Posts Tagged ‘IPL’
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Pujara once again proved that he is one of the finest young players in India at the moment with a brilliant match winning 96 in the second innings of the first unofficial test against West Indies. The innings was much more memorable considering the next highest score in the Indian second innings was just 27 by Shami Ahmed. The Indian captain came into bat with his team tottering on 28/4 and played a superb knock without much support by the middle order.
The batting was inconsistent in both the innings. Apart from Pujara and Rohit, the rest of the batting struggled on a pitch which was consistently up and down. The openers Mukund and Dhawan struggled to put up a decent partnership in both the innings where the former grabbed a pair. Rahane too did not get off the blocks but was unlucky getting run out in the first innings though. Tiwary got to a start in the first innings but did not kick on. The batsmen seemed to be in T20 mode as none of them showed any temperament to dig in and graft on a difficult pitch. It will be interesting to see what the management does for the second test. They might probably push Rahane to open with Dhawan and play another middle order bat in the place of Mukund.
The bowling was very good in both the innings. B Kumar and Shami Ahmed were spot on as both of them troubled the WI A batters consistently in both the innings. The team management might be little worried about the performance of Dinda though as he did not make the necessary impact in both the innings. The pitch had a lot for the bowlers and Dinda came up with modest figures in both the innings. We have to wait and see if P Awana gets a game in the second test. Rahul Sharma was decent but was out bowled by Rohit Sharma in the second innings which again is a cause for worry.
But all in all this was a great victory. It was thrilling game and Pujara’s brilliance and S Ahmed’s grittiness got India A just over the line with 2 wickets in hand. Pujara has the temperament and technique to take on the challenge as India’s number 3 in test cricket a position just vacated by the great Rahul Dravid. The biggest disappointment for me though has been the lack of media coverage for this series. This series is much more important in terms of identifying India’s future players but the coverage in the media has been poor to say the least. Now that the IPL is over and India isn’t playing any international cricket the interviews of IPL stars finds more press than this A tour.
With this win India A has taken a 1-0 lead in the 3 match series and it will be interesting to see if there will be any changes for the second test.
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The IPL V is nearing the Play-offs and we are yet to determine the 4 semi-finalists. The competition this year has been extremely close and we are still unsure of the two teams who will join Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Delhi Daredevils (DD). KKR and DD are without doubt the two strongest teams in the competition. They have won most of their games and have qualified for the play-offs. Both the teams have been excellently led by their respective captains and have a very good bowling attack. The rest of the teams though have been involved in an absolute fight for the final two spots. Let us look at the teams with a chance to make it to the play-offs.
Mumbai Indians – Mumbai Indians are the other strong team who has had a mixed IPL. They have managed to win 3 of their last 4 games and are probably closest to the play-offs with 5 games in hand. Mumbai Indians have struggled with their batting. They have heavily relied on Rohit Sharma and Sachin Tendulkar to get them over the line on most of the occasions which has been their undoing. Probably the induction of Dwayne Smith in the middle order might give them the required spark.
Rajasthan Royals – Rajasthan Royals are the other team who have risen above their underdog status and have posted a serious challenge to the play-offs spot. Shane Watson and Shaun Tait in the playing X1 have given them the required balance and are currently looking like a strong squad.
Royal Challengers Bangalore – The major issue for RCB this season has been their bowling attack. In spite of having Murali in their squad they have been unable to play him due to the squad composition. They have often conceded 170+ totals this season which has greatly affected their batting performance. Their batting too has been highly inconsistent. The heavy reliance on Chris Gayle and AB De Villiers has been striking this season but with Dilshan stepping up to the plate in the recent games things might finally look up for the 2011 finalists. It will be interesting to see if they manage to play Murali in the squad who in spite of taking 8 wickets in 4 games finds himself in the sidelines.
Chennai Super Kings – The defending champions probably have had their worst season by a distance. The team has struggled to find the right combination throughout. Their batting has failed to find consistency and their inability to finish off close games has been the bane for the team from the south. They still have 4 games in hand and are currently looking at winning all the games if at all they want to make it to the play-offs. Things aren’t looking that rosy for the two time champions.
