Due to the start of West Indies Vs England series and end of Pakistan Vs Australia series, we will see a few players out of IPL action and a few in. How much impact it may have on the teams, lets see what it looks like.
Deccan Chargers will have Andrew Symonds coming in and Fidel Edwards & Dwayne Smith leaving. Though the Hyderabad team will miss fire of Edwards in bowling, they have Chaminda Vaas in the squad, who can replace fire with wily class and accuracy. Dwayne Smith has done well recently, however, at least on the paper, they can’t ask for better replacement than Symonds. So, the change may not matter too much for the Deccan Chargers.
For Chennai Super Kings Andrew Flintoff has already left. He was not in great touch with both, bat and ball. In fact, he found himself at the receiving end as far as bowling is concerned. Therefore, CSK team is not missing him too much (or ‘at all’).
Kolkata Knight Riders will have David Hussey coming in and Chris Gayle going out. This is one of those neck-to-neck kinds of replacements to me. Should not make much difference for KKR. Did I hear somebody screaming ‘who cares’? Rightly so. KKR is now beyond the spot of bother. They have carved out a niche segment for themselves in this IPL, bottom of the points table.
Royal Challengers Bangalore will have Nathan Bracken in. Kevin Pietersen has already left. We have seen KP’s departure has not affected RCB at all as he did not do any memorable work. After KP left, RCB won both the matches.
Kings XI Punjab has James Hopes in and Ravi Bopara out. I think both players on paper look not much different in terms of impact they may have on the team. However, Bopara was in good touch, rather good frame of mind and has played one of the most delightful 20-20 innings this season. Don’t see Kings XI Punjab getting affected much as Hopes is a good player too.
For Delhi Daredevils Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah have already left. Both have not played any game in the IPL 2009. Also, I don’t see any reason why DD would have looked beyond Warner, Dilshan, DeVilliers, Nannes and Vettori for picking 4 foreign players. Dropping any one of them itself is a tough choice to make. No need to mention that departures will not cause any trouble for DD.
Rajasthan Royals will be boosted by Shane Watson’s arrival. This one change can have decent impact on the tournament. As he has shown before, Watson is a match winner with both bat and ball. Top order or middle order, wherever he bats, batting lineup of RR will get better with his inclusion. Without Watson, they have already scored 200+ in this tournament. Graeme Smith back in form, Yusuf Pathan doing well, Naman Ojha putting up a good show, Ravindra Jadeja looking in good touch – plus Watson. Hmm. Looks good for RR.
I feel with the changing compositions, barring Rajasthan Royals, no team will get much impacted – positively or negatively.

Change is the only constant phenomenon in our life. Isn’t it? Obviously this ‘change’ got hit to our IPL team owners as well. But it didn’t hit them as hard as Yusuf Pathan’s whack. It hit them like a silky cover drive of offside’s god. They didn’t made huge changes in team composition. So I tried to analyze whether the big charge of Deccans or knight losers continued way of losing has anything to do about these changes in team composition.

Deccan Chargers: After looking at initial performances, I feel that this team has got the perfect tiny dynamite naming ‘Fidel Edwards’ to get charged if not exploded. Suddenly this team is looking a more balanced pack after the incumbent of Edwards. He is providing them much needed raw pace to send shivers down the spine of opposition.

Mumbai Indians: Exclusion of Utthappa from MI team is the best thing that has happened to MI rather than inclusion of JP Duminy. I seriously have my questions about Utthappa’s utility in ultra short version of the game unless he is not getting his favorite horizontal bat shot. Again the change in pace battery with ‘Matured’ Zaheer in has placed MI in the league of “balanced team”.

Rajsthan Royals: I don’t think any change will impact this team’s fortune till Warne retires from this format. But still the treatment, exposure , confidence shown by Warne on new pace sensation (again “”) Kamaran khan has proved healthy for RR in the absence last year’s pace battery.

Kings Punjab XI: This team is the worst hit because of non-availability of key players. But again the changes in the team composition are providing them to again gear up to fulfill ‘preity’ ambition to fetch IPL title this time. Again the welcome change is Yusuf Abdulla. He is among wickets in every match and what can one say about Ravi Bopara’s knock against Royal Challengers. It was as refreshing as a ‘Nes’cafe cup.

Delhi Daredevils: Last season’s border case but this year’s favourite after first few matches. Again changes in bowling attack in terms of Nannes and Vettori may be the reason. Nannes is giving Delhi crucial breakthrough’s at early stages of the game and Vettori is just mesmerizing batsmen with changes in line and length

Kolkata Knight Riders: What this team could afford was a ‘Veteran’ Sanjay Banger. Can anyone please spy within KKR camp and let me know whose idea it was to have ‘Sanjay Banger’ in the team ahead of many good players?

I am ready to recommend his/her name in Bollywood as a casting director for David Dhawan’s film.

Royal Challengers: This team made some good, logical changes in team structure but bowling attack still remains same. There changes are yet to pay fruits.

After this analysis, I think successful teams like DC, MI, DD, Kings Punjab XI have one common factor, they have done tactical changes in team composition not the strategic one. For KKR and RC they have done strategic changes in team structure like change of captains itself. Tactical changes specifically in terms of bowling attack has been paying fruits for succusseful teams where as KKR, RC are still fighting for the last rank within table. Only exception to the rule is Channai Super Kings. They have done the wonderful change in terms of ‘Freddie’. But it didn’t paid off. (I am firm believer that rule gets established through exceptions onlyJ)

So the key is to ‘Make most out of it’, make the most out of changes done to team composition. This is true for coming seasons as well as to your Vodafone connection.. J What say guys?