IPL is not limited to the things which are seen on the ground. The massive sixes, spectacular catches and some fabulous bowling performances are the results of the efforts taken by the support staff during the practice sessions. As a player in T20 you need to think in a smart way to succeed. That’s where the role of support staff comes into picture. The overall strategy and the blueprint of the game are made in the dugout. They have played a key role currently in deciding the players to be released from their team's squad for IPL 2015. Let’s take a look at the brains behind the success of IPL teams.

1. Kings XI Punjab

Right from the first season Kings XI have tried so many things to win the title. Their former coach Darren Lehman couldn’t continue because of his national duties as a coach of Australia. When Kings XI brought in Sanjay Bangar as the head coach, there were lots of people who criticized that decision. People say Maxwell, Miller, Johnson are the ones who make their team win. That’s absolutely perfect but the real backbone of Kings XI is their head coach-Sanjay Bangar. Usually, in IPL, teams want their big hitters to bat in the end overs. It was his intellect to send Maxwell at No.4 or even at No.3 sometimes with Miller to follow him. Kings XI have handled the domestic talent really well. Manan Vohra, Axar Patel, Rishi Dhawan, Sandeep Sharma and Shivam Sharma were polished by Bangar and now they shined almost in every match. Kings XI also have Joe Dawes as their bowling coach. Earlier he was Indean team's bowling coach due to which he has plenty of experience of coaching in sub continent. R. Shridhar is looking after the fielding department.Sanjay Bangar has been spot on with his decisions last season. We should now call him Sanjay Bang-ON. Kings XI did well to reach final for first time in IPL 2014. Bangar & his team would be keen to go a step ahead in coming season and become champions in 2015 IPL.

Players released : Cheteshwar Pujara, L Balaji, Murali Kartik

Players bought : Murali Vijay, Nikhil Shankar Naik, Yogesh Gowalkar (For complete coverage of IPL Auctions 2015 click here)

2. Kolkata Knight Riders

Kolkata Knight Riders appointed Trevor Bayliss as their coach two years ago and  they emerged as the champions in 2012 IPL season. Trevor Bayliss is an Australian born cricketer who was a coach of Sri Lanka from 2007 to 2011. He has been very successful in this shorter format of the game. Sri Lanka made it to two world T20 finals under his coaching. That’s not done; Trevor also coached Sydney Sixers in the first edition of Big Bash League and took them to the championship. They have the ‘sultan of swing’ Wasim Akram as their mentor and bowling coach. Apart from few games their bowlers have been up to the mark till now. Wasim has vast experience which makes him the crucial member of KKR think tank. KKR have appointed Vijay Dahiya and W. V. Raman as assistant coach and batting coach respectively. Dahiya coached Delhi team which won Ranji trophy after 16 years. W. V. Raman has coached Tamilnadu and Bengal Ranji trophy teams. All these 4 coaches of KKR have got decent experience of handling the teams. After appointing them KKR have done fairly well. KKR will be looking to repeat their success story to win IPL for historic 3rd time.

Players released : Jacques Kallis, Debabrata Das, Sayan Mondal

Players bought : K.C Cariappa, James Neesham, Brad Hogg, Aditya Garhwal, Sheldon Jackson, Sumit Narwal, Vaibhav Rawal (For complete coverage of IPL Auctions 2015 click here)

3. Rajasthan Royals

You talk about money, you talk about the big hitters and the star players for a successful IPL campaign. There is always a one who dares to go in opposite direction of flow and still achieves the goal. Rajasthan Royals is the most efficient team in IPL so far. They spend less but extract maximum from their players. After being part of RR for last 3 years Rahul Dravid has emerged as their mentor. Right from the auctions he is involved in every single decision related to RR. With his outstanding experience and vision he has brought the talent to RR squad. There isn’t any barrier of age or seniority in RR. It doesn’t matter whether you are 16 or 42, if you can deliver with bat and bowl then that’s enough to get into the RR squad. Dravid is getting assistance of Paddy Upton who is yet another successful coach. Upton-Dravid combination is been fruitful for the Royals. The main reason of Rajasthan Royal’s success is that their players believe in their capabilities. They have got the confidence in themselves. Dravid emphasizes on doing the basics right. They don’t play extemporaneous cricket but prefer to do everything according to the plan. It was said correctly by their mentor that Rajasthan Royals will create marquee players from the talent they have got. We must admit that he has done exactly the same. Well done Dr. Dravid!

