New Delhi: Deccan Chargers captain Kumar Sangakkara has tipped Kolkata Knight Riders to win the Indian Premier League this season.
Sangakkara said Delhi Daredevils and Chennai Super Kings also had well-balanced teams, although Chennai's inconsistency could prove costly for them.
The Sri Lankan southpaw praised Knight Riders' skipper Gautam Gambhir.
"On form, I would say Kolkata," Sangakkara said when asked who he thought would win.
"Kolkata have been playing exceptionally well.
"I think you have to give credit to the way Gautam has managed to get those guys to gel together. They have some top quality in that side.
Local players
"I think the most important thing when you look at all these sides is the quality of the local Indian players.
"Delhi has got Viru [Virender Sehwag], Ajit Agarkar, Umesh Yadav, Irfan Pathan.
"So does Kolkata when you look at Yousuf Pathan, Gautam Gambhir, Manoj Tiwary and [Laxmi Ratan] Shukla."
Sangakkarra attributed losing players to other franchises as one of the reasons for the bottom-of-the-table Chargers' failure.
He feels they have a great team on paper but needed a good bowling coach to help bring through their young Indian pacers.
"We have lost [Pragyan] Ojha. We have lost Harmeet [Singh Bansal]. We have lost KP (Kevin Pietersen], and KP is a big cricketer. So is Harmeet. He has done a wonderful job for Deccan and he is very useful on selected tracks," he said.
"One of the other things that we can do is look for a good bowling coach who can help the youngsters, especially a guy like Veer (Pratap Singh)."