Kings X1 Punjab – They are yet another team who started as an underdog but have far surpassed the pre-tournament expectations. They are currently place 5th on the table with a very good chance of qualifying for the play-offs. In the absence of their captain Adam Gilchrist, David Hussey has led the team admirably well and with the addition of Azhar Mahmood they look a good squad capable of defeating anyone on their day. They have a good bowling attack and are looking good to challenge the top teams this season. It will be interesting to see what their combination would be when Gilchrist returns.
This has probably been the first season where the competition has been so close. There are just few games to go and we are still not sure of the semi-final line up. All the teams mentioned above have a great chance of making it to the play-offs. The teams cannot afford a slip up anymore and the captains would be aware of that. The next few days will be extremely interesting and could decide the fate of most of the teams.
IPL V – Youngsters watch
Posted on: April 25, 2012
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The IPL every year gets exciting not for the matches but for the young talent on display. Last couple of years we have had talents like Varun Aaron, Umesh Yadav, Ravi Ashwin, who have already made the transition to the senior side. Let us look at my top 5 young players of the IPL so far. I have only considered players who have gotten limited opportunity at the national level and players who aren’t known that well before this season of IPL.
AM Rahane (Rajasthan Royals)
(Runs: 332, Ave: 47.42, SR: 140.67)
AM Rahane has already represented India at the senior level. He has already played a handful of T20 and ODI games for India and has been fighting for that elusive spot in the Indian middle order. Rahane has been a rare case in Indian cricket in recent times who has not thrown into the limelight due to his IPL exploits. Much like Pujara who made the team on the basis of consistency in domestic cricket he too has forced the selectors to take a look at him with some brilliant batting in Domestic cricket. Rahane representing Rajasthan Royals has begun this season brilliantly becoming the highest run getter so far this year. His batting has been a treat to watch with his silken drives and orthodox cricketing shots. You hardly see him slogging yet he has scored at an amazing strike rate of 140.67. The more I look at him the more I am convinced that he should make the Indian squad soon. Rahane is the only batsmen in the list and he is been brilliant and it shows that there is clearly a day light between him and the rest of youngsters in India at the moment.
Nadeem S (Delhi Daredevils)
(Wkts: 6, Ave: 21.16, SR: 21.0, Econ: 6.04)
A young left-arm spinner from Jharkhand is another player who has impressed this season. Playing for arguably the strongest team this season Delhi Daredevils Nadeem has been able to exert control in the middle overs and PP overs chocking batsmen for runs. S Nadeem has been an integral part of DD squad this season as he has been extremely economical and has picked up crucial wickets for his side. Nadeem for sure has time one his side and probably needs to be looked at more closely. His economy rate at this year’s IPL is an amazing 6.04 and seems like he is more suited to the shorter format of the game.
P Awana (Kings X1 Punjab)
(Wkts: 9, Ave: 12.67, SR: 10.67, Econ: 7.25)
Awana is yet another Indian pacer who has impressed with his pace and wicket taking ability this season. He has already become an integral member of Kings X1 set up and has done exceedingly well for them. With 9 wickets already this season he is one of the top wicket takers in initial part of IPL V. Awana is a bowler who can consistently bowl over 140 K and maintain decent line and length. His wicket taking ability is a great asset and hopefully he can last the entire season without injuries. Awana is from Delhi and has a decent first class record with a good strike rate. He is another good addition to the Indian pace bowling list and with good performances in domestic scene might come into the radar of the selector. He is another Indian pace bowler to keep an eye on for the fans.
AB Dinda (Pune Warriors)
(Wkts: 8, Ave: 13.37, SR: 13.5, Econ: 5.94)
Dinda is not a new name for the Indian fans. He has been in radar for few years now but has hardly received consistent chances at the highest level. He has been performing brilliantly for his state side Bengal over the years and has been one of the best bowlers this season in the IPL. He did receive his chance in the Asia cup earlier this year but had two contrasting performances. He has been excellent for Pune Warriors so far and has carried their attack this season without much support. His economy rate proves that he hasn’t been easy to get away in the power play overs and he has also picked up wickets regularly. He has been very good with the old ball too as he proved against Pakistan in the high scoring encounter earlier this year in Bangladesh. He has been a vital member in the Pune Warriors squad and hopefully will continue to churn in good performances this season. A good season here might earn him a call back to the Indian squad.
