Royal Challengers Bangalore was tagged as a slow starter in the early stage of last year’s IPL tournament. After Gayle came into the side last year, things changed. Vettori is pleased to have Gayle bat at the top order right from the first match in the 5th edition of Indian Premier League.
Vettori does not expect Gayle to fire in every match they play, but he does wish that the form showed by him last season gets better this year. No doubt the West Indies batsman has got an important role to play for the RCB.
Kohli is another backbone to the side in the middle order. His batting has improved over the past few years and was looking in good touch in the Asia cup recently. Vettori said that he has become a matured player and knows the role he has to play in the team pretty well.
The Sri Lankan veteran Muralitharan is an asset to the RCB team, especially on the Indian wickets where the ball will spin. His bowling skills and experience on the field will play a huge part in the success of the team, according to Vettori.
Kolkata Knight Riders is one of the most famous franchisee in the Indian Premier League because it is co-owned by the King of Bollywood; Shah Rukh Khan. This franchise is a joint venture between him, Juhi Chawla and Jay Mehta. KKR is launching attractive offers and merchandises for their fans, this IPL season.
“New Dawn New Knights” is the campaign which the KKR marketing team has launched, entailed with the new refreshing logo. Shah Rukh Khan had chosen the combination of gold and black for the team, and had to remove the idea of using black because it was considered not lucky for their team.
“Nokia Channel Me” is an interactive campaign to engage consumers, launched by the mobile company Nokia in collaboration with KKR. Consumers using Nokia smartphones can win a chance to be the host of Nokia-KKR Chill party if they win this competition. All they have to do is to get the application “Fun2Shoot” downloaded on which they have to create their very own personalized channel. The ones who will have the maximum liked and viewed content will be gifted with a chance to host an after-match party.
Kolkata Knight Riders have also signed a deal with FREECULTR, an online apparel portal which will be designing stylish and innovative apparels and accessories for the KKR fans. As soon as the IPL season 5 commences, the apparels and accessories will be available.
The two Indian opening batsmen will go head-to-head against each other on the April 5 at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. Gautam Gambhir will be leading the Kolkata Knight Riders while Virendra Sehwag is the skipper of Delhi Daredevils. This is scheduled as the second match in the IPL season 5, after the opener.
Last year the KKR team finished in the 4th position while the Daredevils had their worst run and finished last. Kolkata Knight Riders are the favorites to win this match, but one can never underestimate Sehwag’s team. Delhi Daredevils have a different set of players for this season, and thus no one can predict their performance on the field, in the very first match.
On paper KKR looks a better side than last year with McCullum being brought back to the side. They have not made much change to their squad as compared to the last season. Delhi Daredevils on the other hand had to make changes because of their disappointing show last year.
The competition is going to be a neck-to-neck fight between the two teams as both of them would want to start the league by registering a win.
Deccan Chargers have been one of the cleanest teams in the IPL as far as disputes, court cases and off-field drama is concerned. On the field too they have been good and were winners in the 2nd edition of Indian Premier League.
Last year the Deccan Chargers could not perform up to the mark which their fans were expecting. One of the reasons for their failure was the reshuffling of players amongst the teams in the IPL. They lost key players like Andrew Symonds, Adam Gilchrist, Rohit Sharma, RP Singh and Herschelle Gibbs.
On paper the Deccan Chargers is one of the team which lacks a proper balanced side. This team highly relies on the likes of Kumar Sangakkara who is a very good batsman-wicketkeeper, and will lead the team.
Darren Bravo is another batsman who is the key for the team, but he might not be available till the end of April if selected to play for West Indies in their tour to Australia for the tests.
According to the team’s coach, the batting lineup will have the bulk of the responsibility in the IPL season 5. There are quite a few fresh faces to be seen playing for the team this season.
In the year 2008, when Indian Premier League marked its entry in the T20 cricketing arena, viewers were very excited because IPL had promised them a good mix of entertainment, glamour and slam-bang cricket. The 1st edition did take off really well, but since then it has faced lots of hurdles.
The interest of viewers who enthusiastically used to go down to the stadiums to watch the IPL matches have gone down considerably over the past 4 years. IPL has been hit by corruption allegations, infighting, team management issues and criminal investigations; resulting in the decrease in interest of the viewers.
Sponsor interest has also seen a downfall due to very less number of viewers for the 4th edition of Indian Premier League. Quite a few teams are also facing allegations and the issues are being investigated by government bodies.
Indian Premier League’s 5th edition is to commence in a few days and the BCCI along with the franchisees are being positive about it. Though they have faced setbacks before the start of this season, they seem optimistic and are doing their best to make IPL 5 a grand success story so far.