Players released : Brad Hodge, Kevon Cooper, Ankit Sharma, Amit Sharma, Ankush Bains

Players bought : Christopher Morris, Juan Theron Barinder Singh Saran, Dinesh Salunkhe, Sagar Trivedi, Pradeep Sahu (For complete coverage of IPL Auctions 2015 click here)

4. Chennai Super Kings

CSK is the most consistent side in the IPL. When they have got M.S.Dhoni as their captain, it is very obvious that they do well in any tournament. Amidst all this there has been three silent people working behind the scenes. CSK has trans-tasman team of coaches. Their head coach Stephen Fleming has played for CSK in earlier editions of IPL. Having captained New Zealand for so long, Fleming brought all his experience to the CSK team. Australian duo Andy Bichel and Steve Rixon are the bowling and fielding coach of CSK. One interesting thing here is, CSK haven’t got any coach or mentor who is from India. Still they have managed well to find the local talent. Ishwar Pandey, Mohit Sharma, Mithun Manhas and Pawan Negi have done good job in IPL and Champions League as well. They don’t have any separate mentor as the captain himself is capable enough to guide the team. We have seen how well he controls the things on field and takes his team to the victory with his unorthodox shots. He has emerged as a best finisher and in a way guides his team to the victory. There has been a popular saying now- Bend it like Beckham & End it like Dhoni.

Players released : Ben Hilfenhaus, John Hastings, Vijay Shankar, David Hussey

Players bought : Michael Hussey, Irfan Pathan, Rahul Sharma, Kyle Abbott, Andrew Tye, Pratyush Singh, Ankush Bains, Eklavya Dwivedi (For complete coverage of IPL Auctions 2015 click here)

5. Delhi Daredevils

There is one similarity between Delhi Daredevils and South African team (certainly winning is not the one). Not just because Gary Kirsten is their head coach but two other members of South African support staff are working with DD. Looks like their management was happy to bring in people having South African connection. Gary Kirsten is the head coach of Delhi, Rob Walter who was Kirsten’s assistant during his stint with South Africa is in the same role with DD and they have hired the well-known performance analyst Prasanna Agoram who is also working with South African team. Eric Simmons who is their bowling coach had a good time with Indian team during 2011 world cup campaign. Interestingly he was also a South African all-rounder. All of their support staff have seen their teams reaching the top spot in international cricket. Somehow Kirsten and his team haven’t been able to produce same magic for Delhi Daredevils. Apart from Pietersen they built entire new squad last season. Still the story and the place in the points table remained same. Now after releasing so many players, they are again in quest of new captain and different players to bring in their team. Hopefully, Kirsten and Co. will get it right this time for bringing Daredevils top of the ladder in IPL 2015.

Players released : Kevin Pietersen, Dinesh Karthik, Murali Vijay, Jayadev Unadkat, Ross Taylor, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Rahul Sharma, Wayne Parnell, J Neesham, Siddarth Kaul, Rahul Shukla, HS Sharath, Milind Kumar

Players bought : Yuvraj Singh, Angelo Mathews, Zaheer Khan, Amit Mishra, Shreyas Iyer, Gurinder Sandhu, Jaydev Unadkat, Domnic Joseph Muthuswamy, Albie Morkel, Travis Head, Marcus Stoinis, C.M. Gautam, Kona Srikar Bharat, K.K. Jiyaz (For complete coverage of IPL Auctions 2015 click here)

