What can be said about the KnightRiders? I’m going to resist the very obvious temptation to talk about the name, the burning-viking-helmet from 325 B.C. and the absurd advertisements. Instead, we’ll jump into the technical aspects.

I’m going to come out and say the controversial: The batting lineup looks shaky. Sourav Ganguly is the only recognized Indian batsman in the lineup. There are Ponting, Hussey, Salman Butt, Chris Gale,  also in the team, but remember the 4-international player limit. There’s Akash Chopra and Cheteshwar Pujara, who’ve done OK OK in the Ranji tournaments, but how will they be able to cope up with the super fast Twenty20 format. There’s another problem - Brendon McCullum and Tatenda Taibu, the only two recognized wicket keepers in the team, are both international players (McCullum from New Zealand and Taibu from Zimbabwe), eating up yet another of the precious 4-player slot.

The bowling department looks much better that way. The young sensation Ishant Sharma and Murali Karthick will form the backbone of the pace attack. The KnightRiders also have the fiery Sohaib Akhtar and Umar Gul to add a little more backbone into their pace attack. Even Siddarth Kaul did a pretty good job at the U-19 world cup, taking 10 wickets at an average of 15.40. Ranadeb Bose may also be an interesting experiment in Twenty20. He just won the Ceat Cricketer of the year last year. Overall, the bowling is a little inexperienced, but I’m sure the young bowlers will benefit tremendously training under John Buchanan. Maybe even Shoiab Akhtar can give them some gyaan.

The Kolkata KnightRiders are going have to think very hard to fill in the 4 international players slots. There’s lots of competition for those 4 slots, and they’ve paid big money to get some of the top international players. It’ll be a real let down if they don’t get to play properly.

There’s going to be other problems too. I can’t even begin to imagine how Ponting and Ganguly are going to come out and bat together. There’s also a bunch of Pakistani players who’re going to be in the team, and Ganguly has (in)famously sworn at them several times, and now he’s going to be ordering them around the field. Oh, man! I can’t wait to see the chemistry of the team when they come out on the field. It looks like the helmets will really be on fire!

Full Team
David Hussey
Ricky Ponting
Salman Butt
Akash Chopra
Cheteshwar Pujara
Brendon McCullum
Tatenda Taibu
Sourav Ganguly (Captain)
Chris Gayle
Ajit Agarkar
Mohammad Hafeez
Iqbal Abdulla
Lakshmi Ratan Shukla
Ishant Sharma
Shoaib Akhtar
Murali Kartik
Umar Gul
Siddarth Kaul
Ranadeb Bose
Sourashish Lahiri