Jarrod Kimber
Welcome to our IPL team maps, where I hate on your personal favourite team using algorithms. We have tried to make these easier to understand this time. So at the top is the teams’ overall rating, which is simple enough to get. On the right is how you play when you bat, and on the left, is when you bowl. If your mark is in, you are not good at something. If it is out deep, you are great. Like CSK at powerplay batting last year.
We take averages and economy into account, but everything is a ratio. We have weighted different things for periods. In the powerplays, taking and protecting wickets is more important. At the death, it’s almost exclusively runs per over.
The other thing I wanted to look at was teams’ use of pace and spin and how they faced or bowled that as well. But let us go through our teams. The pace-spin ratio tells you how much teams use each, the higher the mark, the more they use pace. The lower the mark, the more there is spin.
Chennai Super Kings
The only thing CSK struggled with last year was middle-overs batting. They spent a sack on Daryl Mitchell, so I would assume that is what they were thinking. They also have Rachin Ravindra to do a similar role, but with a little more bowling. He may even open because they won’t have Devon Conway. Considering how well they batted in the powerplay last season, they should have done better in the middle than they did.
But really, looking at this, there are no notes. They are fantastic. We should assume some regressions, because I’m not sure they’re that good when looking at their line-up. But even so, they would need a massive injury issue or some colossal loss of form to not be good again.
I can see why they would like Shardul Thakur; they like having all-around options, and he’s done that job for them.
As we would expect, they bowl a lot of spin: 17% less seam than other teams. They bat very well against it, and their bowling holds up. The one interesting thing here is that they bowl spin well, but don’t bat against it at the same clip. Again, perhaps Mitchell and Ravindra can help with that.
Delhi Capitals
Delhi needed batting, so they picked up Harry Brook, Tristan Stubbs and… Shai Hope? Brook might have fixed their issues in the middle, but that is not happening now. Rishabh Pant is back, and so that does help. They also got Jake Fraser-McGurk as Brook’s replacement. I don’t think they will be as bad as before, because a lot of their good players underperformed last year.
Their bowling actually holds up well, but not at the death. I love Jhye Richardson, even if he’s never done anything in the IPL, but he’s not a death bowler. So that doesn’t help.
They bowl around the league average of pace and spin. They were terrible against the quicks last year, but they bowled it okay. Their spinners were a little under par, but I think we can understand that. However, they also batted pretty poorly against everyone else.
There really are no graphics I can show that make them look good.
Gujarat Titans
The Titans have no weaknesses here, but I don’t love their opening batting. Shubman Gill needs a proper partner, and they haven’t tried to pick up anything obvious for that stop, so that means they are promoting from within. Also, they don’t have Hardik Pandya anymore.
The only other thing I think they need is some powerplay bowling, especially with Mohammed Shami unavailable. Spencer Johnson is a little overpaid, but he could really help.
The bowl a lot more pace than other teams, and I can’t see that changing too much looking at their picks. They also play it well enough that they can make their pitches help their seamers. Their spinners have done well, and they are good at playing spin too.
Kolkata Knight Riders
KKR need to improve their powerplay batting: last year, they were 27% worse than the average team. They signed Phil Salt as a replacement for Jason Roy, but they can only play one of either Salt or Rahmanullah Gurbaz at the top.
With the ball they struggle in the powerplay. Obviously, that is where Mitchell Starc is supposed to come in, but they also have a little backup with Mujeeb ur Rahman. Starc should help at the death as well. At his peak, he is worth way more than 24 crore, but is his current version worth that much? In truth they need to improve at everything.
Last year, they bowled half the amount of pace that other teams did. Starc might change that a little, but that is huge. They batted fine against it, but you can see why they didn’t use it more – because their quicks did not work.
The only positive I have for them here is that their spinners did well. But if you are going to put the ball in their hands this much, you want better returns. And you can’t make your wickets too spin-friendly if your players are going to perform like this against the spinning ball.
Lucknow Super Giants
They needed to fix their batting all the way through. Devdutt Padikkal is a nice little bonus there. Ashton Turner might help a little, but it’s the same batting line up from last year, so they are hoping for better returns from their best players.
They are a great bowling side in the middle and at the death, but they needed new-ball wickets. Shivam Mavi is their candidate for that. They also have David Willey as a backup, but he will miss the start of the season.