S Dhawan (Deccan Chargers)
(Runs: 208, Ave: 41.60, SR: 126.82)
S Dhawan is probably someone who seems to be around for ages but yet he is only 26 years old. He has been a solid performer for Delhi and has had some good performances in the IPL over the years. Playing for Deccan Chargers this season he has been very good at the top of the order. He did play for India in few games and the one noticeable aspect of his game was his inability to convert good starts. In this IPL season too he has had similar issues kicking on after a start. He has had some good starts for Deccan but has failed to convert them into big scores. Dhawan again is a good young player who could not get into the Indian squad due to the embarrassment of riches at the top of the order. He has once again had a great start to this season of IPL and would want to keep performing to get the selection committee to notice.
Honorable mention:
KP Appana (Royal Challengers Bangalore)
The rest of the young brigade has been largely disappointing. Sourabh Tiwary (RCB), Mayank Agarwal (RCB), Ashok Maneria (RR) Manish Pandey (PWI), Rahul Sharma (PWI) and Ambati Rayudu (MI) all have been extremely inconsistent. All of them have made some crucial contributions to their sides but have not been consistent enough to make the list. Ambati Rayudu and Sourabh Tiwary have been the biggest disappointments. After a great season in the IPL in 2010 both the players had a forgettable 2011 and it seems like they have carried the bad form again to 2012 season. Even though Rayudu just played a blinder against Kings X1 to take his side home, he has been largely inconsistent. Hopefully this innings will help him to get back to form and stake his claim for the national side once again. The tournament has just begun and any of the above mentioned players can turn it around for their respective sides.
Even though T20 isn’t the right format to judge the capability of a player, these guys have put in their best efforts to get noticed. You can only perform in the stage given to you. These players have not only done well in T20 but have very good first class record to go with it. This means that they have only further emphasized their stature with some good performances in IPL. Performing well in the IPL means that you get noticed instantly and it for sure enhances your chances of getting picked for the national side.
No locals for the IPL teams
Posted on: April 6, 2012
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IPL V is in its first few games and again the teams find it hard to find nativity. Even though IPL is an interesting competition, the length is still a worry. The one and a half month tournament is sure to take a toll on the fans.
But the length of the tournament aside the major concern for me this year has been the team composition of the franchises. The teams have basically ignored the local talents in the team in search of glory. I thought that IPL was going to be used as a ground for nurturing and finding young talents but as the years passed by the franchises have gotten greedy. For example Ranji champions Mumbai are unable to find players from the Mumbai team to represent their IPL franchise Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan is even worse as they don’t even have a single local player representing them. The Pune Warriors does not have anyone from Maharashtra/Mumbai team in their X1 in the first game against Mumbai.
Rajasthan has been the worst offender off all the IPL teams. The franchise is been completely made up with Rest of India and the mandatory foreign players but there is no sign of any home grown talent. Ashok Maneria seems to be the only local boy in the Rajasthan Royals team. This I feel is ridiculous and shows how much money hungry the franchises have become. Mumbai Indians play just 2 players out of 8 in their team from the Mumbai team and Deccan Chargers somehow manage to play just one or sometimes 2 local players in their team. How do they expect locals to relate with the team if the entire team is made up of players from different teams? I am not against young Indian players getting a chance but ignoring local players takes away the charm of a city based rivalry.
Ranji teams like Maharashtra might have some good players and need to be explored and I hope that Pune Warriors team gives them a chance in the upcoming games. Creating a city based league is fine but forming a strong team with best talent across the country and the world was not what IPL promised us at the start. BCCI have to think to promote small teams and players. They do not get too much coverage. Rajasthan Royals and Pune Warriors seem to be the biggest offenders this year. The teams should be forced to play at least 2 home players in each team. It is not as if Rajasthan have a poor Ranji team.
This is the exact reason the IPL teams will find less success in the champion’s league. If you take Rajasthan and Pune for example, except for the 4 weeks of IPL none of their team members play together in any form of cricket unless they represent India. Entire year they play against each other and they are suddenly thrown together and are expected to gel as a team immediately. They will be playing teams in the CLT20 who play an entire year together and are more cohesive units in comparison to the IPL teams. The locals who play for team Rajasthan in Ranji trophy might actually feel little hard done by this situation. Teams like them who compete in the plate championship of the Ranji trophy hardly get any visibility with the selectors and a global tournament like the IPL should be used to showcase their talents.
