IPL 2019: 3 surprise omissions by teams in the first week

The 12th edition of IPL is entering into its second week. There were enough action and controversy in the first week of IPL 2019 to keep everyone on the toes with a match going to the Super Over, a no-ball controversy and a 'mankading' dismissal.

The beauty of IPL is the pace at which the tournament moves. Sometimes it seems like the tournament has just now started and at the blink of an eye, one would find the tournament reaching the halfway stage. For an ardent cricket fan, depression will slowly set in at the halfway stage and before realizing what is happening, the tournament would be over and out. One will have to wait for another year for the next IPL feast.

With the 12th edition of IPL just a week old, there have been some surprise selections and omission of players by teams. A team like CSK has so far played with only three overseas players. A team like RCB has been denied the services of players like Marcus Stoinis and Nathan Coulter-Nile. While Mumbai Indians are without Jason Behrendorff, CSK is going to miss Lungi Ngidi and David Willey for the entire season.

There have been surprising selections by teams like the selection of Navdeep Saini (RCB), Keemo Paul (DC), Rashikh Salam (MI), Sarfraz Khan (KXIP) and Hardus Viljoen (KXIP). There have been some notable omissions too and let us look at three of them in the first week of IPL 2019.

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#3 Ishan Kishan(MI)

Ishan Kishan - A decent success in last year's IPL is yet to find a place in the team

The Mumbai Indians wicketkeeper was a reasonable success in last year’s IPL. Ishan Kishan scored 274 runs in 12 innings at a strike rate of 150. He was also safe behind the wickets with 9 catches and 2 stumpings. His innings of 62 against KKR at the Eden Gardens in IPL 2018 enabled Mumbai Indians to beat KKR by a massive margin of 102 runs.

In IPL auction 2019, Mumbai traded Quinton de Kock from RCB and de Kock with his big reputation as a quality international player, straight away walked into the team. That dented Kishan’s chances in Mumbai who had otherwise done nothing wrong in last year’s IPL.

Now Kishan will have to wait for his chances in the second half of the tournament when de Kock leaves the Mumbai squad for World Cup preparations.

#2 Faf du Plessis (CSK)

Warming the bench in IPL is nothing new for Faf du Plessis

Faf du Plessis was the hero for CSK in last year’s Qualifier 1 against Sunrisers. In the first qualifier, chasing 140 for a win, CSK was reduced to 62 for 6 with Faf the lone man standing. The South African was not in the best of form going into the playoffs. But he stood his ground while wickets tumbled at the other end. He remained not out on 67 off 42 balls to take CSK directly into the finals.

Du Plessis was expected to be an automatic selection for CSK’s first match against RCB in the season opener. But for some strange reasons, CSK decided to go in with only 3 overseas players and left out du Plessis.

Again the same trend continued in CSK’s next match against Delhi Capitals. Perhaps the presence of an additional batting option in the form of Kedhar Jadhav this year might have prompted the CSK management to ignore the South African skipper for the first two matches. As such, CSK was playing one batsman short in both the low scoring matches.

CSK’s tactic might change in today’s match against Rajasthan Royals and Faf du Plessis might after all find a place in the playing XI.

#1 Khaleel Ahmed (SRH)

Khaleel Ahmed - The better option for SRH going forward

Khaleel Ahmed has not exactly set the last edition of IPL on fire. But he is a welcome variety in SRH’s bowling line-up. As such SRH are fielding Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma and Siddarth Kaul who are all similar type of bowlers.

But Khaleel is a left-arm seam bowler who could be used as an effective new ball bowler. In the few matches that he has played for India, he has shown plenty of character in adversity. What he needs now is a long rope whether playing for India or for SRH.

The SRH pace bowlers were taken to the cleaners in their first two matches of this year’s IPL. By default, Khaleel Ahmed should have been in the playing XI for SRH right from their first match. But now the SRH team management might be forced to repent and look upon at him as a better option in their next match against RCB.

Khaleel might get his chance sooner than later.

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