IPL 2021: Scott Styris Releases Team Power Rankings Ahead Of The 14th Season

The 14th season of the Indian Premier League [IPL] is all set to kick off with the defending champions Mumbai Indians locking horns with the Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore at the M.A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on April 09.

The cash-rich league returns to India after a gap of two years with the last season taking place in the bio-secure environment of the United Arab Emirates due to Covid-19 issues.

This year, the IPL will take place across six cities- Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Kolkata- and no team will have the advantage of playing at their home turf. All the games will take place behind closed doors due to the second wave of Covid that the country is going through currently.

With the IPL just a week away, fans and pundits have started analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of each of the eight teams that will lock horns for the ultimate prize during the course of the next two months.

And, so former New Zealand cricketer-turned commentator, Scott Styris, has come up with his first edition of power rankings, something he does on a weekly basis throughout the season.

Styris took to his official Twitter account on Friday where he revealed his team power rankings.

As expected, defending champions Mumbai Indians occupy the numero-uno spot in Styris’ list. The Rohit Sharma-led team has won the past two editions of the IPL and the gulf between them and other teams was truly evident last time around.

Following MI are last years’ finalists Delhi Capitals, who will be led by Rishabh Pant this year thanks to an untimely injury to regular skipper Shreyas Iyer.

The KL Rahul-led Punjab Kings, who made some interesting buys in the auction in the form of Jhye Richardson, Dawid Malan, Moises Henriques, and Riley Meredith, has claimed the third spot in the list followed by the David Warner-led SunRisers Hyderabad.

The Virat Kohli-led RCB, which included the likes of Glenn Maxwell, Mohammed Azharuddeen, Kyle Jamieson, Dan Christian occupies the fifth spot followed by Rajasthan Royals, who are likely to be hampered by the absence of an injured Jofra Archer for at least the first half of the season.

Kolkata Knight Riders, whose main issue last year was their inability to zero in on a fixed batting unit, has been placed at the seventh spot followed by the three-time champions Chennai Super Kings, who had a forgettable season last year as they failed to qualify for the playoffs for the very first time in the history of the IPL,

Also Read- Do Not Schedule Any International Games While The IPL Is On: Kevin Pietersen

Here’s a look at Scott Styris Power Rankings ahead of IPL 2021-

Let's try this

WAY TOO EARLY POWER RANKINGS @IPL 2021

1- @mipaltan
2- @DelhiCapitals
3- @PunjabKingsIPL (auction?)
4- @SunRisers
5- @RCBTweets
6- @rajasthanroyals (Morris fitness/archer back quickly.Maybe ⬆️)
7- @KKRiders (batting worries)
8- @ChennaiIPL

Thoughts

— Scott Styris (@scottbstyris) April 2, 2021