Even though the tournament has been a success and is here to stay, the organizers need to look to correct the above glaring anomalies.
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This was a question posted to Ravichandran Ashwin, can you believe it? The constant need for the journalists to drag Sachin’s name to every article or interview in India is mind boggling. Ashwin gave a very honest and straightforward answer that he knows his trade very well (off-spin bowling). He did not bring Sachin into his answer. Now a bunch of kids (on the comments section) jump on Ashwin criticizing him for the answer he gave. They would have been happy if he had said “Sachin is the greatest cricketer and I cannot do anything better than him”. Sachin is arguably the greatest batsman of his era but he cannot be good at everything.
Ashwin’s answer was spot on and there is no reason for Sachin fans to jump up and down.
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The IPL season 5 is all set to begin tomorrow in Chennai with a grand opening ceremony. Like in 2011, CSK (Chennai Super Kings) will again start as the favorites. They have been the most consistent team across the seasons with 2 wins, 1 finals and 1 semi-final appearance. The success of the CSK team has been their squad. They were able to retain almost all their key players who made their franchise a grand success. Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay, Mike Hussey, Badrinath and Dhoni have been pillars of CSK batting since season one. Albie Morkel and Dwayne Bravo have fitted perfectly well as the all-rounders in the middle order with Ashwin and Bollinger being the bowling stars.
Ravindra Jadeja has been the only addition to the already strong CSK side. He will probably play in the place of Jakati or Bravo in the squad. The addition of Ben Hilfenhaus will for sure bolster their weak pace attack this season. So overall like all the other seasons, it will be hard to write of Dhoni’s Chennai super kings. They will for be one of the favorites to at least reach the knock-out rounds.
Mumbai Indians (MI) has been the other strong side across the seasons. They were the losing finalists in 2010 and made the semis last year. With Tendulkar stepping down as the captain, this will be a great opportunity for Harbajan Singh to take MI over the line this time. The Mumbai team also has some great batters but their strength has been their bowling. The biggest drawback for the MI team has been their over reliance on Sachin Tendulkar to hold their innings together. The form of Pollard might give some relief to the Mumbai lower order this season.
RCB (Royal Challengers Bangalore) is the other team with an opportunity to win this year. The team is extremely talented and has Chris Gayle in their ranks. The in-form Indian sensation Virat Kohli was the only one retained in the squad from the season 1. The batting in spite of having some good hitters has heavily relied on Chris Gayle to provide them with a blistering start. This strategy of RCB cost them dearly in the finals in 2011. The teams realized that they just had to get Gayle early and they couple pressurize their middle order. They CSK bowlers succeeded doing the same in the one-sided finals last year.
KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders) are the fourth team with a shot at the title this year. The team led by Ghambir had a great 2011 IPL and finally looked like a team playing to their potential. The KKR management completely revamped their side and it worked wonders for the franchise and they will be hoping that their team can go all the way this time too.
The other teams have been hardly consistent and will have to play out of their skins to challenge the top four. The IPL begins tomorrow with a clash between the defending champions Chennai versus Mumbai Indians in the MA Chidambaram stadium. It will be a keen contest but both teams for sure will be little rusty. Even though the tournament is exciting the length of the tournament is definitely a dampener. Hopefully we will see some good young talents coming out at the end of this season.
India’s bowling conundrum
Posted on: August 22, 2011
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A demoralizing and humiliating 4-0 whitewash, India’s first such loss overseas since their 3-0 loss to Australia in 1999. The team which had made a huge headway over the past couple of years collectively came down crashing against a team which was much more organized. The Indian bowling has always been a cause for concern.
The bowling attack sans Zaheer has always struggled and this series was another example for the same. The failure of the batsmen did not help their cause either.
The spinners are struggling; the fast men are not consistent enough. Everyone knew that if India had to stay at the top of the rankings they need to develop a good bowling attack. India has failed to do the same and it showed in the current series.
