Squad composition: Back-ups

If there is one thing experts (of varying degrees of acumen, of course) have pointed out as an issue with the MI squad post-auction, it is the depth (or the lack thereof). I thought it might be interesting to consider this issue given likely team composition requirements.

Firstly, here's the squad:

Batters: Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Bevan-John Jacobs

Wicketkeepers: Robin Minz, Ryan Rickelton, Krishnan Shrijith

All-rounders: Hardik Pandya (pace), Naman Dhir (spin), Will Jacks (spin), Raj Angad Bawa (pace), Vignesh Puthur (spin)

Spinners: Allah Ghazanfar, Karn Sharma, Mitchell Santner

Fast Bowlers: Jasprit Bumrah, Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Ashwani Kumar, Reece Topley, Satyanarayana Raju, Arjun Tendulkar, Lizaad Williams

Keeping the above in mind, here's what a likely first XII might look like:

  1. Rohit Sharma
  2. [Ryan Rickelton / Will Jacks]
  3. [Tilak Varma / SKY]
  4. [SKY / Tilak Varma]
  5. [Hardik Pandya / Naman Dhir]
  6. [Naman Dhir / Hardik Pandya]
  7. [Will Jacks / Ryan Rickelton]
  8. Chahar
  9. Boult
  10. [Santner / Ghazanfar]
  11. Bumrah
  12. [Minz / Karn Sharma]

Now, this order has several problems already:

  • To my mind, Minz, even if we assume him to be incredibly promising, hasn't shown anything that would catapult him above Rickelton for the wicketkeeper slot, given that the latter has both international and T20 league experience, and while I don't think SA20 form would necessarily be reflective of IPL capacity, it's not as if we can reasonably assume that the SA20 is of lower quality than domestic Indian play.

  • It makes no sense for either Rickelton or Jacks to come in that low, but while my knowledge of the backups is basically non-existent (and I would be happy to be corrected if any one of them is expected to be the next big finisher or something), it doesn't seem like any of them have shown the sort of qualities that would be necessary for them to play in that role. In fact, it may make more sense to open with Jacks and Rickelton, and move Rohit down to 3, with everyone after them coming in one slot lower than as provided above. It does mean that our finishing depends entirely on the fortunes of Pandya and Dhir, but that might work better than trying to convert Rickelton or Jacks into finishers.

  • It basically wastes the Impact Player slot, but that ties into a bigger conversation about back-ups.

  • Karn Sharma has played more IPL games than Santner in the last few years, but comparing the latter's international form and the former's complete obsolescence outside the IPL (and even when he did play matches for RCB, it's not like he has set the IPL on fire or anything, making it very weird for him to suddenly play as the frontline MI spinner for a whole IPL season), it seems weird to start the season with the former rather than the latter.

On the whole, though, I think this is a pretty nice line-up (the troubling form of Rohit and SKY notwithstanding). The problem, then, is as follows:

  • Our finishing is basically dependent on Pandya's form and fitness.

  • Our bowling backups will play havoc with team composition: Chahar is made of glass, and Bumrah will come into the tournament injured (unless they force him to play through the CT and he ends up out for the season), but unless the team wants to play Tendulkar or Ashwani Kumar in their place, you have to take someone else out of the team. This, in effect, means that either Minz or Karn Sharma need to exceed all expectations, because they will, in essence, always have to keep Boult and [Jacks / Rickelton] in the squad, which only leaves [Santner / Ghazanfar] and the other of [Rickelton / Jacks] to be moved out of the squad to make space for Topley (or even Williams, if we're that desperate).

  • The other backups are basically unknown, with none of them having much of a pre-existing first class record.

So, my question to you folks is, in essence, what you see to be viable backups for the following scenarios:

  1. Pandya can't play (as will be the case for the 1st game, or if he gets injured);
  2. either Bumrah and Chahar (or woe betide, both) are injured; or
  3. Rohit or SKY's horrid form continues.

EDIT: Going by the lineups suggested in the comments, it is possible that they end up playing with 5 primary bowlers (+Pandya), and then swapping in a batter as an impact player. The concern with that, obviously, is that it might leave the batting a little thin if SKY and Rohit continue in an indifferent vein of form, but then again, nothing can really be done if that holds true. A separate (but very possibly associated) tactic could be starting with only 3 overseas players (Boult, [Rickelton / Jacks], [Ghazanfar / Santner]), and then subbing on [Jacks / Jacobs / the non-starting foreign spinner / Topley] depending on how the batting and bowling are faring. This would mean relying on [Minz / Shrijith / Bawa] as a starter, and is also reliant on Karn Sharma discovering a degree of form better than he has shown in forever.