Another spin heavy team here, but what is interesting is their quicks actually did better for them. That is something to keep in mind. However, their batting was not as great against pace. That said, they were not good against spin either. LSG would be better off only bowling.
Mumbai Indians
They are a slightly above-average batting team. They’ll want World Cup Rohit Sharma to show up. And they haven’t done much at the death either, but that is where Hardik Pandya could help. Batting him at five would be perfect as a partnership with Tim David. But they don’t have Cameron Green anymore, who scored 450 runs at an average of 50.22 and a strike rate of 160.28 last year.
Their bowling is an issue. Obviously, Jasprit Bumrah’s return will fix some of that. They have already lost Jason Behrendorff and Dilshan Madhushanka, but they have also got themselves some extra bowling. There is Hardik Pandya of course, alongwith Mohammad Nabi, Nuwan Thushara, and Gerald Coetzee. Three very different bowlers, none who can help them in all ways. But I like the flexibility with all this.
Mumbai’s quicks were really ordinary last year, and their batters didn’t handle it too well either. Their spinners had a good record, but that could be partly due to low usage. They also batted well against spin.
Punjab Kings
They were bad at powerplay batting, but they got Rilee Rossouw to help with that. What about the bowling, which was not so great through all phases last season? Harshal Patel will be hoping the revs on his slower balls are back. Outside of that, Chris Woakes? If not, they will need Nathan Ellis and Sam Curran to have much better years.
They use a lot of pace, and that is not working all that well for them. And they also don’t bat that well against it. On the other hand, they are worse when it comes to spin. The map suggests they should wait for the mega auction.
It’s not instantly inspiring, I am afraid.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Their powerplay batting is great, but it drops off a cliff. So they got Cameron Green, who probably needs to bat in the top three to be at his best? It still feels like a lot of batting up top, and then hoping for the best. Rajat Patidar returns to the squad after missing last season, so that should help them in that middle phase.
They bowl really well up top, yet they just paid Alzarri Joseph a lot of money. They bowl horribly in the middle and they got Mayank Dagar who to bowl spin? If they play Lockie Ferguson, he could bowl in the middle, and an over or two from Green could help. But they don’t have a frontline spinner, and they picked a whole heap of seam. Some of that might help them at the death though.
To be honest, they’ve done well bowling 45% more seam than anyone else. And even their batting order likes it. The problem is the other side, where with spin they neither bowl nor bat well against it. Looking at their picks, they have not really fixed this at all.
Rajasthan Royals
Their middle overs batting is a bit light, so they spent almost 6 crores on Shubham Dubey on the back of seven games at the lower level last year. But they also have Rovman Powell to come in there, so it gives them two options. However, I’m not buzzing about either.
They also picked up Avesh Khan and Nandre Burger. Nice little bump for their bowling without paying much at all. But they will be hoping for improvement from within, because there isn’t much here that moves the needle. Last year, they were a pretty average side at everything.
They are not really all that keen on using their quicks, and that seems about right as they haven’t done well. Sadly, their batters have also not batted well enough against the seamers. However, when it comes to turn they are batting really well, and also bowling brilliantly. So they are halfway there. Looking at this, getting Powell to slog pace, and Avesh and Nandre to bowl seems very sensible.
Sunrisers Hyderabad
They were terrible last year, so they spent all their money on a single player when they needed to better everything. But by picking up Wanindu Hasaranga cheaply, they have done very well. I know he had a poor year, but I think he is worth the bet, especially when you consider his batting value also. They have Travis Head too. But 20 crore on Pat Cummins feels like a push, especially seeing how the last time he played in the IPL, he couldn’t stay in the XI.
I kind of feel like they’re playing for the mega auction this year. But there are players like Heinrich Klaasen, Head, and Glenn Phillips who could catch fire and win some games. The problem is, there aren’t that many spots in the playing XI to feature all of them.
They bowl just above the league average in terms of seam, but not well, and that actually gets worse when you look at their batting. When facing spin they are bang on average, but their spin bowling is terrible. So Hasaranga is a great signing. All he needs to do is make all the runs and take all the wickets.
It does feel to me that not much happened to change some of the poorer-constructed teams from last time. But there are a few teams that underperformed because so many players lost form at once. You would have to be unlucky for that to happen twice to you.
