is something most people would be looking forward to.
MI meet neighbor Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) in their opener in Pune on April 6.
Complete squad: Rohit Sharma (capt), Jasprit Bumrah, Jos Buttler, Shreyas Gopal, Krishnappa Gowtham, Asela Gunaratne, Harbhajan Singh, Mitchell Johnson, Kulwant Khejroliya, Siddhesh Lad, Mitchell McClenaghan, Lasith Malinga, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Parthiv Patel (wk), Kieron Pollard, Nicholas Pooran, Deepak Punia, Nitish Rana, Ambati Rayudu, Jitesh Sharma, Karn Sharma, Lendl Simmons, Tim Southee, Jagadeesha Suchith, Saurabh Tiwary, Vinay Kumar.
6)Delhi Daredevils (DD) haven't had the most auspicious of beginnings to their IPL 2017 campaign. Even before the start of the 10th edition of the Indian Premier League, the Delhi team were dealt a double blow with their two star South African imports -- Quinton de Kock and JP Duminy - ruled out of the Twenty20 tournament. Duminy had cited personal reasons for pulling out while De Kock has a fractured finger sustained at Wellington during the Test series between South Africa and New Zealand. But the Zaheer Khan-led outfit arguably has a bunch of most promising Indian youngsters in their team and will need them to step up to the plate if they are to better their last season's performance.
Delhi will be banking on experienced international all-rounders like Corey Anderson of New Zealand and Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews to fill the void left by Duminy's absence but to find a replacement for De Kock would be much harder.
De Kock, 24, has been a key part of the Delhi outfit after joining them in 2014. He was Daredevils' top scorer during the last season of the IPL.
However, the Rahul Dravid-coached team has a strong Indian core group of batsmen like Shreyas Iyer, Karun Nair, Sanju Samson and Rishabh Pant to rely on and surely a lot will be expected of them this season.
Daredevils were in contention last season for a top four berth till the last match where Royal Challengers Bangalore outplayed them and finally finished sixth in the table in IPL 2016.
Delhi Daredevils begin their IPL 2017 campaign against last year's runners-up Royal Challengers Bangalore on April 8 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
Delhi Daredevils Complete Squad: Angelo Mathews, Corey Anderson, Kagiso Rabada, Pat Cummins, Ankit Bawne, Aditya Tare, Murugan Ashwin, Navdeep Saini, Shashank Singh, Mohammed Shami, Shahbaz Nadeem, Jayant Yadav, Amit Mishra, Shreyas Iyer, Zaheer Khan, Sam Billings, Sanju Samson, Chris Morris, Carlos Brathwaite, Karun Nair, Rishabh Pant, CV Milind, Syed Ahmed, Pratyush Singh.
7) First they changed their captain, then the team's name. Rising Pune Supergiant(RPS) are all set to feature in their second season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). While the other newcomers, Gujarat Lions, made their mark by reaching to the business end of the tournament last year, MS Dhoni's RPScould not replicate the same success in their first appearance and failed to qualify for the playoffs, having finished seventh on the table. Now, the captaincy has shifted from the experienced Dhoni to Australia skipper Steve Smith. Hence, the former captain's role will be restricted in RPS' second edition. Nonetheless he still will have a big role to play.
RPS bagged England all-rounder Ben Stokes for whopping Rs 14.50 crore, which also made Stokes the most expensive overseas player in IPL history. He will be the one to watch out for in IPL 2017.
But the biggest setback for the team has been the pull out of Ravichandran Ashwin from the entire season due to sports hernia.
RPS boast of Smith, Ajinkya Rahane, Dhoni, and Faf du Plessis and have a more settled top six than last year. Smith's skills as captain will also come in handy as they seek a fresh start.
The middle-order looks solid in the presence of Dhoni, Stokes and Du Plessis. Moreover, RPS also have some serious all-rounders in its squad who can turn the game around on their day.
The bowling looks to be the weak spot and could lead to their downfall if the Steve Smith and Co. don't spot the right combination early. Ashok Dinda, Ishwar Pandey and Shardul Thakur will have to work really hard to justify their presence in the new-look team.
Squad: Steve Smith (C), Mayank Agarwal, Ankit Sharma, Baba Aparajith, Ankush Bains, Rajat Bhatia, Deepak Chahar, Rahul Chahar, Dan Christian, MS Dhoni (w), Ashok Dinda, Faf du Plessis, Lockie Ferguson, Imran Tahir, Jaskaran Singh, Usman Khawaja, Ajinkya Rahane, Saurabh Kumar, Ben Stokes, Milind Tandon, Manoj Tiwary, Adam Zampa, Jaydev Unadkat, Ishwar Pandey, Rahul Tripathi, Shardul Thakur.
8) Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) have done well to recruit some solid foreign imports for IPL 2017 but that has never been a problem with the team. The Punjab franchise had some big names in the past as well but that hasn't been converted in Indian Premier League titles. With this team it's either a miss or a hit, there is absolutely no middle ground. They have finished last in the past two seasons and would be fired up to overcome the disappointment of past performances. Another Kings XI trait is the constant change of guards and this time the responsibility has been given to the mercurial Australian Glenn Maxwell to the lead the side.
With the likes of Eoin Morgan, David Miller, Hashim Amla, Martin Guptill, Shaun Marsh and Marcus Stoinis in the team, Maxwell has the luxury to call on some of the best T20 batsmen in the world but it's anyone guess that will this season be a hit or a miss for them.
KXIP finished third in the inaugural Indian Premier League season and were runners-up in 2014. However, barring those two seasons, the team has struggled and more often than not finished bottom of the pile. They have finished last thrice, holding the unfortunate honour in the last two seasons.
But this year, they seem to have a problem of plenty when it comes to class international batsmen. Punjab also have some solid Indian batsmen in the form of Manan Vohra, Wriddhiman Saha while Murali Vijay's participation is still under the scanner.
They will have to rely heavily on Indian pacers Varun Aaron, Sandeep Sharma and Mohit Sharma to lead the bowling department, while also count on all-rounders Gurkeerat Singh and Axar Patel to get the job done.
The Maxwell-led side also has impressive New Zealand pacer Matt Henry in the team and will need to find place for him.
Kings XI Punjab begin their IPL 2017 campaign against Rising Pune Supergiant on April 8 at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore.
Kings XI Punjab Complete Squad: David Miller, Manan Vohra, Axar Patel, Glenn Maxwell (C), Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Anureet Singh, Sandeep Sharma, Shaun Marsh, Wriddhiman Saha, Murali Vijay, Nikhil Naik, Mohit Sharma, Marcus Stoinis, KC Cariappa, Armaan Jaffer, Pardeep Sahu, Swapnil Singh, Hashim Amla, Varun Aaron, Eoin Morgan, Matt Henry, Rahul Tewatia, Martin Guptill, Darren Sammy, Rinku Singh, T Natarajan
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