IPL 2022: Flop XI from third week of the season

For several big names, their performances in the third week of IPL 2022 have been a hit-and-miss kind of scenario. The woes have continued for some world-class players, whereas, a few players have seen a steep decline in form in the third week of the tournament. The two-month-long tournament has entered its most important stage, and the margin of error keeps reducing with every progressing week.

Problems continue to mount in the Mumbai Indians camp, as the five-time champions have now lost five back-to-back games. Their star players have underperformed in the opening stages of the tournament, and it is high time they start turning up for the big occasions. Chennai Super Kings finally found a glimmer of hope, after they ended their four-match losing streak, with a convincing victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore. A franchise’s success is largely dependent on the performance of its key players, around which the team is built. In this article, we look at the-

Flop XI from the third week of IPL 2022

1) Ruturaj Gaikwad

Ruturaj Gaikwad continues to underperform with the bat for Chennai Super Kings. Having won the Orange Cap last season, the right-handed batter was retained by the ‘Men in Yellow,’ ahead of Faf du Plessis. In his two outings in the previous week, Gaikwad managed to score a total of just 33 runs. In five outings so far, the opener has scored 35 runs at a dismal average of 6.80.

He finally managed to enter a double-digit score against Sunrisers Hyderabad and was looking confident out in the middle. However, he was knocked over by T. Natarajan for a brief cameo of 16 runs off 13 balls. Against Royal Challengers Bangalore, it was a similar story, as he was dismissed for just 17 runs, after getting off to a decent start. It seems that the Indian batter is being cautious out in the middle, and is unable to express himself freely. If Chennai Super Kings are to make a comeback in the second half of the season, they will desperately need their star opener back among the runs on a consistent basis.