IPL 2018: Chennai Super Kings' new jersey - What's your opinion?

One of Indian Premier League's (IPL) widely celebrated outfit, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) are coming back into the scheme of things after a two-year suspension hiatus. The two-time IPL champions were banished from the dazzling cricketing event owing to their involvement in controversy back in 2015. And missing out on two years of action, the Yellow Brigade have already become the cynosure of social media and cricket fans with their comprehensive team roster to be lead by their fond 'Thala' Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

In a series of tweets, the Chennai based franchise have unfolded their new kit ahead of the eleventh season of the IPL and Twitterati came up with mixed reactions. Highlighting this year's IPL as the 'Summer of 18,' the official twitter handle posted a picture of some of the players including Ambati Rayudu, Murali Vijay and Kedar Jadhav in their latest kit for the upcoming season. The tweet read, "Glimpse of the summer. The Pride is in town! #PrideOf18 #WhistlePodu."

A varied reaction came in from Tweeple came as there were plenty of Ooh and aahs.

One of the most powerful T20 franchises, CSK forged their squad based on experience. While they retained MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja, they let go seasoned spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. To compensate, they roped in another time served off-spinner Harbhajan Singh. The two-time IPL winners used their two RTM cards to bring back Faf du Plessis and Dwayne Bravo. However, the team haven't spent much on pacers they have reinforced their arsenal with batting powerhouses and spinners.

Chennai Super Kings will take on holders Mumbai Indians to kick-start the Indian Premier League 2018 on April 7 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

Chennai Super Kings complete squad: MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina, Kedar Jadhav, Dwayne Bravo. Karn Sharma, Shane Watson, Shardul Thakur, Ambati Rayudu, Murali Vijay, Harbhajan Singh, Faf Du Plessis, Mark Wood, Sam Billings, Imran Tahir, Deepak Chahar, Mitchell Santner, Lungisani Ngidi, Asif K M, N Jagadeesan, Kanishk Seth, Monu Singh, Dhruv Shorey, Kshitiz Sharma, Chaitanya Bishnoi

Via : http://www.timesnownews.com

IPL 2018: South African Spin Wizard Imran Tahir's preparation for CSK stint will make all Tamils proud

IPL 2018: South African Spin Wizard Imran Tahir's preparation for CSK stint will make all Tamils proud

The excitement around the next edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is palpable. The cash-rich tournament might be a good two months away at the moment but fans are tuned in already thanks to the action-packed auctions.

With new squads, new playing XIs, new captains, and new coaches, cricket fanatics can't wait for IPL 2018 to kick-off. And it isn't just the fans who are bracing themselves for the T20 extravaganza, the players, too, seem to be equally excited.

South Africa's Imran Tahir recently gave a glimpse of his preparation for IPL 11. It didn't have anything to do with the game of cricket, per se, but showed how much the ace leg-spinner is thinking about his near two-month stay in India from April.

Tahir will be representing the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), who return along with the Rajasthan Royals after a two-year hiatus, in the upcoming IPL. The 38-year-old will join hands with the likes of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Suresh Raina and compatriot Faf du Plessis to try and give the 'Yellow Army' its past glory.


While representing the mighty CSK can be hard in itself, Tahir will have another challenge that he'll have to face head-on. And that, of course, is the test of communicating in the local language of Tamil.

As it turns out, the veteran is a step ahead in his preparation to master this challenge. Tahir shared a post on his official Twitter handle recently, where he introduced his followers to his Tamil teacher - Prasanna.

Imran Tahir (R) with his Tamil teacher Prasanna , Twitter

Tahir's guru is of Indian origin and also happens to be the Performance Analyst of the South African cricket team.

Meanwhile, Tahir will continue to share the IPL dressing room with Dhoni after spending the past two years with him at Rising Pune Supergiant. The duo is currently competing in a six-match ODI series in South Africa.

IPL 2018: KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS, RAJASTHAN ROYAL OPEN TO TIME CHANGE, BCCI MAY CONSIDER

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is likely to take a favorable call on the proposed changes to the timings of the matches of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Some franchises have seen merit in the idea, supposedly mooted by Star, and are understood to have conveyed this to the regulators. Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals have made it clear that they are comfortable with the change of timings, if not necessarily for the overlap of the matches.

“Look they are proposing to advance the games by 30 minutes — 3.30 pm for the afternoon games and 7.30 pm for night games. We see nothing wrong there. An early finish is in everyone’s interest. In-stadia public can go home early. It would be safe for them too. We will have an issue if there is an overlap of the games,” Venky Mysore, the CEO of the Shah Rukh Khan owned Kolkata franchise, told Mirror.

