IPL 2019: Ranking the teams based on their bench strength

Another thrilling season of the IPL is set to begin on March 23 and the first match of the season will see Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore taking on each other.

IPL is a two-month long tournament, hence it is not possible for any team to play the same eleven players for the whole season as players face various difficulties like bad form, injury etc during the tournament. As a result, all the teams are expected to have strong bench strength in order to do well in the tournament. A team is considered as good as its bench strength.

Almost all the teams have good starting eleven for the upcoming season. But have they got enough depth in their squad that can help them win the tournament? So here, we will find out which franchise has the strongest bench strength and which franchise has the weakest bench strength.

So let's rank all the eight teams on the basis of their bench strength.

#8 Rajasthan Royals

RR one of the weakest bench strength in IPL 2019

Rajasthan Royals do not seem to have good bench strength in batting as they do not have any big name in the reserves. They only have Manan Vohra, Prashant Chopra, Aryaman Birla as backup batsmen.

RR have plenty of all-rounders to choose from as they have Stuart Binny, Liam Livingston, Ashton Turner, Mahipal Lomror, Riyan Parag, S Ranjane and Shashank Singh on the bench. Even though these players are not well-known names, they definitely have the potential to do well.

RR has some good fast bowling reserves like Oshane Thomas, Dhawal Kulkarni, and S. Midhun, while Ish Sodhi will be their backup spinner.

Expected Starting XI:

Jos Buttler, Rahul Tripathi, Ajinkya Rahane, Steven Smith, Sanju Samson, Ben Stokes, Krishnappa Gowtham, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Jaydev Unadkat and Varun Aaron

#7 Kolkata Knight Riders

Kolkata Knight Riders do not have a strong bench strength

The Kolkata Knight Riders have a formidable starting eleven but they do not seem to have a decent enough bench strength.

Undoubtedly, KKR has a devastating batting line up but they do not have enough firepower on the bench as they only have Joe Denly, Rinku Singh and Nikhil Naik as their batting reserves.

The Knights have Sunil Narine and Andre Russell as two brilliant Caribbean all-rounders in the starting eleven, while they have Carlos Brathwaite as a backup option.

As far as their fast bowling is concerned, the franchise has two backup overseas seamers in Anrich Nortje and Harry Gurney and three young Indian pacers in Shivam Mavi, Prasidh Krishna, and Prithvi Raj. Although, they do not have any reserve spinner.

Expected Starting XI:

Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine, Robin Uthappa, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik, Andre Russell, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, and Kamlesh Nagarkoti

#6 Kings XI Punjab

Kings XI Punjab have some explosive batsmen like Nicholas Pooran, David Miller and Sarfaraz Khan in their reserves. Meanwhile, they also have an unknown young player Prabhsimran Singh who was surprisingly bought for INR 4.8 crores at the auction.

As far as all-rounders are concerned, KXIP does not have any hard-hitting all-rounder neither in their starting eleven nor on their bench. In the reserves, they have Moises Henriques as a backup all-rounder and some domestic rookies like Harshdeep Brar, Agnivesh Ayachi and D Nalkande.

In the bowling department, Punjab have the skillful Ankit Rajpoot, Hardus Viljoen, and Arshdeep Singh as backup seamers. However, they do not have any spinner in reserve as they are expected to play all of their three spinners from the very first match.

Expected Starting XI:

KL Rahul, Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Mandeep Singh, Sam Curran, Ravichandran Ashwin, Andrew Tye Mujeeb ur Rahman, Mohammed Shami and Varun Chakaravarthy

#5 Royal Challengers Banglore

Royal Challengers Banglore will be eying their first IPL title

RCB has always been known as a batting heavy team and this season too they have some excellent T20 batsmen in their starting eleven. However, they lack an experienced backup batsman as they only have inexperienced batsmen like Akshdeep Nath, Himmat Singh, Devdutt Padikkal and Heinrich Klaasen in their reserves.

But they have some good all-rounders like Colin de Grandhomme, Moeen Ali, Pawan Negi and Gurkeerat Singh as backup options. The all-rounders will play a crucial role for RCB in the IPL.