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The Indian selectors were forced to sort of send an A team to West Indies under Suresh Raina as most of the senior players decided to either rest or missed out due to injury. The biggest offenders were Sehwag and Ghambir as they were already aware of their injuries but still decided to participate in the IPL. Sachin and Yuvraj also requested the selectors to be omitted from the squad to the West Indies. The funniest part is that these same players decided to play through the IPL even though they were exhausted after an emotional World Cup triumph. An international series treated with such scant respect is something hard to imagine.
Even though the seniors miss out from the series, this for sure gives us an opportunity to test out our bench strength. Suresh Raina who will be captaining the side will be aware that this isn’t going to be an easy series. No matter which team turns up for this series, India are expected to win both the test and ODI series comfortably against a weak West Indies side. This will be Duncan Fletcher’s first series as Indian coach and he will get the firsthand account of India’s bench strength. For the youngsters though this will be a great opportunity to showcase their talent at the international arena.
Players like Badrinath, Rohit Sharma, and Shikar Dhawan would for sure get an extended run in the 5 match series and they would hope to cement their places in the ODI squad. The ODI team tough would probably suffer the least as we still have Raina, Rohit, Parthiv Patel and Kohli in the team who has played quite a few ODI’s for India. The bowling also has lots of experience in the presence of Bajji, Munaf, Praveen and Ishant along with Ashwin and Mishra. So the ODI team in all probability should do reasonably well but the major issues will be with the test squad which is missing three major players in the top of the order.
The test team will mark the debut of Abhinav Mukund, the dashing opener from Tamil Nadu who has a brilliant domestic record. He will join Murali Vijay at the top of the order. Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and captain Dhoni will have to probably guide the middle order which might consist of Kohli/Badri/Raina in the mix. The bowling though will be at its full strength in the presence of Zaheer, Sreesanth, Ishant, Munaf and Bajji. The selectors have done a decent job with the team selection considering that they were left with no option.
The ODI series begins tomorrow and it gives a depleted WI team a great opportunity to challenge an under strength Indian team. The series for sure will be competitive and Raina will surely want a better series as captain than the one he had in Zimbabwe last year. The series will be important for few youngsters who would want to impress with some good performances. This series also gives us fans a peek into the future, a future without Sachin/Dravid and Laxman in the squad. This will also give us a chance to look at the options we have when the greats eventually hand up their boots. The series starts tomorrow with the one-off T20 game, which will be followed by 5 ODI games. The test series begins on the 20th of June for which Dravid, Dhoni, Zaheer and Laxman will join the team. An interesting series in the offing and in spite of the big names missing from the squad, team India should win both the series comfortably. Good luck to Raina and hopefully he can complete the ODI series with a win under his belt.
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With the IPL nearing the play offs, the Indian selectors will convene in Chennai tomorrow to select the Indian team to tour West Indies next month. It is going to be an interesting selection as it seems like almost an A team would visit the Caribbean at least for the ODI-T20 leg of the tour. The IPL has thrown up some interesting names for the selection and it will all depend on how many seniors want to actually play in the ODI’s. The West Indies team is currently struggling but as seen in the series against Pakistan they cannot be written off completely. The Indian team will also not be as lucky as Pakistan since once the IPL is done, Gayle, Bravo, Taylor and Pollard will be back to bolster the WI line up. So I am guessing that the Indian team will have a good mix of youth and experience.
So let’s look at the possible candidates for the WI tour. After great performances for Mumbai Indians in IPL, it seems like finally Ambati Rayudu might fulfill the promise which was seen in him about 10 years back. He is also a wicket-keeper, so his success will mean that we will have a capable understudy to Dhoni on tours. The other player who might get a look in is Subramaniam Badrinath, who has looked in incredible touch for CSK in this IPL and has also had an impressive domestic season prior to that. Rohit Sharma might also get a call back as he has been in impressive form in the IPL. Apart from these three there are other contenders in batting such as Rahane, Pujara (Provided he is fit) and Murali Vijay.
If Dhoni decides to skip the ODI’s, Ghambir might captain the team to WI for the ODI leg. With very good chance of senior players giving the ODI a skip, this tour will provide excellent chance for young Indian batsmen to prove themselves at international level. The bowling line up though will provide much interesting selection. With Ashish Nehra missing out due to Injury, we will see Praveen Kumar making a comeback to the national side. Ishant Sharma who bowled brilliantly for his IPL side Deccan Chargers will also be in the reckoning. It was heartening to see Ishant getting his pace and accuracy back. Munaf Patel who has been consistent and accurate for the past few months will for sure make the side.
