The IPL 2023, which is the 16th edition of the competition, will start on March 31, with the epic clash between defending champions Gujarat Titans hosting MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad.
Teams bolstered their squads in the IPL 2023 auction which happened in December, three months ago. Now, the franchise owners will be hoping for their retained and newly-bought players to deliver them the goods and repay the faith, and money, they have invested in them.
For the first time after 2019, the IPL will return to its traditional home-and-away format.
In this article, we pick the best pace-bowling combination that each team could play in their XI.
Best Fast bowling attack of each team in IPL 2023:
Chennai Super Kings
Although Dwayne Bravo has retired, CSK are strengthened by the return of a fit Deepak Chahar, their 14 crore pick who missed the IPL 2022 due to injury. Chahar will lead the pace bowling attack alongside left-arm pacer Mukesh Choudhary, who impressed with the new ball last season in Chahar’s absence. The duo will form a lethal new ball attack.
Partnering them with be the expensive auction recruit Ben Stokes.
In their home matches at the spin-friendly Chepauk, CSK are unlikely to play more than 3 seamers, but on the road, the likes of Dwaine Pretorius, Matheesha Pathirana, and Simarjeet Singh are likely to get chances.
Fans are also eager to see young speedster Rajvardhan Hangargekar make his IPL debut.
Mumbai Indians
MI have lost Jasprit Bumrah and Jhye Richardson to injuries and MI are yet to name their replacements. This means that alongside pace spearhead Jofra Archer, new ball specialist Jason Behrendorff is likely to start. Finally, left-arm seamer Arjun Tendulkar might get to make his IPL debut after two seasons on the bench.
Duan Jansen, a left-arm seamer like his brother Marco, could be this year’s out-of-the-box player that MI throws up. Akash Madhwal and Arshad Khan are couple of other Indian options that MI have.
Gujarat Titans
Despite trading away Ferguson, Gujarat have a strong pace attack comprising Pradeep Sangwan, Alzarri Joseph, Mohammed Shami, Yash Dayal, Shivam Mavi, Joshua Little, Mohit Sharma.
This GT squad has experienced, young, swing, seam, fast, left-arm, and death experts – all varieties of pace bowlers.
Rajasthan Royals
RR haven’t changed much in their pace department and will bore a similar look as last year with only the absence of the injured Prasidh Krishna. Trent Boult will lead RR’s pace department which includes Navdeep Saini, Obed McCoy, Kuldeep Sen, Kuldip Yadav, KM Asif, and now also have added Jason Holder to it.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
RCB are fretting over the fitness of Josh Hazlewood – the Australia pacer missed the entire Test series against India and is also ruled out of the ODI series against India due to Achilees injury. Because of the WTC final and the Ashes in June, Hazlewood might pull out from the IPL 2023.
RCB, though, have solid backups in overseas pacers in the form of Reece Topley and David Willey.
Harshal Patel and Mohammed Siraj are their two established Indian seamers, in support of Siddarth Kaul and Akash Deep.
Lucknow Super Giants
LSG have depth and raw pace in their fast-bowling department with Avesh Khan, Mohsin Khan, and Mark Wood leading the lines, followed by Marcus Stoinis, Jaydev Unadkat, Yash Thakur, and Naveen-ul-Haq.
Delhi Capitals
DC have one of the strongest overseas pace contingent in the IPL: Anrich Nortje, Lungi Ngidi, Mustafizur Rahman. However, all 3 of them will not play in the same XI.
They will be paired with the quality Indian seamers: Chetan Sakariya, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, and Ishant Sharma.
Punjab Kings
PBKS retained most of their pacers. The attack to be led by Kagiso Rabada and Arshdeep Singh includes the most expensive IPL player ever –Sam Curran – and Nathan Ellis.
However, after this, PBKS have some unknown Indian seamers in Baltej Singh, and Vidwath Kaverappa.
Kolkata Knight Riders
KKR bolstered their pace attack by trading in Shardul Thakur and Lockie Ferguson, adding to the experienced pros Umesh Yadav and Tim Southee. Andre Russell is the pace-bowling all-rounder.
Vaibhav Arora and Kulwant Khejroliya are decent local alternatives on the KKR bench.
Sunrisers Hyderabad
SRH have retained most of their seam attack from last season: Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Marco Jansen, Kartik Tyagi, Umran Malik, T Natarajan, and Fazalhaq Farooqi. As a unit, they form a potent bowling attack.
