Chargers and Knight Riders in opening battle

Season 3 of the IPL kicks off in Mumbai on Friday and the first game will see current Champions Deccan Chargers take on the Kolkata Knight Riders.

Deccan Chargers had one of the most feared batting line-ups in the first edition of the IPL but their stars failed to live up to the challenge. The side from Hyderabad came back strongly and surprised everyone by clinching the title last year in South Africa. Their strength lies in their strong and deep batting line-up. Adam Gilchrist is a great leader and played a central role in their success along with Andrew Symonds. Rohit Sharma, Venugopal Rao and T Suman were the local lads that performed consistently with both bat and ball. Herschelle Gibbs and Ryan Harris would be looking to improve on their past performances while new comers Mitchell Marsh and Kemar Roach will be hoping to make a positive impact, from the outset , though Roach would only join the squad after the conclusion of the on-going series against Zimbabwe.

Kolkata Knight Riders on the other hand have come to be known more for the controversies than the cricket. They failed to make the semi-finals in the first season and finished at the bottom in 2009. The side from Kolkata will be hoping for a massive turn-around in fortune in the latest edition and prove their critics wrong. Sourav Ganguly will resume captaincy duties for the side and will be expected to pull his team through. Their squad boasts of some hard-hitters in Brendon McCullum, Chris Gayle and Brad Hodge along with quality bowling options in Ishant Sharma and Shane Bond amongst others. They have also brought in Manoj Tiwary and Owais Shah from the Delhi Daredevils. The key to their success could be the performance of their non-international players and the inclusion of some fresh talent might do the trick.