Varun Aaron, the new pace sensation might be the wild card but I don’t think the selectors will pick him ahead of Vinay Kumar and Umesh Yadav. Zaheer I am sure will be rested for the ODI and T20. The spinning combination will be an interesting one. With lots of them doing extremely well in the IPL, it will be a tough pick for the selectors. Ravichandran Ashwin will for sure make the squad and if the selectors decide to rest Bajji for the ODI’s we might see Pragyan Ojha making the cut too. Rahul Sharma who has had a dream IPL with his consistent leg-breaks will also be in the radar for the selectors. Amit Mishra and Iqbal Abdulla who have been very economical in the IPL will also be in the discussion. I am thinking that Amit Mishra might anyways make it to the test team but they might want to try Rahul Sharma in the ODI’s to see how he does at the international level. Piyush Chawla though would be missing out as he had a bad World Cup followed by an equally awful IPL.
The seniors are for sure are expected to be back for the test series and there might not be many surprises in the test squad. With Sehwag missing Vijay might join Ghambir at the top of the order followed by Dravid, Sachin and Laxman. The number 6 spot again will be in the discussion and I hope that they give another chance to the young Pujara. Raina might probably make the squad too unless the selectors want to include another youngster in his spot. The bowling for sure will feature Zaheer, Sreesanth and probably Ishant as the three speedsters and Bajji might be joined by Mishra in the spin department. All in all this is going to be an interesting selection and I hope that some youngsters get a look in at least in the shorter format.
The WI tour will be a potential banana skin tour for the Indians as they are expected to win it comfortably. With the return of the stars WI is not going to be pushovers in either format and the Indians need to play extremely well to win the series convincingly. The number 1 test team needs to win all the three games to avoid losing any points and the ODI team needs to win the series pretty convincingly to not drop down the ODI rankings. So this will surely be in the mind of the selectors when picking the players for the tour. Duncan Fletcher is expected to join the selection meeting tomorrow in Chennai and I don’t think he will have too much of an input as this is expected to be just an introduction exercise for the new Indian coach.
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The IPL “Tamasha” auction just concluded last weekend and the biggest surprise of all was non inclusion of Sourav Ganguly. Sourav was one of the high profile players who found no takers at the auction. West Indians Brian Lara and Chris Gayle were the others to not find any bidders. Sourav who was an icon player for his home side Kolkata Knightriders for the first three seasons was not retained by his franchise. He entered this year’s auction with a base price of $400,000.
The biggest surprise was the lack of interest in one of the greatest captain’s of the Indian team. He did not have a bad IPL III either. Kolkata who did not retain him also did not make an attempt to get him back in the auction. I would say that it would have been a very bitter pill to swallow for Sourav and I don’t think he deserves such treatment. There have been lots of money shed over few players who I feel have been extremely lucky as some of them haven’t played any form of cricket for a long time.
Sourav’s snub should rank as one of the worst in the IPL till date. Being one the greatest players for the Indian team he deserved better and I hope that he gracefully exits the IPL scene. I do not want him to accept any sort of coaching opportunities presented by Kolkata owners as the damage has already been done.
Rahul Dravid and Laxman who also weren’t retained by their respective franchises were extremely lucky to have been picked up by the Rajasthan Royals and Kochi respectively. . Anil Kumble though made the wisest of choices as he decided to pull himself out of the auction at the last moment. He might have had to play for a different state team which probably he might not have wanted or he probably thought that he might also be snubbed in this auction so wanted to stay ahead of the game. Not exactly sure what the reason behind his decision was but it was a brilliant one. He has been made as the “Chief Mentor” for his former franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore.
With most of the teams already settled, it’s sad to see that Sourav Ganguly had to bow out this way as a player from the IPL. I am not sure if he would continue playing domestic cricket either. For all the laurels he had brought to the team India, he for sure needed a better send off. The Kolkata team owner Shahrukh Khan in an attempt to pacify the angry Sourav fans offered him a management position but I am not sure if Dada would be interested in the same. The damage has been already done and a severe blow has been dealt, so accepting a coaching role would only add insult to injury.
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