IPL 2021: Team changes, withdrawals and replacements, full squads and all you need to know

The IPL 2021 is set to return on September 19 after the edition was suspended mid-way in May earlier this year due to COVID-19 infections inside camps of participating franchises. In July, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced a revamped schedule of the remainder of the season. The final takes place on October 15 – two days before the scheduled start of the T20 World Cup.

As the league is tightly preceding the global T20 tournament, a number of high-profile players have decided to pull out to remain fresh for national commitments, leaving franchises to rope in replacements.

Let’s take a look at the ins and outs of all the franchises ahead of the resumption of the second phase of IPL 2021.

Delhi Capitals

Under the newly-appointed captain Rishabh Pant, Capitals performed impressively in the first half of the tournament and are currently at the top of the table. With 12 points (six wins in eight games), DC are two ahead of MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings and Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore.

In the second leg, the side will be without the services of England's all-rounder Chris Woakes, who had appeared in three games for the side in the first leg.

However, the Capitals receive a boost with the comeback of Shreyas Iyer in the squad. DC also roped in Australian all-rounder Ben Dwarshuis to replace the outgoing Englishman.

IN: Ben Dwarshuis, Shreyas Iyer

OUT: Chris Woakes

Squad: Rishabh Pant (c), Shreyas Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan, Axar Patel, Ishant Sharma, Kagiso Rabada, Prithvi Shaw, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shikhar Dhawan, Lalit Yadav, Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Chris Woakes, Anrich Nortje, Steve Smith, Umesh Yadav, Ripal Patel, Lukman Hussain Meriwala, M Siddharth, Tom Curran, Sam Billings, Pravin Dubey, Vishnu Vinod

Chennai Super Kings

After a disappointing 2020 season, MS Dhoni’s men returned to form in style in this year’s edition, standing 2^nd in the table. The side has won five of their seven matches and will be in action in the first game of the resumption against Mumbai Indians.

Unlike many other franchises, the Chennai Super Kings will have the same squad which participated in the first leg of the tournament.

IN: No Changes

OUT: No Changes

Squad: MS Dhoni (c), Suresh Raina, Narayan Jagadeesabn, Ruturaj Gaikwad, KM Asif, Karn Sharma, Ambati Rayudu, Deepak Chahar, Faf du Plessis, Shardul Thakur, Mitchell Santner, Dwayne Bravo, Lungi Ngidi, Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja, Imran Tahir, Robin Uthappa, Moeen Ali, K Gowtham, Cheteshwar Pujara, M.Harisankar Reddy, K.Bhagath Varma, C Hari Nishaanth, R Sai Kishore, Josh Hazlewood

Royal Challengers Bangalore

One of the only three franchises (in current season) yet to lift the IPL title, Virat Kohli’s side made a strong start to the 2021 edition and are one of the prime contenders for the trophy. The side was level on points with CSK (10), with five wins in seven matches.

However, the side was forced to make wholesale changes in the squad after a number of players were unavailable for the side, including India’s Washington Sundar who suffered a finger injury during India’s tour of England.

IN: Wanindu Hasaranga, Tim David, Dushmanta Chameera, George Garton, and Akash Deep

OUT: Adam Zampa, Finn Allen, Daniel Sams, Kane Richardson, and Washington Sundar

Squad: Virat Kohli (c), AB de Villiers, Yuzvendra Chahal, Devdutt Padikkal, Harshal Patel, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Shahbaz Ahmed, Pavan Deshpande, Glenn Maxwell, Sachin Baby, Rajat Patidar, Mohammed Azharuddeen, Kyle Jamieson, Dan Christian, Suyesh Prabhudessai, KS Bharat, Tim David, Dushmantha Chameera, Wanindu Hasaranga

Mumbai Indians

The defending champions had a shaky start in the 2021 season, losing three of their first five games. However, they made a strong comeback to go fourth in the table before the suspension in May with four wins in seven matches.

Furthermore, like CSK, Rohit Sharma’s MI will also boast of a full-strength squad which had assembled in the first leg of the season.

Squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Aditya Tare, Anmolpreet Singh, Anukul Roy, Dhawal Kulkarni, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Jasprit Bumrah, Jayant Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Quinton de Kock, Rahul Chahar, Suryakumar Yadav, Chris Lynn, Mohsin Khan, Saurabh Tiwary, Trent Boult, Adam Milne, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Piyush Chawla, James Neeshan, Yudhvir Charak, Marco Jansen, Arjun Tendulkar

Rajasthan Royals

Currently fifth on the points table with three wins in seven matches, Sanju Samson’s RR face an uphill task to secure a top-4 finish in the group stage. Unluckily, the side also suffered a loss of primary first-team overseas stars like Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer.

The franchise announced the acquisition of current world no.1 T20I spinner Tabraiz Shamsi to their ranks.

IN: Oshane Thomas, Evin Lewis, Tabraiz Shamsi, Glenn Phillips

OUT: Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Andrew Tye

Squad: Sanju Samson (c), Ben Stokes, Riyan Parag, Shreyas Gopal, Rahul Tewatia, Mahipal Lomror, Kartik Tyagi, Andrew Tye, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anuj Rawat, David Miller, Manan Vohra, Shivam Dube, Chris Morris, Mustafizur Rahim, Chetan Sakariya, K.C. Cariappa, Liam Livingstone, Kuldip Yadav, Akash Singh, Glenn Phillips

Punjab Kings

KL Rahul’s side has had mixed fortunes in the tournament ever since the Karnataka-born batsman took over as captain in the previous edition of the tournament. The Kings remained inconsistent throughout the first leg of the 2021 season, standing 5^th with three wins in eight matches.

Ahead of the resumption, Punjab Kings faced a setback as power-hitter Dawid Malan pulled out of the tournament, with the franchise replacing the English batsman with South Africa’s Aiden Markram.

IN: Nathan Ellis, Adil Rashid, Aiden Markram

OUT: Jhye Richardson, Riley Meredith, Dawid Malan

Squad: KL Rahul (c), Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Nicholas Pooran, Mandeep Singh, Sarfaraz Khan, Deepak Hooda, Prabhsimran Singh, Mohammed Shami, Chris Jordan, Darshan Nalkande, Ravi Bishnoi, Murugan Ashwin, Arshdeep Singh, Harpreet Brar, Ishan Porel, Dawid Malan, Jhye Richardson, Shahrukh Khan, Riley Meredith, Moises Henriques, Jalaj Saxena, Utkarsh Singh, Fabian Allen, Saurabh Kumar, Nathan Ellis

Kolkata Knight Riders

A change in captaincy hasn’t turned the fortunes so far for the Knight Riders. Under Eoin Morgan, the Knight Riders are currently 7^th in the IPL table and will require a heroic effort on all fronts to make a comeback in the edition.

KKR lost the services of Australia’s Pat Cummins but found a replacement in Tim Southee, which remains their only change in the squad.

IN: Pat Cummins

OUT: Tim Southee

Squad: Eoin Morgan (c), Dinesh Karthik, Andre Russell, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi, Shubman Gill, Sunil Narine, Rahul Tripathi, Varun Chakravarthy, Pawan Negi, Tim Seifert, Shakib al Hasan, Sheldon Jackson, Vaibhav Arora, Karun Nair, Harbhajan Singh, Ben Cutting, Venkatesh Iyer

Sunrisers Hyderabad

In their worst start to an IPL season, the SRH find themselves reeling at the bottom of the table with only one win in seven games. Ahead of their final game of the first leg, the SRH made a change in their leadership, appointing Kane Williamson as their captain.

Ahead of the second leg, the side lost wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow and the SRH announced Sherfane Rutherford as replacement.

IN: Sherfane Rutherford

OUT: Jonny Bairstow

Squad: Kane Williamson (c), David Warner, Manish Pandey, Virat Singh, Priyam Garg, Abdul Samad, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, Siddharth Kaul, T Natarajan, Abhishek Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem, Vijay Shankar, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Jonny Bairstow, Wriddhiman Saha, Shreevats Goswami, Basil Thampi, Jason Holder, Jagadeesha Suchith, Kedar Yadav, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Jason Roy