We use football, David Hasselhoff and more to help you decide which IPL team to support for the 2023 season; watch all 74 matches live on Sky Sports, starting with defending champions Gujarat Titans against four-time winners Chennai Super Kings from 3pm on Friday
Friday 31 March 2023 06:11, UK
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All 74 matches from the 2023 tournament are live on Sky Sports, starting with the season-opener between defending champions Gujarat Titans and four-time winners Chennai Super Kings from 3pm on Friday.
There are parallels between the two clubs in that they have hoovered up trophies in the past but found things tougher in recent years. Mumbai won the IPL five times in eight seasons between 2013 and 2020, only to then miss out on the play-offs via net run-rate in 2021 before losing their first eight games in 2022 en route to finishing rock bottom. Mumbai need a Man Utd-style response.
Under Erik ten Hag, United have bounced back well from their disappointing sixth-placed finish in the 2021/22 Premier League - the 7-0 drubbing at Liverpool aside - and look secure in the top four, while they have also won the Carabao Cup.
Mumbai's mission is to get back in the IPL top four and and then win the trophy but they will be hampered by the absence of star seamer Jasprit Bumrah (back). Indians will, however, welcome back Manchester United fan Jofra Archer.
The fast bowler - named the IPL's Most Valuable Player back in 2020 after a stellar season with Rajasthan Royals - missed the whole of last year's competition through injury but has impressed for England since playing again in January, taking six wickets in an ODI against South Africa and then two three-wicket hauls in Bangladesh.
English players: Jofra Archer
Other overseas players: Tim David, (Australia), Jason Behrendorff (Australia), Cameron Green (Australia), Tristan Stubbs (South Africa), Duan Jansen (South Africa), Dewald Brevis (South Africa)
Indian players: Rohit Sharma (captain), Ramandeep Singh, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Arjun Tendulkar, Arshad Khan, Kumar Kartikeya, Hrithik Shokeen, Akash Madhwal, Piyush Chawla, Vishnu Vinod, Shams Mulani, Nehal Wadhera, Raghav Goyal, Mohit Rathee
Last year's result: 10th in group stage
Best result: Winners x 5 (2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020)
Head coach: Mark Boucher
England fans may be watching the IPL with a hint of trepidation, hoping Ben Stokes comes through unscathed ahead of the Ashes.
Stokes had to manage his longstanding knee problem during the recent Test series in New Zealand but head coach Brendon McCullum has no qualms about the all-rounder featuring for Chennai: "I don't think he's jeopardising the Ashes. The Chennai set-up is excellent in looking after their players. They've a very good medical team and Ben will be well looked after."
Stokes - who will play as specialist batter for at least the opening part of the season - was signed by Super Kings for £1.6m in December's player auction, joining his third IPL side after previous stints at Rajasthan Royals and the now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiant.
He scored centuries for each of his previous two clubs and if he is in the runs again for Chennai and helps them improve on last year's ninth-placed finish, his hefty price tag may end up looking like a snip. Could success in India also convince Stokes to come out of ODI retirement for the World Cup in the same country later this year?
English players: Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali
Other overseas players: Devon Conway (New Zealand), Mitchell Santner (New Zealand), Dwaine Pretorius (South Africa), Sisanda Magala (South Africa), Maheesh Theekshana (Sri Lanka), Matheesha Pathirana (Sri Lanka)
Indian players: MS Dhoni (captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ambati Rayudu, Subhranshu Senapati, Shivam Dube, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ravindra Jadeja, Tushar Deshpande, Mukesh Chowdhary, Simarjeet Singh, Deepak Chahar, M Prashant Solanki, Ajinkya Rahane, Shaik Rasheed, Nishant Sidhu, Ajay Mandal, Bhagath Verma
Last year's result: 9th in group stage
Best result: Winners x 4 (2010, 2011, 2018, 2021)
Head coach: Stephen Fleming
Punjab are one of only three teams - Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore being the others - to play in all 15 editions of the IPL yet not win a title.
