The West Indians who left to play the currently ongoing series against England will be sorely missed by their respective IPL teams. Adam Gilchrist is aware what a big loss someone like Fidel Edwards will be to the Deccan Chargers. For the Kolkata Knight Riders the loss of Chris Gayle will be very telling, since he was among the few players consistently playing well for the team that is currently in the doldrums.

Among the British players that have left recently perhaps the loss felt most keenly will be that of Ravi Bopara to the Kings XI Punjab. Making consistently good contributions to the team, he had also settled in very well with the team according to Coach Tom Moody.  The in-form bat will be sorely missed by his team. On the other hand the other English players Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff are not as likely to be missed, not having made the kind of impact that the team owners were hoping for when they paid record sums for acquiring them.

In fact if truth be told, the Royal Challengers Bangalore seem to be getting on rather better without the presence of their star captain Pietersen. They have won back to back games under the leadership of Anil Kumble. Nor is Pietersen’s batting likely to be missed too much since his contributions with the bat were modest at best. Andrew Flintoff also had not made too much of an impact with the bat or the ball before injury sent him back to England.

If however there are many that are leaving, there are players coming into the DLF IPL  2009 at this stage as well: the Deccan Chargers will be missing Fidel Edwards but will be looking forward to the controversial but hugely talented Andrew Symonds joining the squad now.

Whereas KKR will sorely miss the services of Chris Gayle, Australian David Hussey will be joining the team which should considerably fortify the batting line up. If the Bangalore team will do without the charismatic Kevin Pietersen, he may likely be replaced with Nathan Bracken. Also a possible welcome addition to the Kings XI Punjab team will be James Hopes.

The Rajasthan Royals will be keenly awaiting the arrival of Shane Watson, who, according to skipper and Coach Shane Warne is the one player whom the team missed the most. The additions to and deletions from the IPL teams at this stage of the tournament will greatly alter the dynamic of the team and make for some marked changes that will be interesting to watch.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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