The local heroes

The most expensive franchise put in a below-par performance last year. They sweated over Tendulkar's injury in the first half, recovered superbly on his return but choked in the big game against Rajasthan Royals, which was their pass to the semi-finals. This year, not only do they have Tendulkar from the start but also the services of the in-form Harbhajan Singh, who missed much of the last season after the most expensive slap in cricket history. They have Sanath Jayasuriya, Zaheer Khan and Lasith Malinga and, importantly, four allrounders in Dwayne Bravo, Ryan McLaren, JP Duminy and Essex's Graham Napier, who in 2008 hit 152 - including a world record 16 sixes - against Sussex in a Twenty20 match. Though they will miss Pollock, they are a pretty strong and balanced team.

All cricket-centric. Jonty Rhodes is in as fielding coach and Pollock is the squad mentor. Both have been involved in intense pre-tournament training with half the squad.

JP Duminy was bought for a whopping US$950,000, Mohammad Ashraful was picked up for $75,000 and they signed up the exciting McLaren and Napier. Zaheer was brought in to compensate for Pollock, Kyle Mills too was drafted in and they traded Nehra for Shikhar Dhawan to balance out Robin Uthappa's exit.

Harbhajan. He is in his best form in recent times and the South African pitches offered turn in the recent ODI series against Australia.

Pollock. He chose not to play and he will be missed - especially his experience of bowling on South African pitches - but his backroom help will be invaluable.

Ryan McLaren. A kolpak player whom South Africa tried to head back to his home country after the ODI losses against England last year but his county, Kent, refused to budge. This IPL could be the only venue left for the hard-hitting allrounder to make his name across the world.

The batting. Tendulkar and Jayasuriya can, on their day, match the younger Delhi opening combo (Sehwag and Gambhir) and they have Duminy, Dhawan, and Bravo to follow.

The fast bowling. Pollock has left a huge hole. Even Zaheer can leak runs in this format and Malinga has just returned from a long injury lay-off while Dilhara Fernando has rarely been consistent. A strong batting line-up can hurt them.

A place in the semis but perhaps lacking the extra bit needed to lift the trophy.

Final position: Fifth place Top scorer: Sanath Jayasuriya with 514 runs at 42.83
Top wicket-taker: Ashish Nehra with 12 wickets at 29.00 and an economy rate of 7.76
Best result: Nine-wicket wins over Chennai and Bangalore
Worst result: Ten-wicket loss to Hyderabad
Highest team score: 202 for 7 v Chennai
Lowest team score: 116 v Punjab (there were two lower scores but both were successful chases)

They seemed more talented than their sixth-place showing last year. This season started off well, with the news of Brendon McCullum's availability for the entire season and Chris Gayle, who didn't play last year due to injury, available for two weeks. Then Buchanan dropped his captaincy bombshell. It might be a stop-start season for Kolkata, whose biggest Achilles heel would be the lack of quality allrounders. They have one in Moises Henriques from New South Wales but it will be interesting to see their combination of four foreign players. Can a Twenty20 outfit win consistently without quality allrounders? We don't have to wait long to find out.

Poor Ganguly. Whether he likes it or not, he can't escape controversy or those Australian coaches. Buchanan has been the chaos theory expert this time around with his multiple captains' idea. He might say that the confusion is the media's creation but Ganguly, and even Ishant Sharma, have said they don't get it. Shane Warne has not let the opportunity slip to throw a few daggers at his old sparring partner Buchanan. Meanwhile, team owner Shahrukh Khan has weighed in, including a rant against Sunil Gavaskar. The Knight Riders ride on controversies.

Mashrafe Mortaza is in but he may find it difficult to fill Umar Gul's shoes.

Ajantha Mendis. Yes, Pakistan and India played him well in the recent ODIs but he was fresh off an injury. Even then, he was rarely collared and, more importantly, for the rest of the world he remains a mystery.

Umar Gul. His tight bowling with the new ball and the consistently accurate yorkers at the death overs will be sorely missed.

Ashok Dinda. He was the surprise package last year, bursting with enthusiasm and pretty decent skills. He picked up nine wickets at a good economy rate of 6.66 last year. But he has had a very average domestic season since then and might lack the confidence going into this big tournament.

The presence of the explosive McCullum for the entire season.

Quality allrounders. Ganguly, who had the lowest economy rate (6.40) in the side last time for any bowler who bowled at least 20 overs, was the best among the lot. Laxmi Ratan Shukla is the Indian allrounder; he has a big heart but not quite the talent to match it. Even Henriques, while rated highly, is yet to convert his talent to something consistently substantial in first-class cricket. And the seam bowling too doesn't quite have the potency, notwithstanding Ishant Sharma, who has been struggling in limited-overs cricket of late. They might be better off playing their new M&M - Mendis and Murali Kartik.

PREDICTION FOR 2009

Will miss out on the semis unless Mendis has an outstanding tournament.

Final position: Sixth place
Top scorer: Ganguly with 349 runs at 29.08
Top wicket-taker: Umar Gul, with 12 wickets at 15.33
Best result: 140-run win over Bangalore
Worst result: Chennai won by nine wickets
Highest team score: 222 for 3 v Bangalore
Lowest team score: 67 all out v Mumbai