Delhi and RCB have at least gone close during regular play-off appearances but Kings have only reached the postseason twice, most recently when they were runners-up to Kolkata Knight Riders in 2014, and have finished sixth for the last four campaigns.
Perhaps this will be the year they finally gate-crash the top four once again? Looking to help them do that will be the IPL's most expensive player in the £1.85m Sam Curran, as well as international team-mate Liam Livingstone. In the dugout, former England head coach Trevor Bayliss has taken over from Anil Kumble.
Jonny Bairstow's withdrawal is a blow for Punjab. The Yorkshireman has pulled out to focus on The Ashes as he recovers from the leg break he suffered on a golf course last September.
English players: Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran
Other overseas players: Kagiso Rabada (South Africa), Bhanuka Rajapaksa (Sri Lanka), Nathan Ellis (Australia), Sikandar Raza (Zimbabwe)
Indian players: Shikhar Dhawan (captain), Shahrukh Khan, Prabhsimran Singh, Jitesh Sharma, Raj Bawa, Rishi Dhawan, Atharva Taide, Arshdeep Singh, Baltej Singh, Rahul Chahar, Harpreet Brar, Harpreet Bhatia, Vidwath Kaverappa, Mohit Rathee, Shivam Singh
Last year's result: 6th in group stage
Best result: Runners-up (2014)
Head coach: Trevor Bayliss
That's because left-arm seamer Josh Little has become the first Ireland player to secure a full IPL contract. Yes, the Dublin-born Eoin Morgan played in the competition but that was only after he had become an England international, so Little is a history maker after joining defending champions Gujarat for nearly £450,000.
The 23-year-old was the second-highest wicket-taker in T20Is in 2022 with 39 scalps, a tally which included a hat-trick against New Zealand at the T20 World Cup as he removed Kane Williamson, Jimmy Neesham and Mitchell Santner. Little also has the best bowling figures in The Hundred after taking 5-13 for Manchester Originals against Oval Invincibles last term.
The seamer may find it tough to break into the Gujarat line-up on a regular basis with Williamson, Rashid Khan, David Miller, Matthew Wade and Alzarri Joseph among the overseas options available to Titans but if he does get a gig, he won't let anyone down.
English players: None
Other overseas players: Josh Little (Ireland), Rashid Khan (Afghanistan), Noor Ahmad (Afghanistan), Kane Williamson (New Zealand), Matthew Wade (Australia), David Miller (South Africa), Alzarri Joseph (West Indies), Odean Smith (West Indies)
Indian players: Hardik Pandya (captain), Shubman Gill, Abhinav Manohar, Sai Sudharsan, Wriddhiman Saha, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Mohammed Shami, Yash Dayal, Pradeep Sangwan, Darshan Nalkande, Jayant Yadav, R Sai Kishore, KS Bharat, Shivam Mavi, Urvil Patel, Mohit Sharma
Last year's result: Winners (champions in debut season)
Head coach: Ashish Nehra
It's 15 years and counting for Virat Kohli in his pursuit of a maiden IPL title with the Indian legend's side the nearly men of the competition. They have lost three finals and also recorded five further play-off exits, including last year at the hands of Rajasthan Royals.
In the past, RCB have had batter-heavy line-ups but there appears excellent balance to their squad this time around, with Josh Hazlewood - once fully fit - and Harshal Patel joined by England's Reece Topley and David Willey in the seam-bowling ranks.
Sri Lanka leg- spinner Wanindu Hasaranga will be looking to back up a 26-wicket 2022 campaign, while Australia's Glenn Maxwell provides hard-hitting batting and handy off-spin - yet Kohli could be the key.
The 34-year-old was not at his best in the 2022 edition, bagging more ducks (3) than fifties (2), but comes into the 2023 tournament off the back of his first Test ton in three years - a 186 versus Australia - and an ODI half-century against the same opposition.
