The Indian Premier League (IPL) has, thus far, seen plenty of high-octane action with young guns and experienced stars impressing with their range of skills and temperament.
Players such as Kartik Tyagi and Devdutt Padikkal have raised their game to stand out among a bunch of world class match-winners, while AB de Villiers and Kieron Pollard have gone about the IPL as usual.
KL Rahul, along with his teammate Mayank Agarwal, continue to rule while Kagiso Rabada has been a revelation in the league with at least a wicket in his last 23 IPL appearances.
However, not every player has been able to dust off the rustiness and adapted well to the conditions on offer in the UAE. Many cricketers who have mesmerised us with their insane talent have had a quiet season thus far, and we look at some of the biggest flops of the season.
*All stats till RR vs CSK game on 20 October 2020
Aaron Finch
Royal Challengers Bangalore, who had always struggled with their top-order, seemed to have plugged the holes when they bought Aussie white-ball skipper Aaron Finch for the 2020 season.
Averaging 35.69 in T20s at a strike rate of more than 142 with 8 ton and 61 fifties, Finch was expected to play his natural game, which would ease the pressure on Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers.
The 33-year old had scores of 52* in 36, 42 in 27, 14 in 12, 55 in 37, 46 in 32, 40 in 33 and 39 in 26 balls in his last seven T20I outings, and RCB would have hoped that the experienced player would come good in the UAE. However, Finch does not have the greatest record in the UAE and his struggles have come to haunt him in IPL 2020 as well.
In nine games, Finch has amassed 205 runs with a high score of 52 – his only 50 in the tournament. His strike rate is an abysmal 114.52 and his inability to get going has only increased the pressure on Padikkal, Kohli and De Villiers.
MS Dhoni
Undoubtedly the best finisher once upon a time, MS Dhoni has had a season to forget - both as a skipper and as a batsman. While his moves as a leader have been heavily criticised and is a major reason why CSK find themselves in the bottom of the table, his batting has gone from bad to worse as the tournament has progressed, which has only increased the pressure on the other players.
The wicket-keeper, who was playing his first professional game in IPL 2020, after a gap of more than 14 months, has looked rusty and has not been able to time his shots, bare a few.
Though he has 164 runs in 10 games and his strike rate of 125.19 might not suggest his waning skills, he has looked a pale shadow of his former majestic self.
Dhoni has been unable to play off the spinners and has struggled against the pacers in the death game-after-game, and has often let CSK down when they needed him to finish off matches.
To make matters worse, his captaincy decisions have defied logic – be it the persisting with Kedar Jadhav or benching Imran Tahir – and this frustration has been visible in his nasty glares to the umpires when a decision seems to go against his team.
Glenn Maxwell
The “Big Show” has not lived up to his nickname in IPL 2020 with a season that has displayed all of Glenn Maxwell’s vulnerabilities. The Australian was expected to be a show-stopper this year after he had set the stage on fire in 2014 – the last time the IPL had been held in the UAE.
Then, Maxi had accumulated 552 runs as Kings XI Punjab entered the finals riding high on his performances.
However, the 32-year old looks completely befuddled this season with knocks of 1, 5, 13*, 11, 11*, 7, 10* and 0 thus far for a total of 58 runs.
Kings XI Punjab rested Universal Boss Chris Gayle to accommodate Maxwell in the XI, but his poor returns increased the pressure on skipper KL Rahul, who looked to anchor the innings rather than go for his shots in the last few games.
However, the return of Gayle has allowed Rahul to play with freedom – a point he stated after Punjab’s thriller against Mumbai Indians – which only highlights how Maxwell has been disrupting the team’s balance due to his ill form.
Jaydev Unadkat
Jaydev Unadkat has made news more for the amount that he has been sold for in the last few years of IPL 2020 than for his on-field performances. The fast bowler was bought for a whopping INR 11.5 crore in IPL 2018 but failed to impress in the Rajasthan Royals colours with just 11 wickets at an economy rate of 9.65 after 15 games.
He was released ahead of the 2019 auctions only to be bought back by his old franchise for INR 8.4 crore. Once again, Unadkat failed to live up to his billing, picking up 10 wickets whilst conceding runs at more than 10 an over.
