The squad for each Indian Premier League (IPL) has been assembled. Barring injury replacements, no changes are expected to be made. You can’t trade players either. But what if hypothetically you could? But, only one player? What changes would franchises have made before the IPL 2025 season? If you were to ask me, I’d suggest Chennai Super Kings (CSK) send Noor Ahmad to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and take Jacob Bethell in return.
This trade strengthens both teams. How? Let me expand. Both CSK and RCB have no doubt done a great job at the auction table. But there are few chinks in their armours. Some flaws are accepted, but the well-roundedness is what differentiates a good team from a great one. There is a reason why the Mumbai Indians and CSK have five titles each. That’s because both teams have usually had their bases covered. This trade of Bethell and Noor could potentially do that for RCB and CSK.
RCB needs Noor Ahmed
Let’s start with RCB. As usual, they have a strong batting line-up, and like most times, it’s top-heavy. Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, who is in the form of his time, and Phil Salt. That’s as deadly a top three as you’ll ever see. The middle order is a little shaky, but Devdutt Padikkal, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma, and Tim David can do the trick for them. Bethell could easily slot in at number four, but then they’ll have to promise one of Livingstone and David. RCB might not want to do what.
But what’s more important is the bowling. They have assembled a great fast bowling battery with Yash Dayal, Josh Hazlewood, Rasikh Dar Salam, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Lungi Ngidi, and Nuwan Thushara. But they are a little weak on spin bowling. They have two identical bowlers in Swapnil Singh and Krunal Pandya, neither of whom are wicket-takers. They have a leg-spinner in Suyash Sharma, but his short IPL career hasn’t been great, and one doesn’t expect him to do well on the batter-friendly M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
One can’t forget, RCB’s bowler has been Yuzvendra Chahal. Noor Ahmad can be brought in to do the Chahal role. He might go for runs from time to time, but he can take heaps of wickets with his left-arm wrist spin.
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Jacob Bethell in CSK’s yellow
Similar to RCB, CSK has a hole in the batting order. But for them, even the lower middle-order might be an issue. They have Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, and Rahul Tripathi up top. That’s okay with their batters to follow, except Shivam Dube can’t be trusted much. Vijay Shankar, Sam Curran, Deepak Hooda, MS Dhoni, and Ravindra Jadeja—none of them can score big. At best, all of them can chip in. When that goes well, it’ll be fine, but when it doesn’t, it’ll all come falling down.
What they can spare is a bowler. With Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin, their spin is more or less covered. If they play Shankar and Rachin, they might give them a couple of overs of part-time spin from time to time. Then, we move to the pacers. With Matheesha Pathirana, Khaleel Ahmed, Anshul Kamboj, Mukesh Choudhary, Gurjapneet Singh, and Nathan Ellis, they have the fast bowling covered as well.
That’s why Bethell at number 4 would slot in perfectly at CSK, and then Dube can come in at number 5 or vice versa if spin is on. From there on, Curran, Dhoni, and Jadeja can take over, and an impact player can jump in the fun as well.