The original proposal was to start the evening games at 5.30pm and night matches at 7 pm but in the face of some opposition from certain teams, there seems to be some adjustments in the proposals. The teams have been explained that the viewership of the matches in the evening declines by 25 per cent in the last hour as the average match duration is three hours 24 minutes. The matches, more often than not, end after 11 pm. It is further argued that it would be difficult for in-stadia fans to find transport back home in places like Delhi, Kolkata and smaller cities like Jaipur.

Agrees Ranjit Balthakur of Rajasthan Royals. “We would prefer an early finish. In Jaipur, people tend to sleep early. If there are no doubleheaders, we are comfortable. In fact I have suggested that on weekends, instead of evening games, we can have breakfast games,” the CEO of the Jaipur team said.

The BCCI has not come out with its policy but an argument has also been made that players reach hotels only by 1 am after finishing the post-match formalities. Given the busy travel schedule during the league, the players often take flight early in the morning after a late arrival at the hotel. Early starts can lead to extra rest time for the players, it has been argued.

The biggest deciding factor yet could be the sponsors, who apparently don't get appropriate exposure during the post-match presentation. The presentations happen around 11.30 pm, by when viewers, both inside the ground and of television, won’t be there in big numbers.

The BCCI and IPL officials were not immediately available but the authorities seem to be sensitive to the view that there is transport discomfort after 11.30 pm.

There is a chance that the timings will be tweaked so that the matches end by 10.30 pm, not 11.30 pm.

Production bid delayed

Meanwhile, it has been learnt that the bidding date for the production services of the IPL and domestic games has been postponed by a week.

The BCCI has informed the concerned parties that the bidding will now happen on February 19, instead of February 12.

#IPL2018 - This is how All 8 Teams stack up after 2 day IPL 2018 Auction - Complete Squads

The mega two-day Indian Premier 2018 auction is over. Across Saturday and Sunday, the eight franchisees assembled under one roof to rebuild their squad for the upcoming season of the cash-rich IPL.


England allrounder Ben Stokes was the costliest buy while Jaydev Unadkat turned out to be the most expensive India cricketer at the auction.

Here are the squads of the eight teams after the auction:


CHENNAI SUPER KINGS [25 players]MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina, Kedar Jadhav, Dwayne Bravo. Karn Sharma, Shane Watson, Shardul Thakur, Ambati Rayudu, Murali Vijay, Harbhajan Singh, Faf Du Plessis, Mark Wood, Sam Billings, Imran Tahir, Deepak Chahar, Mitchell Santner, Lungisani Ngidi, Asif K M, N Jagadeesan, Kanishk Seth, Monu Singh, Dhruv Shorey, Kshitiz Sharma, Chaitanya Bishnoi


DELHI DAREDEVILS [25 players]
Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Chris Morris, Glenn Maxwell, Kagiso Rabada, Amit Mishra, Shahbaz Nadeem, Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tewatia, Mohammad Shami, Gautam Gambhir, Trent Boult, Colin Munro, Daniel Christian, Jason Roy, Naman Ojha, Prithvi Shaw, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Avesh Khan, Abhishek Sharma, Jayant Yadav, Harshal Patel, Manjot Kalra, Sandeep Lamichhane, Sayan Ghosh

KINGS XI PUNJAB [21 players]Axar Patel, KL Rahul, Ravichandran Ashwin, Andrew Tye, Aaron Finch, Marcus Stoinis, Karun Nair, Mujeeb Zadran, Ankit Singh Rajpoot, David Miller, Mohit Sharma, Barinder Singh Sran, Yuvraj Singh, Christopher Gayle, Ben Dwarshuis, Akshdeep Nath, Manoj Tiwary, Mayank Agarwal, Manzoor Dar, Pardeep Sahu, Mayank Dagar


KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS [19 players]Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Chris Lynn, Mitchell Starc, Dinesh Karthik, Robin Uthappa, Kuldeep Singh Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Nitish Rana, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Mitchell Johnson, Shubman Gill, Ranganath Vinay Kumar, Rinku Singh, Cameron Delport, Javon Searless, Apoorv Vijay Wankhade, Ishank Jaggi

