Flop XI from the first week of IPL 2021

6. MS Dhoni (C & WK)

MS Dhoni returned to professional cricket for the first time since playing in the IPL 2020. However, his return wasn’t quite what he would have liked. In the first match against Delhi, he looked scratchy during his two-ball duck. Avesh Khan bowled him with a beautiful ball as the former international returned to the dugout. 

On top of that, he faced an INR 12 lakh fine with an offense of slow over-rate. He is even at the risk of getting banned if he commits this offense again in the next two matches. Throughout his career, MS Dhoni has always found ways to come back stronger and answer his critics. His numbers since IPL 2020 are the lowest it has ever been for him, so it will be interesting to see if he can make another turnaround happen against the odds.

7. Rahul Tewatia 

Rahul Tewatia was one of the finds of the 2020 season. He scored 255 runs with a good average and a strike rate and also picked up 10 wickets. However, so far in the IPL 2021, Tewatia has looked like a shadow of his 2020’s outing. In the first match, he bowled only two overs and conceded 25 runs from that. With the bat, in that match, he scored only two runs. 

In the second match, which was a low-scoring one, he conceded 27 runs from his three overs. Though he contributed 19 with the bat, he wasn’t able to finish the job for the Rajasthan Royals. Last year, Steve Smith as a captain used Tewatia brilliantly to get the most out of him. Sanju Samson might have to think about how Tewatia could be used in the best way possible.