IPL 2020: Flop XI from the first week

From edge-of-the-seat, nail-biting, super over finishes- to boring, unspirited, no-show run chases; it has only been a week into the thirteenth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) but fans have already seen all kinds of action.

The tournament has taken off to a flying start after Mumbai Indians (MI) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) were involved in a thrilling opener at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. 

In the first week, there have been a number of players, who entertained the audience with their fearless brand of cricket. However, a few of them haven’t been able to hit their straps thus far in the tournament.

In the article, let’s take a look at the Flop XI of IPL 202o from the first week:

1) Murali Vijay (CSK)

The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) headed into the 2020 season with a massive disadvantage caused by Suresh Raina’s early departure from the tournament. Consequently, the team have tried to bolster their batting by roping in some top-heavy domestic names, but the move hasn’t yielded much fruition thus far. 

Case in point: Murali Vijay’s dismal run as an opener at the top. Back in the Super Kings’ early years of glory, the Tamil Nadu batsman was a vital cog in the team’s batting line-up. With a strike rate close to 120 and two sensational centuries to his name, it wasn’t that big of a mystery as to why Captain Cool MS ‘Thala’ Dhoni preferred to play him in his starting line-up. 

Sadly, Murali and CSK had to temporarily distance themselves from each other from the period between 2014-2017. They did reunite once again, back when Chennai snapped him up in the 2018 mega-auction at his exact base-price of INR 2 crores. Unfortunately, though, Murali’s second homecoming hasn’t been as glorious. Across the 2018 and ’19 seasons, Vijay could only accumulate a total of 76 runs from three matches with a high-score of 38. The new-era CSK team settled on Ambati Rayudu as their preferred Indian opener, which took much of the spotlight away from the strong-techniqued Chennai batsman. 

But with Raina, and later, Rayudu on the sidelines this season, it looked like Vijay would get his long-due chance to shine. And he did get his chance- Murali has featured in each of CSK’s three matches thus far. Sadly, he has flattered to deceive, scoring just 32-runs across the three matches. Given how things have worked out so far, it looks almost certain that he’ll be axed once Rayudu returns to match-fitness. 

2) Sunil Narine (KKR)

Narine, ever since his debut for the Knight Riders in 2012, has evolved into somewhat of a mascot player for the Shah Rukh co-owned franchise. Having started as a pure, four-overs spinner, ‘Sunny’ now operates as a hard-hitting all-rounder who offers KKR a stellar start at the top order. His pyrotechnics, especially against slow and medium-pace bowlers; is well-documented among the other franchises and instills a strong sense of fear in their bowling lineups. 

This season, however, KKR’s gamble to open with Narine hasn’t yielded much success thus far. In both his matches against the Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad, Narine’s batting technique was found wanting. The southpaw looked at genuine discomfort against the likes of James Pattinson, Trent Boult, and Khaleel Ahmed; before ultimately falling victim to their short-ball plans and leaving the field without making much impact on the scoreboard. 

Many cricket pundits have raised questions over Narine’s longevity as an opener and it remains to be seen how KKR address them. For now, though, Narine picks himself in this worst XI as a pure opener. Although, he can offer some handy overs of right-arm off-spin if needed, something that this particular team can quite make use of.

3) Virat Kohli, Captain (RCB)

It’s not often you find someone as mercurial as King Kohli itself on lists like these. But given his performances- or lack, thereof- in RCB’s two matches thus far, the Indian captain makes a compelling case for his inclusion.

Kohli, to his credit, despite being captain of this side, hasn’t done as badly as some of his other colleagues in this squad. He didn’t have much of a batting-role in Bangalore’s first group-stage match against SRH; post-Devdutt Padikkal and Aaron Finch’s strong opening blitz, he could only add a 13-ball innings of 14 runs to the team’s scoreboard. But later in the second innings, he did an impressive job, managing his bowlers as per the situation, and successfully defending 163 runs. So far, so good, right?

Well…it gets worse- much worse- when you analyse his on-field performance against the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP). It did start on a positive note- Kohli had his say in the toss and opted to bowl first. But that’s pretty much where all the positives ended as KL Rahul bludgeoned the RCB bowling lineup with a magnificent 62-ball century. An out-of-sorts looking Kohli desperately tried to rotate his pacers, but couldn’t find much success with any of them.

