IPL 2020: 5 benched players who should get chances in the second week

The first week of the 13th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is all done and dusted with some nail-biting finishes coupled with a few one-sided contests. Except Sunrisers Hyderabad, all the other seven teams got a win under their belt in the first week of the competition. All the teams looked good with a perfect mix of Indian and foreign players in their group and the team managements looked to develop an apt combination that suited the conditions in the UAE. Due to this reason many star players were benched in the first week of IPL 2020. While some teams tasted early success with those combinations, teams like CSK, RCB and SRH paid heavily due to their rusty and inconsistent performances. In this article, we will discuss some names of benched players, who should get a chance in the XI from the second week of the league. Here is the list of players, who should get a chance in the second week of IPL 2020: – 1. Chris Morris (RCB) Chris Morris of DD. (Photo Source: Twitter) The Bangalore-based franchise kick-started their campaign with a 10-run win against the Sunrisers Hyderabad in their opening encounter of this season. In their second match, things went against RCB as they lost to Kings XI Punjab by a massive margin of 97 runs. Punjab’s skipper, KL Rahul, smashed 48 runs in the final three overs of the innings and took away the match from RCB. The death bowling of RCB really looked terrible and they gave lots of chances to Rahul to score runs. RCB were clearly lacking a bowler who can bowl with a decent economy in the death overs and Chris Morris was a decent choice to fill that space in the team. The South African all-rounder was bought by the Bangalore franchise for a whopping price of INR 10 crores and was benched in their first two games, giving chances to Australia’s young wicket-keeping batsman Josh Philippe. Morris, who had an impressive season in the Big Bash League is expected to take over the death bowling department of RCB in their next encounter against Mumbai Indians on Monday. 2. Kane Williamson (SRH) Kane Williamson. (Photo: IANS) The Hyderabad-based franchise lost the two matches they played in IPL 2020 till now with a weak middle-order being a problem in both the occasions. Their middle-order lacked experience and collapsed, chasing 164 against RCB in their first match of this season. New Zealand’s limited overs skipper, Kane Williamson will be the apt solution for the team’s middle-order problem as he was the Orange Cap winner in the 11th edition of the tournament and even captained their side to the finals in the absence of David Warner that season. Williamson, who was benched in the franchise’s first two games of the season, is expected to join the likes of Warner, Jonny Bairstow and Manish Pandey in the batting lineup and is expected to play a crucial role in the franchise’s journey towards their second IPL win. 3. Chris Gayle (KXIP) Kings XI Punjab’s Chris Gayle. (Photo Source: Surjeet Yadav/IANS) Chris Gayle, the Universal Boss is unarguably one of the greatest batsmen in the shortest format of the game and is one of the most destructive batsmen ever to play in IPL. He holds the record for the highest individual score of 175* in IPL and in the process, he scored the fastest-century ever in the IPL off just 30 balls. Despite his incredible record in T20 cricket, Gayle was benched in the franchise’s first two encounters in this year’s tournament, giving chances to his national teammate Nicholas Pooran who failed miserably by scoring a duck and 17 with a strike rate of just 80.95. Adding Gayle to the XI will certainly bring depth and experience to the batting lineup of Punjab, whose middle order is yet to fire in this season with the likes of Karun Nair and Glenn Maxwell in it. Gayle opening with inform KL Rahul can bring a wave of terror to the bowlers as the duo is capable of destroying any bowling lineups with their attacking stroke play. 4. Shardul Thakur (CSK) Shardul Thakur. (Photo Source: Twitter) The Chennai-based franchise is looking in a bad shape this season as Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh left the team citing personal reasons before the start of the tournament. Their top performer with the bat in their first game, Ambati Rayudu, missed the next two games due to injury. After starting their campaign with a victory over the defending champions Mumbai Indians, CSK lost their next two matches to Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Capitals respectively due to some poor performances in all the three departments of the game. CSK conceded 216 runs to RR with their bowlers leaking runs from the start of the innings and as a result they lost that match by 16 runs in the end. Shardul Thakur, who had a decent outing with Team India in the New Zealand tour before the COVID-19 pandemic, is expected to be included in the XI as an extra bowling option in their upcoming match against SRH. Thakur’s batting skills can be an added bonus to the team, which are having a tough time with the bat this season. 5. Ishan Kishan (MI) Ishan Kishan of Mumbai Indians in action. (Photo by Kuntal Chakrabarty/IANS) Jharkhand’s young wicketkeeping left-handed batsman, Ishan Kishan, has been left out of the playing XI by Mumbai Indians due to his poor performance in last year’s IPL. Ishan was played ahead of Yuvraj Singh at no.4 spot in last season. In seven games he played for MI in 2019, Ishan scored just 101 runs at a strike-rate of 101. Saurabh Tiwary has been played at no. 4 by the Mumbai-based franchise this year and he has done a decent job by scoring 63 runs in two matches at an excellent strike rate of 143.18. He was also the top-scorer of the team in their first match against Chennai Super Kings with 42 runs off 31 balls. Although Saurabh looked good while batting, he was slow in fielding which can cause a major problem to the team in the latter stages of the tournament. Due to this reason Ishan can be given a chance to prove his worth to the team as the league proceeds. ~Uday Gurugubelli

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IPL 2020: 5 benched players who should get chances in the second week

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