Kochi could be the darkhorse of IPL - 4

New Delhi: The tuskers from Kerala had been embroiled in many a problems ever since they were in their baby cot after the franchise was bought for season four. There came a situation when it seemed the Kochi brigade might never take-off. But after several knockings at the courtroom doors and negotiations and re-negotiations, the franchise eventually got the nod.

In the auctions, they looked a wily lot, slyly starting the bid and then moving into delirium while the other teams got indulged in bullfighting. They gave the illusion that they were wiser than the Oscars jury and choosier than a girlfriend when it comes to player shopping.The team composition, at least on paper looks absurd. But if star value is something to go by, then this team has Mahela Jayawardene, Brendon McCullum, Brad Hodge, Muttiah Muralitharan, Santhakumaran Sreesanth and Ravindra Jadeja in their ranks.

The bowling looks comparatively better with RP Singh and the legendary Muralitharan, who needs no introduction. They have the firepower of local boy Sreesanth but inconsistency still remains a concern for him. Vinay Kumar, Steven O' Keefe, John Hastings and others are expected to come good, along with the domestic pool of players.

But sans the foreign faces Jayawardene, McCullum and Hodge, the lack of good Indian batsmen might hinder their progress. There is the classy VVS Laxman but with due respect to wristy magician, T20 is not a format that suits him. Tanmay Srivastava, Deepak Chowghule and other former under-19 heroes have potential but converting it into performance at this level will be another thing.

The saving grace for the team could be their all-rounders. Steven Smith is a leg-spinner and a hard hitting batsman in the lower middle order. He is touted to be the future of Australia and if pundits are to be believed, he has the making of a quality all-rounder. Thisara Perera has proved himself at the highest level and Jadeja is made for T20 version of the game.

Apart from that Parthiv Patel, obscurely deserted by the selectors, has performed admirably well in previous editions of the tournament.

However, lack of Indian stars in their batting is a cause of concern. Even the think-tank realised it and allegedly tried to lap up Sourav Ganguly but the endeavour proved to be an effort too late in the day.

Looking at their setup, one thing is pretty clear that the team won't be a mid-table performer; either it would become a punching bag or turn out to be the darkhorse of IPL-4.

Squad:

VVS Laxman, S Sreesanth, RP Singh, Parthiv Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Ramesh Powar, R Vinay Kumar, B Akhil, Chandan Madan, Deepak Chowghule, Kedar Jadhav, Raiphi Gomez, Sushant Marathe, Tanmay Srivastava, Y Gnanswara Rao, Yashpal Singh, Prashant Padmanabahan, (Foreign) Mahela Jayawardene (c), Brendon McCullum, Steven Smith, Muttiah Muralitharan, Brad Hodge, Thisara Perera, Steve O'Keefe, Owais Shah, Michael Klinger, John Hastings