10 superstars who have let their fans down this IPL

8. James Faulkner

James Faulkner

Honestly speaking, Faulkner wasn’t exactly a superstar in world cricket until he became the Man of the Match at the 2015 World Cup final. But for Rajasthan Royals, the ‘finisher’ hardly finished anything. 144 runs with the bat at 18 and eight wickets at an average of 53 and an economy of 9.46 hardly does justice to what he could have done. RR’s premier all-rounder went for too many runs in too many games, probably costing them a top two finish.

9. Sunil Narine

To be fair to Narine, he wasn’t let to settle into bowling peacefully with too many question marks on his action. KKR missed out narrowly on a playoff spot, strangely picking Azhar Mahmood ahead of Brad Hogg who was bowling beautifully for their final game. But Narine was their unfortunate story of the season, picking just seven wickets in eight games at an average of 33 and an economy of 7.3. They sound decent for an upcoming spinner but not for someone who has hovered at the top of the wicket-takers list previously and is a mystery for the best of batsmen.

10. Suresh Raina

Suresh Raina

Suresh Raina has just edged his skipper MS Dhoni to make this list. That Chennai Super Kings finished top of the table in spite of two of their superstars performing at 50% and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja hardly performing is a testimony to the balance of their side and their ability to play as a unit.

Raina fared decently, but you would expect more from him when you consider the fact that he has been the IPL’s most prolific Indian player, having appeared in every CSK game since the tournament’s inception. Raina has collected just 346 runs in 16 innings at an average of 25 and a strike-rate of 121 with two half-centuries from No.3.

With the final still to come, however, it won’t be a huge surprise if he makes amends for his tournament so far and produces a big knock against Mumbai Indians.