As far as their bowling is concerned, it has always been their weakest link but this time it is looking stronger than the previous seasons. They do have some good bowlers like Tim Southee, Navdeep Saini, and Kulwant Khejroliya as backup pacers, while the extremely talented leg-spinner Prayas Ray Barman will be their reserve spinner.

Expected Starting XI:

Parthiv Patel, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Shimron Hetmyer, Marcus Stoinis, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, and Yuzvendra Chahal.

#4 Chennai Super Kings

Chennai Super Kings have a good bench strength for the upcoming season of IPL

CSK's batting won them the tournament last year and once again they have a powerful batting line up. Experienced players like Murali Vijay, Faf du Plessis and young guns like Sam Billing, Dhruv Shorey, and Ruturaj Gaikwad will be CSK's batting reserves this season.

Meanwhile, they have David Willey as their backup all-rounder who is an ideal all-rounder in the shortest format of the game.

MS Dhoni-led CSK have some good Indian fast bowlers like Shardul Thakur, KM Asif and Monu Kumar in their reserves. However, they lack an overseas fast bowling option.

CSK have no issues in their spin department as they have Harbhajan Singh, Karn Sharma, and Mitchell Santner as backup spinners.

Expected Starting XI:

Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni, Kedar Jadhav, Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, Imran Tahir, Mohit Sharma, and Lungi Ngidi

#3 Delhi Capitals

Delhi Capitals will be eying their maiden IPL title

Delhi Capitals have one of the strongest benches among all the teams in IPL 2019.

Even after having a dangerous batting line up, the Capitals have Colin Ingram, Hanuma Vihari, Manjot Kalra and Ankush Bains on the bench which makes them one of the strongest batting line ups in the tournament.

They have some tremendous all-rounders like Sherfane Rutherford, Keemo Paul, Rahul Tewatia and Jalaj Saxena on the bench which gives them many options to choose from.

They are not short of skillful backup seamers as they have Trent Boult, Ishant Sharma, Avesh Khan, Nathu Singh, and B Ayyappa as backup fast bowling options. All-rounder Rahul Tewatia is expected to be their reserve spinner.

Expected Starting XI

Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Colin Munro, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Chris Morris, Harshal Patel, Axar Patel, Amit Mishra, Sandeep Lamichhane and Kagiso Rabada.

#2 Mumbai Indians

Despite having a destructive batting line up which can destroy any bowling attack, Mumbai Indians have Quinton De Kock, Yuvraj Singh, and Aditya Tare as backup batsmen. Anmolpreet Singh and Siddhesh Lad are also there in the squad which gives them plenty of options to choose from.

Even after having the Pandya brothers and Kieron Pollard in the playing XI, MI have the dangerous Ben Cutting and young guns like Anukul Roy and Pankaj Jaswal on the bench.

You can assume how strong MI's fast bowling would be when they have one of the IPL legends Lasith Malinga on the bench. Apart from Malinga, MI have Barinder Sran, Adam Milne and rookie Rasikh Salam as fast bowling reserves, while they have extremely skillful leg spinner Rahul Chahar as a backup spinner.

Expected Starting XI:

Evin Lewis, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Markande, Jasprit Bumrah, Mitchell McClenaghan, and Jason Behrendorff

#1 Sunrisers Hyderabad

SRH have the strongest bench strength for the upcoming season

Even after having such a strong starting eleven, SRH has the best bench strength among all the teams. They have some really good reserve players in all the departments.

SRH have two brilliant reserve openers in form of Martin Guptill and Jonny Bairstow while Shreevats Goswami will be their backup wicket-keeper who can open the innings as well.

They have two tremendous all-rounders like Mohammed Nabi and Deepak Hooda as backup all-rounders and they also have the young and talented Abhishek Sharma who has shown us some glimpses of his potential last season while playing for the Delhi Capitals. These hard-hitting all-rounders will not only strengthen their batting but their bowling as well.

SRH have always had a strong bowling line up and this season too they are not short of talented bowlers. They have Khaleel Ahmed, Billy Stanlake, Basil Thampi, and T Natrajan as their fast bowling reserves and Shahbaz Nadeem as a spin reserve.

Expected Starting XI:

David Warner, Wriddhiman Saha, Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan, Vijay Shankar, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddharth Kaul and Sandeep Sharma

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