Rajasthan did a triple-whammy as they got Unadkat for the 2020 edition as well – this time for a much lower cost of INR 3 crore – but the Saurashtra pacer has been unable to contribute yet again.
In 7 games, Unadkat has picked up just 4 wickets and has leaked runs at 9.91 an over.
Despite the presence of Jofra Archer in the ranks, RR have conceded runs at 7.93 in the powerplay overs – the second highest among all teams – and at 11.04 at the death – the fourth highest – and his inability to stall the run-flow and pick up wickets has been a major reason for RR’s poor returns in IPL 2020.
Ajinkya Rahane
The Delhi Capitals traded former Rajasthan Royals skipper for IPL 2020 only to bench him for the first few games of the season. Rahane, India’s Test talisman, was finally given a chance when wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant was out injured for a few games.
The franchise would have eagerly hoped that Rahane, at three, could have steered the team through and given them a solid platform so that the likes of Shreyas Iyer and Marcus Stoinis could have flourished in the death.
However, his returns have been well below par this year, with just 25 runs from 3 games at a strike rate of a poor 73.52.
Rahane walked out to bat in the first over when the scorecard read at 4 for 1 against Mumbai Indians, at 0 for 1 against Rajasthan and again at 0 for 1 against Chennai Super Kings.
The player, who opened the batting for RR, did not have to mould his game much and just had to see off the new ball bowlers, but his inability to get going increased the pressure on his partner Shikhar Dhawan.
Though Dhawan thrived under the pressure with two fifties and a hundred in the three games that Rahane played, the latter turned out to be a major dud.
Dale Steyn
The South African returned to RCB after an injury cut short his season in 2019. The experienced campaigner had picked up 4 wickets in just 2 matches and had shown glimpses of his heydays as he troubled the rivals with his pacey inswingers and bouncers.
Expected to play a similar role in 2020, Steyn failed to perform and has been warming the benches in the last few games. With just 1 wicket in 2 games along with an economy rate of 11.73, the 37-year old has looked a poor reflection of the bowler he was in his prime.
Steyn has a shocker of a game against Kings XI Punjab earlier in the edition, when he conceded 57 for 0 in his 4 overs – the second highest runs conceded in an innings this year.
Instead of easing RCB’s death bowling woes, the fast bowler only seemed to compound them, and it seems unlikely that he will play another season in the IPL.
KKR’s Overseas Trio
Ahead of the IPL 2020 edition, Australia’s Pat Cummins created waves as he was sold to KKR for a whopping INR 15.5 crore. One of the best Test bowlers of the era, Cummins, however, does not have the best T20 numbers, and has often opted out of Australia’s T20I tours to focus on Test cricket.
Though he has performed with the bat and played a crucial hand against Mumbai Indians, he has been disappointing with the ball with just 3 wickets in 9 games at an economy rate of 8.42.
The fast bowler has been expensive at the death and had a disappointing game against Mumbai in the opener when he kept bowling short to feed Rohit Sharma’s strengths. He ended with figures of 0 for 49.
Andre Russell and Sunil Narine have been major misses as well for the franchise. While Russell has been the key with the ball at the death for KKR, his batting woes are never-ending, with just 92 runs.
He has been batting irresponsibly – taking on bowlers when he should have looked to play them out and going for a shot too many – which has increased the pressure on the likes of Eoin Morgan and Dinesh Karthik.
Narine – who has been with the franchise since 2014 – has been a flop with both bat and ball. The West Indian had been asked to open the innings in 2017 and had emerged as the X-factor in the line-up as he handed KKR aggressive starts.
Narine batted with a strike rate of 172.30 in 2017, 189.89 in 2018 and 166.27 last season, and was expected to fulfil the same role this year too. However, the rivals understood his weaknesses against the pacers and attacked him with speed near his body, which proved to be his unraveling.
He has just 44 runs from 6 games at a strike rate of 110, and has also been disappointing with the ball, picking up 5 scalps at an economy rate of 8.09 – his highest ever in any season of the IPL.
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