MUMBAI INDIANS [25 players]Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Krunal Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Kieron Pollard, Pat Cummins, Evin Lewis, Suryakumar Yadav, Ben Cutting, Mustafizur Rahman, Rahul Chahar, Pradeep Sangwan, Jason Behrendorff, Jean-Paul Duminy, Saurabh Tiwary, Tajinder Dhillon, Akila Dhananjaya, Nidheesh M D Dinesan, Aditya Tare, Siddhesh Dinesh Lad, Mayank Markande, Sharad Lumba, Anukul Roy, Mohsin Khan

RAJASTHAN ROYALS [23 players]Steve Smith, Benjamin Stokes, Jaydev Unadkat, Sanju Samson, Jofra Archer, Krishnappa Gowtham, Jos Buttler, Ajinkya Rahane, Darcy Short, Rahul Tripathi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Zahir Khan Pakteen, Ben Laughlin, Stuart Binny, Dushmantha Chameera, Anureet Singh, Aryaman Vikram Birla, Midhun S, Shreyas Gopal, Prashant Chopra, Jatin Saxena, Ankit Sharma, Mahipal Lomror

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE [24 players]Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Sarfaraz Khan, Chris Woakes, Yuzvendra Singh Chahal, Umesh Yadav, Brendon McCullum, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini, Quinton De Kock, Mohammed Siraj, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Colin De Grandhomme, M. Ashwin, Parthiv Patel, Moeen Ali, Mandeep Singh, Manan Vohra, Pawan Negi, Tim Southee, Kulwant Khejroliya, Aniket Choudhary, Pavan Deshpande, Anirudha Ashok Joshi

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD [25 players]David Warner, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Manish Pandey, Rashid Khan Arman, Shikhar Dhawan, Wriddhiman Saha, Siddarth Kaul, Deepak Hooda, Syed Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, Kane Williamson, Carlos Brathwaite, Shakib Al Hasan, Yusuf Pathan, Shreevats Goswami, Mohammad Nabi, Chris Jordan, Basil Thampi, T Natarajan, Sachin Baby, Bipul Sharma, Syed Mehdi Hasan, Ricky Bhui, Tanmay Agarwal

IPL auction 2018 highlights: Ben Stokes most expensive player at Rs 12.5 cr, Chris Gayle, Lasith Malinga unsold !

While Gautam Gambhir will be moving to Delhi Daredevils from KKR , Chris Gayle and Lasith Malinga failed to find any takers. Here are the highlights from Day 1 of IPL 2018 auction.

IPL Auction 2018: Complete list of players sold and unsold

IPL Auctions 2018 Complete player list of sold and unsold players with price and money and teams which have bought them.

The highly anticipated auctions for the 11th season of Indian Premier League will start on Saturday, with all the franchises bidding for the players they wish to bring to their team for the upcoming tournament that will start from April 1, 2018. On January 4, the teams announced the players who will be retained in their squad for the season. A total of 578 players have been finalised by the IPL Governing Council to go under the hammer on auctions which will take place on January 27 and 28 in Bangalore.

A total of 360 Indian players, including those who are currently out of the international squad such as Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir and Harbhajan Singh are available for the franchises. Apart from the Indian capped players, several foreign stars including the likes of Ben Stokes, Colin Munro and Aaron Finch are also in the pool. Uncapped talent, who have made names in the domestic tournament, such as Mayank Agarwal, Manan Vohra and Rajneesh Gurbani, will also go under the hammer when the auction starts.

IPL Auction 2018 Live updates

Here is the list of players sold in the IPL 2018 Auction and where they’re headed

Uncapped fast bowlers Set 1:

Kulwant Khejroliya – Sold to Royal Challengers Bangalore at Rs 85 lakh

Siddharth Kaul – Sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad at Rs 3.8 crore

T Natarajan – Sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad at Rs 40 lakh

Basil Thampi – Sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad at Rs 95 lakh

Rajneesh Gurbani – UNSOLD

Aniket Choudhary – Sold to Royal Challengers Bangalore at Rs 30 lakh

Syed Khaleel Ahmed – Sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad at Rs 3 crore

Navdeep Saini – Sold to Royal Challengers Bangalore at Rs 3 crore

Avesh Khan – Sold to Delhi Daredevils for Rs 70 lakh

Ankit Singh Rajpoot – Sold to Kings XI Punjab for Rs 3 crore

 

Uncapped Wicketkeeper Set 1:

Jitesh Sharma – UNSOLD

Ishan Kishan – Sold to Mumbai Indians for Rs 6.2 crore

Nikhil Naik – UNSOLD

Ben McDermott – UNSOLD

Aditya Tare – UNSOLD

Ankush Bains – UNSOLD

Vishnu Vinod – UNSOLD

Sheldon Jackson – UNSOLD

Prashant Chopra – UNSOLD

 