6. Mumbai Indians

The list of MI support staff is so long that a separate single article can be written on it. Sachin Tendulkar, John Wright, Anil Kumble, Jonty Rhodes and many more are there to assist MI players. Sometimes people wonder that are all of them clear about their roles in the team? Anil Kumble and Sachin Tendulkar are their mentors. Ricky Ponting has taken charge as the head coach from John Wright. They have brought in Shane Bond as bowling coach for this season. Jonty is fielding coach and Robin Singh is assistant coach. Despite putting all these legends together Mumbai Indians have not performed as per their reputation. John Wright was the first successful overseas coach of the Indian team. Sachin, Anil Kumble, Ponting and Jonty are all legends in their respective areas. After losing 5 games on the trot, MI support staff tried their level best to bring back those glory days which they saw last year (Signing of Lendi Simmon’s mid-way through the tournament was a turning point). Mumbai Indian’s just made it to play offs after spectacular win against RR. Still there is plenty to think for MI support staff if they want to put up a better performance in next season.

Players released : Pragyan Ojha, Zaheer Khan, Jalaj Saxena, Ben Dunk, Apurva Wankhede, C.M. Gautam, Krishmar Santokie, Sushant Marathe and Michael Hussey

Players bought : Aaron Finch, Pragyan Ojha, Abhimanyu Mithun, Mitchell McClenaghan, Aiden Blizzard, Hardik Pandya, Akshay Wakhare, Nitish Rana, Siddhesh Dinesh Lad, J. Suchitch (For complete coverage of IPL Auctions 2015 click here)

7. Sunrisers Hydrabad

Last season was just a second season for Sunrisers in the IPL. They have done fairly well so far. The credit completely goes to their support staff. The well-known coach Tom Moody is the head coach of SRH. He is getting assistance from his fellow country man Simon Helmot. The two legends of Indian team K. Shrikanth and VVS Laxman are the mentors of SRH. Bowling has remained the strong point for the Sunrisers. What else can you expect when Waqar Younis is their bowling coach. They have defended low totals many times which shows that bowling is their strength. Last season the coaches were accurate to find the local talent. Naman Ojha, KL Rahul, Karn Sharma are the players who rose to the occasion to take their team to the victory. When these 5 great cricketing brains come together then the result will definitely be a good one. They qualified for the play-offs in their very first season but failed to do same in last season. Having released some of their key players, they are now looking for their first IPL title in 2015.

Players released : Amit Mishra, Aaron Finch, Darren Sammy, Irfan Pathan, Jason Holder, Venugopal Rao, Brendan Taylor, P. Parameswaran, Anirudha S., Manprit Juneja

Players bought : Trent Boult, Praveen Kumar, Kevin Pietersen, Eoin Morgan, Ravi Bopara, Kane Williamson, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Prasanth Padmanabhan, Hanuma Vihari, Siddharth Kaul (For complete coverage of IPL Auctions 2015 click here)

8. Royal Challengers Banglore

RCB had very high expectations last season with the kind of aggressive bidding they did in auctions. Four out of last three seasons they have ended up in the centre position of points table. Daniel Vettori is the head coach of RCB. He has lots of potential as a coach. Having led New Zealand and RCB itself successfully, he was looking to achieve the same in his first stint with RCB as coach. He has Brijesh Patel with him who is primarily looking after cricket operations. His role is as good as an assistant coach. They have Trent Woodhill as batting and fielding coach. If you are hearing this name for first time then let me tell you that he was a former coach of Pakistan and New Zealand teams and has also helped development of players like David Warner and Nic Maddinson. He is not a novice to this format of the game. But the main problem of RCB has been their bowling. Apart from Starc and Chahal no one put up strong impression last season. Their quicks Dinda and Aaron got hit all over the place by opponents. Their bowling coach is Allan Donald. Yet another legend and coach of South African team. Hopefully the RCB support staff will find a vital solution to these problems to qualify themselves for the play-offs in the next season.

Players released : Yuvraj Singh, Muttiah Muralitharan, Albie Morkel, Ravi Rampaul, Sachin Rana, Shadab Jakati, Tanmay Mishra

Players bought : Dinesh Karthik, Darren Sammy, David Wiese, Sean Abbott, Adam Milne, Sarfaraz Naushad Khan, Subramaniam Badrinath, Jalaj Saxena, Shshir Bhavane (For complete coverage of IPL Auctions 2015 click here)