The dismal RCB bowling performance clearly affected his overall demeanor, evidenced from the two simple catches he dropped to give Rahul lifelines. But his disappointing outing with the bat is what really accords him a place in this lineup. Chasing a mammoth total of 207, Kohli went with a left-field move and promoted new-comer Josh Philippe at the one-down position. But the move backfired, and eventually, when Kohli did arrive to bat, he was low on confidence and walked back scoring one run off five balls. 

4) Nicholas Pooran (KXIP)

Pooran, the aggressive wicket-keeper batsman from Trinidad and Tobago, was expected to fill in the finisher’s role in the new-look KXIP team. Coming fresh off a good Caribbean Premier League season with the Guyana Amazon Warriors, where he scored 245 runs from 11 innings, Punjab were looking forward to seeing his match-winning skills in their season-opener against the Delhi Capitals. 

Unfortunately, the actual script that followed was much different- and unfair- as far as KXIP are concerned. Chasing 158, they lost their first five wickets for a measly 55 runs; Pooran being one of those wickets with a golden duck to his name. Mayank Agarwal waged a lone, match-defining counter-attack of 89 runs and almost carried his side over the line. But some rash decisions from the umpires and Punjab batsmen towards the end took the game into a super over. 

Skipper KL Rahul decided against fatiguing Mayank and offered Pooran a chance to redeem himself in the tiebreaker. However, a sharp, fiery-yorker from Kagiso Rabada put a speeding break on that opportunity; leaving Pooran with an unceremonious record of bagging a pair in a T20 match! 

He did have a better second game against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, partnering his captain in a 57-run partnership. But his bizarre, one of a kind record warrants him a place in this week’s team of underperforming players.

5) Josh Philippe (RCB)

Coming into the 2020 season, fans were curious to see how RCB would manage their limited wicket-keeping options. The promise of playing Devdutt Padikkal and Aaron Finch at the top meant that Parthiv Patel couldn’t slot into their starting XI, leaving a 36-year-old AB de Villiers and newbie Joshua Philippe as their only glovesmen options. 

Captain Kohli decided to go for the latter, hence offering the promising Western Australia batsman a debut against the Sunrisers. It wasn’t a flawless idea- Josh had to be accommodated lower down the order at the three-down position where he couldn’t make much impact with the bat, scoring just a single run in his two-ball stay at the crease.

But in all honesty, it was his keeping that raised most eyebrows. It takes a certain degree of skill to keep to a world-class bowler like Yuzvendra Chahal. The 23-year-old Philippe found his first going a bit difficult, erring on several occasions and conceding quite a few runs in byes. Keeping in mind the 97-run drubbing they most-recently tasted against Punjab, it seems quite likely that RCB would go back to the experience of Parthiv Patel in the next match, leaving Philippe on the sidelines.

6) Ravindra Jadeja (CSK)

Harbhajan Singh’s eleventh-hour decision to pull out of the IPL has exposed a gaping hole in Chennai’s spin-bowling department- one that they haven’t quite been to fix just yet. In order to fit an extra batsman, Dhoni has had to do with playing just five bowling options- two of them being his local spinners, Ravindra Jadeja and Piyush Chawla.

But playing an Indian leggie comes with its repercussions. Chawla’s tendency to bowl aggressively often leaves his bowling figures a tad expensive. That’s where Jadeja was supposed to compliment him- keeping things tight with his accurate, line and length oriented bowling. Moreover, the slow, gripping surfaces in the Emirates were supposed to strongly assist the many pace variations that he can come up with. 

However, the sad reality so far has been that Jadeja has struggled with his precision and control, which has made him a major target for the opposing batsmen. UAE’s slowish surfaces have almost entirely taken the pace off his bowling, posing a massive challenge to his and Dhoni’s run-restricting plans. It shows from his bowling figures- ‘Sir’ Jadeja has conceded more than 40 runs off his spell in each match he has played.

Moreover, CSK haven’t got the extra batting mileage that they eagerly expected from him. Axing him just yet is, admittedly, a premature idea, but should his season continue going this way- CSK might start looking at Karn Sharma as an alternate option.

7) Krunal Pandya (MI)

Over the years, the Mumbai Indians have been blessed to have the option of playing multiple all-rounders in their side. The said all-rounders in question, being the Pandya brothers- Hardik and Krunal. However, this season, neither has been really able to provide that all-round balance the team demands from them. 