Uncapped Allrounder Set 1:

Rahul Tewatia – Sold to Delhi Daredevils at Rs 3 crore

Deepak Hooda – Retained via RTM by Sunrisers Hyderabad at Rs 3.6 crore

Vijay Shankar – Sold to Delhi Daredevils at Rs 3.2 crore

Harshal Patel – Sold to Delhi Daredevils for 20 lakh

Kamlesh Nagarkoti – Sold to Kolkata Knight Riders for 3.2 crore

Krunal Pandya – Retained via RTM by Mumbai Indians at Rs 8.8 crore

Nitish Rana – Sold to Kolkata Knight Riders at Rs 3.4 crore

D’Arcy Short – Sold to Rajasthan Royals at Rs 4  crore

Shivam Dube – UNSOLD

Jofra Archer – Sold to Rajasthan Royals at Rs 7.2 crore

 

Uncapped Batsman Set 1:

Suryakumar Yadav – Sold to Mumbai Indians at Rs 3.2 crore

Shubman Gill – Sold to Kolkata Knight Riders at Rs 1.8 crore

Ishank Jaggi – Sold to Kolkata Knight Riders at Rs 20 lakh

Ricky Bhui – Sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad at Rs 20 lakh

Mayank Agarwal – Sold to Kings XI Punjab at Rs 1 lakh

Himanshu Rana – UNSOLD

Rahul Tripathi – Sold to Rajasthan Royals at Rs 3.4 crore

Manan Vohra – Sold to Royal Challengers Bangalore at Rs 1.1 crore

Siddhesh Lad – UNSOLD

Prithvi Shaw – Sold to Delhi Daredevils at Rs 1.2 crore

 

Spin bowlers Set 1:

Piyush Chawla – Retained via RTM by Kolkata Knight Riders at Rs 4.2 crore

Imran Tahir – Sold to Chennai Super Kings at Rs 1 crore

Ish Sodhi – UNSOLD

Karn Sharma – Sold to Chennai Super Kings at Rs 5 crore

Rashid Khan – Retained via RTM by Sunrisers Hyderabad at Rs 9 crore

Amit Mishra – Sold to Delhi Daredevils at Rs 4 crore

Samuel Badree – UNSOLD

Yuzvendra Chahal – Retained via RTM by Royal Challengers Bangalore at Rs 6 crore

Adam Zampa – UNSOLD

Kuldeep Yadav – Retained via RTM by Kolkata Knight Riders at Rs 5.8 crore

 

Fast bowlers Set 1: 

Mustafizur Rahman – Sold to Mumbai Indians at Rs 2.2 crore

Mitchell Johnson – UNSOLD

Josh Hazlewood – UNSOLD

Pat Cummins – Sold to Mumbai Indians at Rs 5.4 crore

Umesh Yadav – Sold to Royal Challengers Bangalore at Rs 4.2 crore

Tim Southee – UNSOLD

Ishant Sharma – UNSOLD

Mohammed Shami – Retained via RTM by Delhi Daredevils at Rs 3 crore

Mitchell McClenaghan – UNSOLD

Kagiso Rabada – Retained via RTM by Delhi Daredevils at Rs 4.2 crore

Lasith Malinga – UNSOLD

 

Wicketkeeper Set 1:

Parthiv Patel – UNSOLD

Quinton de Kock – Sold to Royal Challengers Bangalore at Rs 2.8 crore

Wriddhiman Saha – Sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad at Rs 5 crore

Jonny Bairstow – UNSOLD

Dinesh Karthik – Sold to Kolkata Knight Riders at Rs 7.4 crore

Naman Ojha – UNSOLD

Robin Uthappa – Retained via RTM by Kolkata Knight Riders at Rs 6.4 crore

Sanju Samson – Sold to Rajasthan Royals at Rs 8 crore

Ambati Rayadu – Sold to Chennai Super Kings at Rs 2.2 crore

Sam Billings – UNSOLD

Jos Buttler – Sold to Rajasthan Royals at Rs 4.4 crore

 

Allrounder Set 1:

Chris Woakes – Sold to Royal Challengers Bangalore at Rs 7.4 crore

Carlos Brathwaite – Sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad at Rs 2 crore

Shane Watson – Sold to Chennai Super Kings at Rs 4 crore

Kedar Jadhav – Sold to Chennai Super Kings at Rs 7.8 crore

Colin de Grandhomme – Sold to Royal Challengers Bangalore at Rs 2.2 crore

James Faulkner – UNSOLD

Yusuf Pathan – Sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad at Rs 1.9 crore