English players: David Willey, Reece Topley
Other overseas players: Faf du Plessis (South Africa, captain), Glenn Maxwell (Australia), Josh Hazlewood (Australia), Wanindu Hasaranga (Sri Lanka), Finn Allen (New Zealand), Michael Bracewell (New Zealand)
Indian players: Virat Kohli, Suyash Prabhudessai, Rajat Patidar, Dinesh Karthik, Anuj Rawat, Shahbaz Ahmed, Harshal Patel, Karn Sharma, Mahipal Lomror, Mohammed Siraj, Siddarth Kaul, Akash Deep, Himanshu Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Rajan Kumar, Avinash Singh, R Sonu Yadav
Last year's result: 3rd (lost to Rajasthan Royals in Qualifier 2)
Best result: Runners-up (2009, 2012, 2016)
Head coach: Sanjay Bangar
Tottenham fans will not thank me for pointing out the most obvious comparison between these two teams, the empty trophy cabinet that resides in their respective facilities.
Sure, Spurs actually have a storied history with many successes to punctuate their glory era but they have none since 2008, which just so happens to be when the IPL was formed and so sees them mirror Delhi's barren run.
The Capitals are one of three of the original franchises (four in total) to have failed to win the IPL, but unlike repeated basement battlers Punjab Kings and regular underachievers Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi reside somewhere in between in terms of their expectations set against reality.
The Capitals are normally floating somewhere between mid table and top four (sound familiar?), having booked a play-off spot in six of 15 IPL seasons. That has resulted in only one trip to the final, however, in 2020 when they lost to Mumbai.
At head coach, they are more settled than Spurs, with Ricky Ponting in charge since 2018, though the fiery Australian is just as capable of losing his cool ala Antonio Conte, as the Trent Bridge crowd back in the 2005 Ashes can attest to following his run out by super-sub Garry Pratt.
English players: Phil Salt
Other overseas players: David Warner (Australia - captain), Mitchell Marsh (Australia), Rovman Powell (West Indies), Anrich Nortje (South Africa), Lungi Ngidi (South Africa), Rilee Rossouw (South Africa), Mustafizur Rahman (Bangladesh)
Indian players: Prithvi Shaw, Ripal Patel, Sarfaraz Khan, Yash Dhull, Lalit Yadav, Axar Patel, Chetan Sakariya, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Khaleel Ahmed, Aman Khan, Kuldeep Yadav, Praveen Dubey, Vicky Ostwal, Ishant Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Manish Pandey
Last year's result: 5th in group stage
Best result: Runners-up (2020)
Head coach: Ricky Ponting
Indulge us for a moment. The Knight Riders are so named - in case you did not already know - as a nod to the famous television show from the 1980s starring, of course, David Hasselhoff.
Perhaps the team owners were fans? It's not too far a stretch, considering that Bollywood stars Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla form part of the ownership group.
And, playing in a purple and gold 'KITT' (one for you fans of the show), the Knight Riders have a futuristic look that is very much befitting of a team that takes its name from a TV show about a talking car.
On the field, however, results have not been so cutting edge of late for Kolkata. The two-time winners have been starved of success for near-on a decade and have made the playoffs only once in the last four seasons, albeit that run in 2021 saw them finish as runners-up to Chennai.
English players: None
Other overseas players: Andre Russell (West Indies), Sunil Narine (West Indies), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (Afghanistan), Lockie Ferguson (New Zealand), Tim Southee (New Zealand), David Wiese (Namibia), Litton Das (Bangladesh), Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh)
Indian players: Shreyas Iyer (captain), Nitish Rana, Venkatesh Iyer, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Anukul Roy, Rinku Singh, N Jadadeesan, Vaibhav Arora, Suyash Sharma, Kulwant Khejroliya, Mandeep Singh
Last year's result: 7th in group stage
Best result: Winners x 2 (2012, 2014)
Head coach: Chandrakant Pandit
The IPL is bursting with talent across the board, but the tournament is particularly spoiled for choice when it comes to big-hitting batters pummelling the ball to all parts at the top of the order - and there is no richer franchise in that department than Lucknow.
Filling their opening slots are KL Rahul and South Africa's Quinton de Kock, who combined for a stonking 1,124 runs last year to place them both in the top three run-scorers for the tournament - behind only Jos Buttler and his, frankly, ridiculous 2022 season which saw him smash a massive four centuries.