A long-term back injury to Hardik almost certainly rules him out as MI’s sixth bowling option this season. Krunal, meanwhile, has bowled in both the matches he played, and even batted in the first match. Unfortunately, though, he couldn’t make much of an impact in either of the departments in either game. 

 Against CSK, Krunal arrived late at the crease at number seven, and could only score a run-a-ball three. Things didn’t much improve on the bowling front either; across the 4-overs he bowled, he went for 37 runs, picking up a late wicket in the form of Ravindra Jadeja.

The match against KKR saw him score just a single run of three balls. With all the left-handers in the Kolkata batting line-up, Rohit Sharma decided to bowl him for just one over which cost 10 runs. His stocks went unutilised, but it’s still early in the league, so MI might not lose patience on their star all-rounder yet.

8) Jaydev Unadkat (RR)

Rajasthan Royals pulled off a clinical 16-run win against CSK in their season opener. While they had many positives to savour- Sanju Samson and Steve Smith’s forms being the most prominent aspects- they’d be somewhat disappointed with how their pace bowlers have performed. 

The Rajasthan spinners, while slightly expensive, accounted for four of Chennai’s top-order batsmen, and had a big impact in derailing the chase. The fast bowling attack, meanwhile, also showed some promise, especially with Jofra Archer’s impressive 4-0-26-1 spell. Tom Curran, too, was doing a good job keeping things tight, until the last over, when MS Dhoni unleashed his true self and clobbered him for three sixes. 

But it was their lead domestic fast-bowler, Jaydev Unadkat, whose form would be the biggest worry for RR. Having let go of Dhawal Kulkarni, the team doesn’t pack as much punch in its Indian pace bowling as it once did with pacer Varun Aaron being the only genuine, back-up Indian option.

Considering this dearth, they’d really want Jaydev to take more initiative and minimise his tendency of losing his speed at the wrong time, which was something that cost his side 21 runs in the 17th over against the CSK. 

9) Lungi Ngidi (CSK)

An injury to Dwayne Bravo and a compulsion to play an extra batsman in the side meant that Lungi Ngidi, the young South African quick, had to operate as Chennai’s premier death-overs bowler.

While he found some early success in the role in the season opener against MI, a forgettable outing against the Rajasthan Royals granted him a spot on this list. Bowling the final over against Jofra Archer and Tom Curran, Ngidi conceded four successive sixes off the former’s bat.

The mini-cameo resulted in a 30-run final over. Suffice to say, the Super Kings swapped him with Australian paceman Josh Hazelwood in the next match, and Ngidi doesn’t seem likely to get back into the team anytime soon.

10) Umesh Yadav (RCB)

Death bowling has been RCB’s Achilles heel over the past couple of seasons. Year after year, the team heads into the auction with an eager mindset, hoping to resolve those issues permanently. It remains to be seen whether they will finally be able to conquer that hurdle this season.

For the time being, though, they will be more concerned with their bowlers’ performance at the power-play. Umesh Yadav has been the side’s go-to option in the opening overs for three years now, but his most recent series of performances have been a major headache for the side. 

In both the games he played, the Vidarbha speedster struggled with his pace and length, giving the opposing batters an easy avenue to accumulate quick runs in that period. Thankfully, Kohli has had the luxury of using Shivam Dube and Washington Sundar to bowl filler overs, which somewhat compensates for Umesh’s poor returns. But a couple more poor outings could well prompt the RCB management to look beyond him and try their bench-strength option in Mohammed Siraj. 

11) Mohit Sharma (DC)

So far, the Delhi Capitals have been the most balanced side in the tournament, excelling in almost every aspect of the game. Having said that, in the absence of Ishant Sharma, their Indian fast-bowling options haven’t been that upto the mark, and that’s one of the issues the team would be keen to resolve. 

So far, they’ve tried Avesh Khan and Mohit Sharma to fill in that spot. While neither has been out-and-out impressive, Mohit being the more experienced IPL campaigner gets the nudge ahead to fill in the spot. In the opening match against Punjab, Mohit conceded 45 runs from his four-over spell while picking KL Rahul’s wicket.

Given how some of the other bowlers on this list have performed, it might be a bit hard to accept his name on the list. But in the context of how close the match went, Mohit’s expensive overs could well have been the difference between Delhi winning or losing the match.

~Soham Bhowal