Colin Munro – Sold to Delhi Daredevils at Rs 1.9 crore

Stuart Binny – Sold to Rajasthan Royals at Rs 50 lakh

Marcus Stoinis – Retained via RTM by Kings XI Punjab at Rs 6.2 crore

Moeen Ali – Sold to Royal Challengers Bangalore at Rs 1.7 crore

 

Batsman Set 1:

Karun Nair – Sold to Kings XI Punjab at Rs 5.6 crore

KL Rahul – Sold to Kings XI Punjab at Rs 11 crore

Murali Vijay – UNSOLD

David Miller – Retained via RTM by Kings XI Punjab at Rs 3 crore

Aaron Finch – Sold to Kings XI Punjab at Rs 6.2 crore

Brendon McCullum – Sold to Royal Challengers Bangalore at Rs 3.6 crore

Jason Roy – Sold to Delhi Daredevils at Rs 1.5 crore

Chris Lynn – Sold to Kolkata Knight Riders at Rs 9.6 crore

Hashim Amla – UNSOLD

Manish Pandey – Sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad at Rs 11 crore

Martin Guptill – UNSOLD

 

Marquee Players set 2:

Harbhajan Singh – Sold to Chennai Super Kings at Rs 2 crore

Shakib Al Hasan – Sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad at Rs 2 crore

Glenn Maxwell – Sold to Delhi Daredevils at Rs 9 crore

Gautam Gambhir – Sold to Delhi Daredevils at Rs 2.8 crore

Dwayne Bravo – Retained via RTM by Chennai Super Kings at Rs Rs 6.4 crore

Kane Williamson – Sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad at Rs 3 crore

Joe Root – UNSOLD

Yuvraj Singh – Sold to Kings XI Punjab at Rs 2 crore

 

Marquee Players Set 1: 

Shikhar Dhawan – Retained via RTM by Sunrisers Hyderabad at Rs 5.2 crore

Ravichandran Ashwin – Sold to Kings XI Punjab at Rs 7.6 crore

Kieron Pollard – Retained via RTM by Mumbai Indians at Rs 5.4 crore

Chris Gayle – UNSOLD

Ben Stokes – Sold to Rajasthan Royals at Rs 12.50 crore

Faf du Plessis – Sold to Chennai Super Kings at Rs 1.6 crore

Ajinkya Rahane – Retained via RTM by Rajasthan Royals at Rs 4 crore

Mitchell Starc – Sold to Kolkata Knight Riders at Rs. 9.4 crore

IPL 2018 auction: Five uncapped Indian players who can hit jackpot #IPL2018

IPL 2018 auction: Five uncapped Indian players who can hit jackpot #IPL2018

An Indian Premier League (IPL) auction is a stage where the word ‘surprise’ is an understatement. We have seen relatively lesser known and uncapped players getting snapped by teams at astounding prices and this year will be no different.

Here we take a look at five uncapped Indian players who can hit jackpot in this auction:

Krunal Pandya – Krunal has established himself as an utility player in this format and was one of the important members of the triumphant Mumbai Indians team. Hardik Pandya’s brother scored 243 runs at an average of 34.71 in the last edition and also took two wickets. It is highly likely that Mumbai Indians will use the right to match option for him.

Prithvi Shaw – Although Shaw was unsold in the previous auction, few will bet on a repeat of a similar result this weekend. The captain of the Indian under-19 cricket team is expected to be on the radar of all the teams and everyone has taken note of his sterling performances in the Ranji Trophy and the ongoing U-19 World Cup.


Deepak Hooda – The big-hitting Hooda has represented Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad in the previous editions. He is also an off-spinner and was picked up by Sunrisers Hyderabad for an astounding Rs 4.2 crore in 2016. Having played 41 matches, the Baroda man is an experienced customer in this tournament.

Kamlesh Nagarkoti – This teenage tearaway has generated quite a buzz in the ongoing U-19 World Cup with his speed and as fast bowlers are always in high demand in the T20 format, it won’t be a surprise if franchises go all out for him in the auction. There’s a good chance that Rajasthan Royals will go for him in the auction as he will also give the team a local connect.

Rajneesh Gurbani – The find of the Ranji season, Rajneesh was one of the main reasons behind Vidarbha's fairytale run. He finished the season as the second-highest wicket-taker with 39 wickets. A proven swing bowler in Indian conditions would appeal to many franchises and having tasted blood with Vidarbha, his winning mentality will also help him settle down quickly in the slam bang format.