Season 9 Preview - Palladian Cricket League

With the Infernos reigning supreme across Season 7 and 8, there was a fervent call for the teams to get rebalanced. More than player trades, the acrimony across the seasons meant that we needed to reduce the overall stress levels on the maidaan and create new team associations and loyalties. 

After a few days of hectic parlay, the teams were finally announced by Vikram while ringing in his milestone birthday. 

Team selection in the PCL has never been perfect and probably never will be. It finally boils down to who negotiates the hardest, player availability during the weekends and of course skill levels. With bowling always having a premium, it was evident that both teams would ensure they have a set of bowling talent at their disposal. 

Team Infernos: 

Shiten after showing some initial resistance agreed to lead the  victorious Infernos for a third season hoping for a troika. While he does not have the services of HK anymore and that's a large hole to fill, he is now blessed with an abundance of new talent that have moved to the Infernos. 

In Hari, Chaitanya, Sameer, Dhruv, Piyush and Aashish, the Infernos now have quite an arsenal at their disposal. The old guard of Vikram, Susmit, Kiran, Vicky, Raghu, AK, Samir and Ayush continue as Infernos. 

Keep an eye out for: 

• Hari and Samir working together with Shiten. Who will keep?
• Susmit and Dhruv....Did I miss Chaitanya ? 
• Which Aashish are we going to see this season. Will the bowler wake up?

Probable line up:

1. Raghu 2. Vikram 3. AK 4. Chaitanya 5. Hari 6. Samir 7. Susmit 8. Shiten 9. Dhruv 10. Vicky/Kiran/Ayush/Sameer

Final word: Strong batting unit and an equally dispersed bowling attack with 7 regular bowling options. Wicketkeeping is gold dust and that could prove to be an achilles heel for the Vikings.

Team Vikings: 

The Vikings are coming off 2 very average seasons. While the teams itself looked great on paper, they were just not able to do justice to all the skills they possessed as individuals. Satya under some real pressure continues to lead the Vikings and that only shows his mental fortitude. 

The big story was around HK and Arjun coming together. Surprisingly, when the teams were announced, no one really gave it a second thought. The Vikings on the face of it seem to have got its team composition  weighed around individual contributions. How they come together as a team will define what happens in Season 9 for them. Manoj, Pranav, Aditya, KG and CP are the newly minted Vikings. The old ensemble cast of Kings, Harsha, Kishore, Anand, Ahaan, Bipin, Eshaan and Gopi continue as Vikings. 

Keep an eye out for: 

• How Satya handles the bowling crew? 
• How the boys - Pranav, Ethan and Ahaan step up this season!! 
• Which Vikings will step up and take the team to glory?

Probable line up:

1. Ahaan 2. CP/Kings 3. Bipin/Gopi 4. HK 5. Harsha 6. Satya/KG 7. Manoj 8. Arjun 9. Kishore 10. Eshaan/Anand/Aditya

Final word: Vikings need to come together as a cohesive group. A few early wins in the season could set the stage for them. Batting is a concern and they don't have a full time wicketkeeper for the spinners. 

Season 9 starts on March 23rd at 8 AM. It promises to be a banger!!