The best XI of each IPL franchise

Rising Pune Supergiants - Intimidating batting line-up, weak bowling

1 Ajinkya Rahane, 2 Kevin Pietersen (overseas), 3 Faf du Plessis (overseas), 4 Steven Smith (overseas), 5 MS Dhoni (capt, wk), 6 Mitchell Marsh (overseas), 7 Irfan Pathan, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Ishant Sharma, 10 M Ashwin, 11 Ishwar Pandey
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Gujarat Lions - Strong allrounders, short on reserve batsmen

1 Aaron Finch/Dwayne Smith (overseas), 2 Brendon McCullum (overseas), 3 Suresh Raina (capt), 4 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 5 Dwayne Bravo (overseas), 6 James Faulkner (overseas), 7 Ishan Kishan, 8 Ravindra Jadeja, 9 Praveen Kumar, 10 Dhawal Kulkarni, 11 Pravin Tambe
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Royal Challengers Bangalore - The best top four in the business

1 Chris Gayle (overseas), 2 Shane Watson (overseas), 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 AB de Villiers (overseas), 5 Mandeep Singh/Sarfaraz Khan, 6 Kedar Jadhav (wk), 7 Stuart Binny, 8 Varun Aaron, 9 Yuzvendra Chahal, 10 S Aravind, 11 Mitchell Starc (overseas)
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Kolkata Knight Riders - A no-frills outfit with proven T20 performers

1 Robin Uthappa (wk), 2 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 3 Manish Pandey, 4 Shakib Al Hasan (overseas), 5 Yusuf Pathan, 6 Suryakumar Yadav, 7 Andre Russell (overseas), 8 John Hastings/Jason Holder (overseas) 9 Piyush Chawla, 10 Umesh Yadav, 11 Morne Morkel (overseas)
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Kings XI Punjab - Reliant on overseas batsmen, questions over who will lead

1 M Vijay, 2 Manan Vohra, 3 Shaun Marsh (overseas), 4 Glenn Maxwell (overseas), 5 David Miller (overseas), 6 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 7 Axar Patel, 8 Rishi Dhawan/Gurkeerat Singh, 9 Kyle Abbott/Mitchell Johnson (overseas), 10 Mohit Sharma, 11 Sandeep Sharma
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Delhi Daredevils - Light on proven match-winners, possibly the only overseas captain

1 Shreyas Iyer, 2 Mayank Agarwal, 3 Sanju Samson, 4 JP Duminy (capt, overseas), 5 Karun Nair, 6 Albie Morkel (overseas), 7 Pawan Negi, 8 Chris Morris (overseas), 9 Mohammed Shami/Zaheer Khan, 10 Amit Mishra, 11 Imran Tahir/Nathan Coulter-Nile (overseas)
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Mumbai Indians - No obvious chinks, strong overseas bench strength

1 Parthiv Patel (wk), 2 Lendl Simmons (overseas), 3 Rohit Sharma (capt), 4 Ambati Rayudu, 5 Kieron Pollard (overseas), 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Harbhajan Singh, 8 J Suchith, 9 Mitchell McClenaghan/Tim Southee (overseas), 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Lasith Malinga (overseas)
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Sunrisers Hyderabad - Formidable first XI, short on Indian bench strength

1 Shikhar Dhawan (capt), 2 David Warner (overseas), 3 Kane Williamson/Eoin Morgan (overseas), 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Deepak Hooda, 6 Naman Ojha (wk), 7 Ben Cutting/Moises Henriques, 8 Trent Boult (overseas), 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Karn Sharma, 11 Ashish Nehra
Full squad