IPL 2020: Best stat-padders XI of the tournament

10. Piyush Chawla

From the most expensive overseas buy to the costliest local purchase; fair to say that neither KKR nor CSK got the desired returns out of their top purchases. But Piyush Chawla’s IPL 2020 trajectory highlights a bigger area of concern for the Chennai Super Kings.

CSK’s evergreen mantra of prioritizing experience was the primary reason behind PC’s inclusion in their squad. A veteran of 150+ IPL games, Chawla was expected to be a vital member of Chennai’s star-studded spin-bowling attack. The CSK think-tank sure had harbored such expectations; as they drafted him in their playing XI ahead of the likes of Imran Tahir, Mitchell Santner, and R Sai Kishore.

By the time CSK’s IPL was journey was over, though, those expectations had come tumbling down rather unceremoniously. Chawla featured in only 7-matches for Chennai, where he managed to claim an aggregate of 6-wickets. His bowling-average and economy read 31.83 and 9.09 respectively.

Not particularly outrageous figures, by any means- but it’s important to realize that most wickets Piyush claimed were inconsequential in the larger scheme of things. As an experienced wrist-spinner, MSD, and co. would’ve hoped for PC to provide key breakthroughs by dismissing the in-form batsmen before they got set.

In reality, though, most batsmen Piyush dismissed were already struggling in the crease. And when he wasn’t among the wickets, most batsmen didn’t have many troubles scoring off of him. Clearly, not quite the ‘impact-player’ Chennai had put their money on.