Kochi had bought 17 players from the IPL 2011 auction by signing five specialist batsmen - Mahela Jayawardene, VVS Laxman, Brad Hodge, Owais Shah and Michael Klinger, besides six bowlers - Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, Sreesanth, RP Singh, Ramesh Powar, Vinay Kumar and Stephen O'Keefe.

Other team members are: Ravindra Jadeja, Steve Smith, Thisara Perera and John Hastings, Brendon McCullum and Parthiv Patel. The team has 10 more Indian players including Kerala Ranji captain Raiphi Vincent Gomez.