The Deccan Chargers, representing Hyderabad City, are owned by the media group Deccan Chronicle. Of all the teams in the league this team probably looks the best on paper (but that’s not saying much). The team has many players who can win a Twenty20 match single handedly. The team is lead by VVS Laxman, but it will be interesting to see how he delivers in Twenty20 format because the statistics say that he has been able to score only 8 sixes in all of international cricket.

But the most valuable player of the team is none other than the controversial Andrew Symonds. He is a dashing batsman, excellent fielder and can chip in with bowl too when needed. But many are skeptical that he’ll be able to deliver as a part of Team Hyderabad. You’ll easily recall all his antics and provocations against the Indian team just recently.That’s probably the biggest headache of the Hyderabad team - Will the crowd like their most expensive player?

There are other stars too - Shahid Afridi is the holder of the world record for fastest century and he’s also the man of the series in last year’s Twenty20 World Cup. But there is question on his reliability as he his known for throwing away his wicket many a times. Herschelle Gibbs can be unstoppable on his day. Adam Gilchrist, one of the greatest wicketkeepers of current era adds more strength to the batting line up with his six-hitting super powers.

The other player to watch out for is Rohit Sharma. Still in the early stages of his career, he has already proved that he can deliver the goods with his head firmly on his shoulder. In the Twenty20 world cup final, the crucial 30 runs scored by him made the difference between victory and defeat for India.

The bowling department is loaded with Sri Lankan pacers Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Zoysa and spinner Chamara Silva. One of the highest wicket takers in Twenty20 world cup - RP Singh is also part of the team. But here there is one problem - lack of variety because all three pacers are left arm bowlers. I don’t think the owners realized this when they bid for them.

It would be interesting to see that who will fill the U-22 slots because Hyderabad have not hired any U-19 in round-2 auction. May be they are looking forward to recruit people from club level. The IPL does have a strict requirement for the U-22 slots, and Hyderabad need a plan for this.

The major plus point is that the team it has got good bunch of all rounders - Symonds, Scott Styris and Afridi and presence of these players make the team well balanced. Overall a good team, but they have one major problem like Kolkata is that there are too many international players, but will be able to play only 4 of them at a time. It’s going to be strange if they have to bench the top-salary international stars for who the so enthusiastically bid.

Full Team

Andrew Symonds
R. P. Singh
Rohit Sharma
Adam Gilchrist
Shahid Afridi
Herschelle Gibbs
V. V. S. Laxman (c)
Chaminda Vaas
Scott Styris
Nuwan Zoysa
Chamara Silva
Halhadar Das
Doddapaneni Kalyankrishna
Pragyan Ojha
Dwaraka Ravi Teja
Venugopal Rao
Paidikalva Vijaykumar
Arjun Yadav