Rahul himself managed two tons, along with four fifties, as he averaged 51.33, the fifth-straight year in the IPL in which he has essentially averaged a half century every game. Bonkers.
De Kock, meanwhile, is still very much one of the most destructive hitters of a cricket ball in the game, as proven by his recent 43-ball hundred - including nine fours and a massive eight sixes - to help South Africa chase down a record 259-run target in a T20 international against the West Indies.
Watch out in the crowd with these two about!
English players: Mark Wood
Other overseas players: Quinton de Kock (South Africa), Marcus Stoinis (Australia), Daniel Sams (Australia), Nicholas Pooran (West Indies), Kyle Mayers (West Indies), Romario Shepherd (West Indies), Naveen-ul-Haq (Afghanistan)
Indian players: KL Rahul (captain), Ayush Badoni, Karan Sharma, Manan Vohra, Krishnappa Gowtham, Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya, Avesh Khan, Mohsin Khan, Mayank Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, Jaydev Unadkat, Yash Thakur, Amit Mishra, Prerak Mankad, Swapnil Singh, Yudhvir Charak
Last year's result: 4th (lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore in Eliminator)
Head coach: Andy Flower
We have already given a nod to Buttler's sensational season last year, but it truly is worth repeating. The question is can he himself follow it up with another star showing in 2023?
The 32-year-old topped the run-scoring charts and six-hitting list to lay waste to his rivals last year and become the third Englishman to win the IPL's Most Valuable Player award, following on from Stokes 2017 in Jofra Archer in 2020.
Buttler smashed four hundreds - matching Virat Kohli's record for a single season from 2016 - as he amassed 863 runs in 17 innings, while his haul of 45 sixes was 11 more than his nearest challenger in England team-mate Liam Livingstone (34).
This year in Rajasthan, the England star should have compatriot Joe Root for company at the top of the order as the former Test captain competes in the IPL for the very first time.
English players: Joe Root, Jos Buttler
Other overseas players: Adam Zampa (Australia), Trent Boult (New Zealand), Shimron Hetmyer (West Indies), Jason Holder (West Indies), Obed McCoy (West Indies), Donavon Ferreira (South Africa)
Indian players: Sanju Samson (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Sen, Kuldip Yadav, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, KC Cariappa, Kunal Rathore, KM Asif, M Ashwin, Akash Vashisht, Abdul Basith
Last year's result: Runners-up (lost to Gujarat Titans in final)
Best result: Winners (2008)
Head coach: Kumar Sangakkara
Young England batter Harry Brook has enjoyed quite the rapid rise in the last year, culminating in the 24-year-old being snapped up for a cool £1.3m by Sunrisers in this year's auction.
Having made his England debut in a T20 international against the West Indies in January 2022, Brook was fast-tracked into the team which won the World Cup in that format later that year. But it is his introduction into the Test arena which has been truly spectacular.
Brook averages 80.90 across his first six Test caps, with four sensational hundreds and three fifties scored this past winter alone. The runs have come at some lick too. With all the talk of England's new 'BazBall' approach to Test cricket, Brook is its keenest disciple, scoring at a stratospheric 98.77 strike rate in the game's most attritional format.
The IPL provides Brook with another global platform to better showcase his astonishing array of strokeplay. One you would imagine he will very much grasp.
English players: Harry Brook, Adil Rashid
Other overseas players: Aiden Markram (South Africa), Heinrich Klaasen (South Africa), Marco Jansen (South Africa), Glenn Phillips (New Zealand), Fazalhaq Farooqi (Afghanistan), Akeal Hosein (West Indies)
Indian players: Abdul Samad, Rahul Tripathi, Abhishek Sharma, Washington Sundar, Kartik Tyagi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Umran Malik, Mayank Agarwal, Mayank Markande, Vivrant Sharma, Samarth Vyas, Sanvir Singh, Upendra Yadav, Mayank Dagar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Anmolpreet Singh
Last year's result: 8th in group stage
Best result: Winners (2016)
Head coach: Brian Lara
