IPL 2018: 4 teams with strongest bench-strength

Indian Premier League is quite a long tournament as compared to its rival leagues, going on for around 6-8 weeks. We often observe the IPL teams lose momentum halfway into the tournament due to injuries or some players undergoing a bad-patch in their career.

The unfortunate is unpredictable, on account of which, the franchises aim to build the replacements for their mainstream players beforehand to prevent their team from suffering during the tournament.

Let's have a look at the four teams having the strongest bench-strength ahead of the 2018 edition.

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#4 Royal Challengers Bangalore

First Choice Playing XI: Parthiv Patel (wk), Brendon McCullum, Virat Kohli (c), AB de Villiers, Mandeep Singh, Pawan Negi, Chris Woakes, Washington Sundar, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal

Batting: Even after having a ferocious batting line-up, RCB has Quinton de Kock (wk), Manan Vohra, and young Sarfaraz Khan on the bench. Virat Kohli is lucky to have a vast number of options in the middle-order as well as at the top.

Bowling: Bowling is the factor that has always let them down in the past. Coming in 2018, things are different for them with seamers like Tim Southee, Mohammad Siraj, Aniket Chaudhary, talented rookie Navdeep Saini & in-form Kulwant Khejroliya in reserve. The spin-attack is backed up by leggie Murugan Ashwin after already having three spinners in the eleven.

All-rounder: RCB has a variety in the most important aspect of a team in modern-day cricket. Colin de Grandhomme & Moeen Ali will be the ones to keep a cushion behind the mainstream all-rounders like Chris Woakes, Pawan Negi & Washington Sundar.

#3 Kings XI Punjab

First Choice Playing XI: Aaron Finch, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (wk), Karun Nair, Yuvraj Singh, David Miller, Marcus Stoinis, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin (c), Andrew Tye, Mohit Sharma

Batting: You know you already have a threatening batting line-up if you got Chris Gayle to warm the benches. Kings XI Punjab is blessed to have some really good batsmen in the supply that include the experienced Manoj Tiwary, Akshdeep Nath (wk) and of course the Universe Boss.

Bowling: Apart from their starting eleven, seamers like Barinder Sran, Ankit Rajpoot, underrated Ben Dwarshuis, spinners including uncanny Mujeeb Zadran & rookie Pradeep Sahu reserved their spots in Lion's den.

All-rounder: Perhaps the only area where KXIP lacks is a genuine all-rounder who can replace Marcus Stoinis if the unfortunate happens. But that won't be a concern for the management as they bat very deep & can include a genuine seamer to make Axar bat at 7, which he did up to this time.

#2 Delhi Daredevils

First Choice Playing XI: Colin Munro, Gautam Gambhir (c), Shreyas Iyer, Glenn Maxwell, Rishabh Pant (wk), Vijay Shankar, Chris Morris, Amit Mishra, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammad Shami, Shahbaz Nadeem

Batting: Delhi Daredevils is boosted with quality T20 batsmen, both Indian as well as overseas. Apart from the playing eleven, they have some gas in the tank too, having Jason Roy as a backup opener, Naman Ojha (wk), Gurkeerat Singh, youngsters like Prithvi Shaw & Manjot Kalra.

Bowling: DD is blessed to have replacements in the bowling department of the same calibre. Having Trent Boult in reserves is a bliss, Jayant Yadav, Rahul Tewatia and the talented Sandeep Lamichhane are some of the backup spinners. However, they lack Indian pacers with only Harshal Patel as an experienced option in the store.

All-rounder: Gambhir-led side has a genuine all-rounder in Daniel Christian who can pick up from anywhere in the tournament & add value to the team.

#1 Sunrisers Hyderabad

First Choice Playing XI: David Warner (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Manish Pandey, Shakib Al Hasan, Deepak Hooda, Yusuf Pathan, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Billy Stanlake, Siddharth Kaul

Batting: David Warner is the most fortunate captain ahead of IPL 2018, having a squad filled with stars. SRH have classy Kane Williamson, Sachin Baby, in-form Ricky Bhui, Sreevats Goswami (wk) & rookie Tanmay Agarwal as the reserved batsmen.

Bowling: Apart from the mainstay bowlers, one-time champs have Basil Thampi, Sandeep Sharma, Chris Jordan, Khaleel Ahmed, T Natarajan & Bipul Sharma as backup options.

All-rounder: The long list continues with Carlos Brathwaite & Mohammad Nabi as the seam-bowling and spin-bowling all-rounders respectively.

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General Opinion: SRH, probably, is the only team who can give rise to a competitive second-eleven which can win them IPL matches - Williamson (c), Goswami(wk), Baby, Bhui, Tanmay, Nabi, Brathwaite, Bipul, Jordan, Sandeep, Thampi