IPL 2018 Teams

IPL 2018 Teams List and Players

We had a fantastic edition of the 2017 IPL, and the great news for fans is that the 2018 edition is not too far away. We don’t have long to wait until we see some of the world’s biggest cricketing stars taking to the field and competing hard with the bat and ball.

We have seen the first big news of 2018 released, with the retained list for each team being made available for us to look at. This means we can see who has been signed from the squads of last season, and how teams are going to look as we head into the IPL auction, which takes place at the end of January.

TeamsIPL Teams Squad players listMumbai IndiansRohit Sharma (Captain), Hardik Pandya, Jasprit BumrahRoyal Challengers BangaloreVirat Kohli (Captain), AB de Villiers, Sarfaraz KhanKolkata Knight RidersAndre Russell, Sunil NarineKings XI PunjabAxar PatelSunrisers HyderabadDavid Warner (Captain), Bhuvneshwar KumarDelhi DaredevilsShreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Chris MorrisRajasthan RoyalsSteve Smith (captain)Chennai Super KingsMS Dhoni, Suresh Raina (Captain), Ravindra Jadeja

The tournament itself starts on April 5th, and will run until May 31st, giving us nearly two months of fantastic cricket to look forward to. Another big story to look forward to in the IPL is the return of the Chennai Super Kings and the Rajasthan Royals. These two will be looking to make a big impression in their first season back in the league, and they will be looking to challenge the Mumbai Indians, who lifted the trophy last season.

With only a small number of players confirmed through the retained lists we don’t know what each team will look like just yet, but we do know where some of the stars are going to be playing this season. In this post, we take a look at how the eight teams have set up for this upcoming edition of the IPL. IPL team list 2018 is placed below.

The Chennai Super Kings have announced their return with a bang and retained three huge Indian stars to make sure the fans will come flocking back after their absence. MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja will all represent the Super Kings, giving them a great platform to build on. With three fantastic home grown players on the team, the fans are going to love them.

The Rajasthan Royals have taken a different approach, retaining just one player ahead of the 2018 season. However, that play is the hugely talented Steve Smith, who is here fresh after captaining Australia to Ashes victory. Smith is a fantastic cricketer and he can lead the Royals to some success with other big names around him, so watch out for what they do in the upcoming auction.

Moving on to the Mumbai Indians, they enter this season as the defending champions and expect them to see make another huge push to win it again in 2018. They have three titles to their name, with wins in 2013 and 2015 to go with last year’s win. Mumbai Indians have retained three players for the upcoming season and they have also retained three Indians, like the Super Kings. Rohit Sharma will once again lead them and he has the experience of Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah to call upon. That is a good base for the Indians, and they are going to be strong again for sure.

The Delhi Daredevilshave continued to trust their youth movement and kept three players, two of them are younger players who will be expected to contribute a lot over the coming years. Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer are the two younger players, and they are going to be key to any success this franchise has, they are joined by experienced South African all-rounder Chris Morris.

The Royal Challengers Bangalore have of course retained Virat Kohli, who is the biggest cricketing superstar in the world, and he can bring them success on his own such is his talents. He is joined by AB de Villiers, another fantastic batsman who will help put runs on the board with Kohli. Sarfaraz Khan rounds off their team so far and they look in a strong position going into the auction. It came as a huge surprise to see the Bangalore team finish bottom of the IPL in 2017 and that is something that will change in 2018. Skipper Virat Kohli will no doubt be one of the key players for the RCB this season along with AB de Villiers.

The Kolkata Knight Riders have retained two players ahead of this season who will be able to help with the bat and ball. Andre Russell can bowl overs for them, but he is a huge hitter and ideal to come in and bat in the final couple of overs for them. Joining him is Sunil Narine, an outstanding spin bowler and one of the best in the world when it comes to T20 cricket. Now SRK is the owner Of 3 teams – Kolkata Knight Riders, CPL’s Trinbago Knight Riders and Global League team Cape Town Knight Riders.

The Sunrisers Hyderabad have retained two players, one top batsman and one top bowler, giving them two stars to build the rest of the team around. David Warner will help their batting get off on the front foot, he is a big hitter and can score quickly from the start. Joining Warner is Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who can work wonders with the ball and will be one of the best bowlers in the tournament this season. They came 3rd in 2017, and it would be no surprise to see them go close in 2018.

The final team to mention is the Kings XI Punjab, who have only retained one player after a poor record over the past few seasons. They need a big turnaround to change their fortunes and the only player heading back is Axar Patel, expect to see them being very active in the auction.
The next big event is the player auction which takes place at the end of January and once this is over we will have a better idea about who will be the favourites to lift the 2018 IPL trophy. They reached the final in 2014, but other than that their performances in the IPL have always been a little disappointing

Last season of the Indian Premier League was undoubtedly its most exciting edition since the tournament’s conception. Not only a lot of cricket records were broken, but also the fans were kept heavily entertained throughout the season. We had a fantastic tournament last season, which was eventually won by the Mumbai Indians and we expect the same again, especially with the two returning teams coming in looking to prove they deserve to be back. The IPL Points table will be updated here

My Mumbai Indians Favorite Team
1. Rohit Sharma (Captain)
2. K L Rahul (WK)
3. Krunal Pandiya/Nithish Rana/Rayudu
4. Ion Morgan/Colin Munro/Maxwell/Miller (Foreign)
5. Ben Stokes/ Daren Bravo /Pollard(Foreign)
6. Harthick Pandiya
7. Sahib Al Hasan /Moien Ali (Foreign)
8. Irfan Pathan/Vinay Kumar
9. Mitchal Starc /Lasith Malinga/(Foreign)
10. Harbhajan Singh
11. Jusprit Pumra