The much-awaited
second leg of the 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will get
underway on Sunday, when defending champions Mumbai Indians take on the high-flying
Chennai Super Kings in a blockbuster encounter. The season was suspended
mid-way after an outbreak of COVID-19 inside the bio-bubble, with the BCCI deciding
to host the remainder of the tournament in the UAE.

The final
will be held two days ahead of the scheduled beginning of the T20 World Cup. A number of players
have withdrawn from IPL 2021 in preparation for the quadrennial event, injuries, or other commitments.

Here is a
look at all the changes made by the eight franchises ahead of the resumption of
the season:

Delhi Capitals:

The Delhi Capitals
have continued their form from last season, sitting at the summit of the points
table at this stage, although, they have played a game more than Chennai Super
Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore. Among their major changes are the return
of former skipper Shreyas Iyer and the withdrawal of English all-rounder Chris
Woakes, who has been replaced with Australian Ben Dwarshuis.

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Full 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:

Chennai
Super Kings roared back to life this year following a disappointing IPL 2020,
sitting second on the table with five wins from seven games. The Mahendra Singh
Dhoni-led outift are among the sides to make no changes to their squad.

Full 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:

Seeking its
first-ever IPL trophy, Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore are off to a
good start in the 2021 edition. They are third on the table, level on points
with CSK with five wins from seven games and behind only on net run rate. RCB
have made a number of changes to their squad for the remainder of the season, because
of Washington Sundar being ruled out due to finger injury and the withdrawals
of Australian’s Adam Zampa, Kane Richardson and Daniel Sams as well as New Zealand’s
Finn Allen.

They have
been replaced with Wanindu Hasaranga, Tim David, Dushmanta Chameera, George
Garton, and Akash Deep.

Full 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:

Defending
champions Mumbai Indians were off to a customary shaky start early in the
season, but have still managed to stay in the top half of the table after four
wins and three losses in seven games. They have made no changes to their squad.

Full 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:

Sanju
Samson’s Rajasthan Royals are fifth on the table with three wins from seven
matches so far and qualifying for the playoffs this year will be a big ask,
given the losses of star players like Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Jofra Archer.
They have added the likes of Tabraiz Shamsi, Oshane Thomas, Evin Lewis and
Glenn Phillips to their ranks.

Full 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:

Just like in his debut season as captain last year, KL Rahul’s Punjab Kings have gone off to a shaky start in this edition, with an inconsistent squad that has won three games from eight matches so far. 

The Preity Zinta-owned
side have lost Jhye Richardson, Riley Meridith and Dawid Malan for the rest of
the season, replacing them with Nathan Ellis, Adil Rashid and Aiden Markram.

Full squad:
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:

Kolkata
Knight Riders have not had the reversal in fortunes they would have hoped for after
changing skippers midway through last season, with the Eoin Morgan-led side sitting
seventh in the table. Their only change for the rest of the season is Tim
Southee in for Pat Cummins.

Full squad:
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:

Sunrisers
Hyderabad are rock bottom in the league, having made their worst-ever start to
a season with one win from seven matches. The Kane Williamson-led side have
made just one change, with Jonny Bairstow being replaced by Sherfane
Rutherford.

Full 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.