IPL 2018: 11 cricketers who had a forgettable IPL

Disclaimer: This article doesn’t mean disrespect to any of the cricketers it mentions. I hope it is widely understood that playing cricket at the highest level is an extremely tough ask.

IPL 2018. It could have very well been 2011. CSK won the title. MS Dhoni hit sixes at will. Shane Watson changed games with his batting. Shikhar Dhawan scored enough runs to keep him in the top fray of Indian batsmen, without topping the batch. The perception of Piyush Chawla’s importance to his team depended strictly on a match-to-match basis. Ajinkya Rahane scored a six once every three IPL innings. RCB didn't get their hands on the title. Steve Smith was absent.

The aftermath of the IPL has seen many articles, most glorifying the best performers and innovators this season. In such a case, it isn’t a bad idea to compile the XI who failed to live up to expectations in IPL 2018. This list contains players who took the onus on themselves to make the mass feel good about themselves. How disenchanting would life be otherwise, if you see AB de Villiers hopping around his crease to reverse-sweep a 140 kph delivery for a six in stark comparison to your best personal achievement of a presentable cover-drive against a 90 kph trundler, eight years back.

Five games have been set as the minimum condition for the players to make this unprecedented list. There are no restrictions on the foreign quota in this XI, but if you want to be a purist, feel free to replace any of them from the substitutes bench.

1) Wriddhiman Saha (10 innings, 122 runs, S/R of 119.60)

Wriddhiman Saha: Played very few shots like these in IPL 2018.

All of us can agree on the fact that Manish Pandey had a terrible season, even then, Saha scored 162 runs lesser than him. It was not even the fact that Saha was continuously played out of his position as a lower-order power-hitter. In half his innings, he batted as an opener, his ideal spot in T20s. His batting had flashes of Nayan Mongia’s ineptness from the glorious 1990s. A good keeper, even exceptional on some counts, but as soon as Saha crossed the lines to make the journey to the front of the stumps, he made them look like the Berlin Wall. Kedar Jadhav scored more sixes in the only innings that he batted in this IPL compared to Saha’s entire season.

2) Colin Munro (5 innings, 63 runs, S/R of 153.65)

Colin Munro: Got done in by an Aussie coach in IPL 2018

To be fair to Munro, he didn’t get continuous chances to stake a claim for the opening spot. But it might have been foolish on his part to expect fairness from an Aussie coach. Poor old Kiwi. The gaffer did him in quite nicely, especially considering Glenn Maxwell got picked for 12 games.

3) Ajinkya Rahane (14 innings, 370 runs, S/R of 118.21)

Only if Virat Kohli could also pass his ball-striking abilities to Ajinkya Rahane.

On a cursory glance, going strictly by the number of runs, it doesn’t seem that Rahane had a terrible season. But the bottom-line is that his S/R cost his team matches. He makes it as the number 3 batsman in this line-up, given his miserable existence at that spot in this IPL. In his five innings as a number 3 batsman, he scored 90 runs at a gut-numbing S/R of 101. Alongwith an almost equally slow D’Arcy Short as his partner, they were the only thing more painful than the Jaipur heat at its peak.

4) Yuvraj Singh (6 innings, 65 runs, S/R of 89.04)

Nope. Not happening.

The IPL has shown historically that stars who play for their local IPL franchises don’t necessarily prosper. Sourav Ganguly was a disaster for KKR, Rahul Dravid failed to achieve anything for RCB, Ravindra Jadeja fiddled around with Gujarat Lions, Lokesh Rahul turned into a run-machine after leaving RCB. It was surprising that the KXIP team management didn’t look at this empirical and definite scientific data to make their auction choice. Instead, they chose to look at actual cricket numbers from the last two years and still came up with the decision to buy Yuvraj. It is a pity, really. A great player coming to the end of his career, and one who is being asked to submit by the game itself. For all those who believe in fairy tales in cricket, Yuvraj showed there’s no such thing beyond a point. For a man who once scored six sixes in an over, he, on an average couldn’t even score six runs an over this IPL. Life is hard, time to move on.

5) Ben Stokes (13 batting innings, 196 runs, S/R of 121.73; 12 bowling innings, 8 wickets, E/R of 8.18)

Ben Stokes got in. Ben Stokes got out.

If we subtract Ben Stokes’ best batting (103 not out off 63 balls) and bowling performance (3 wickets for 18 runs off four overs) from last year, his numbers in IPL 2017 look similar to 2018. But there was this certain confidence in him last year which equated to Andrew Flintoff and Ian Botham comparisons (classic English all-round comparisons). Stokes seemed like a player who could turn a match on its head and it just felt that it was a matter of time. Not this year. He was very meek with the bat and it almost felt like he was coming off a major setback in his life, an event that had knocked the stuffing out of him (excuse the pun). Move over Flintoff and Botham, my all-time favourites Ronnie Irani and Dimitri Mascarenhas are the new benchmark for Stokes.

6) Glenn Maxwell (12 batting innings, 169 runs, S/R of 140.83)

Glenn Maxwell: Looks a million dollar in this picture but isn't worth that much.

The brand mascot for the tagline ‘talent is overrated’. No player in T20 history can possibly have a worse statistical record in comparison to the domination on display once he sets the ball rolling. The only instance he got close to playing a significant innings in IPL 2018 was against KKR, where batting on 47 off 21 balls, Maxwell pulled a filthy half-tracker from Kuldeep Yadav straight to deep mid-wicket. Since then his scores read 4, 12, 27, 6, 5, 2, 9, 5 and 22. Maxwell delivered a six for every crore that was spent on him—nine of them. Each of his run cost DD a whopping 5,32,544 Indian rupees An understanding Australian coach made sure he got enough number of chances but since the IPL shifted from the UAE to India, Maxwell’s name looks threatening only on an unresearched piece of paper.

7) Marcus Stoinis (7 batting innings, 99 runs, S/R of 130.26; 6 bowling innings, 3 wickets, E/R of 10.90)

The only Australian amongst these three to get an IPL 2018 contract, Marcus Stoinis (L) pulled a fast one.

Stoinis pulled a fast one on all of us when we were busy dissecting Stokes’ performances. He went for 6.20 crores (close to 1 million USD) and was amongst the 20 most expensive buys of the 2018 auction. He was dismissed more often than he took wickets this season, he conceded more runs than he scored this season, batsmen scored at a S/R of 182 against Stoinis while he responded with a good-mannered/disciplined S/R of 130. I may not look into numbers much, but with every passing day I am understanding that these are not good returns. I would repay his auction money just to see if Stoinis, the batsman can face up to Stoinis, the bowler. It will be tough to call the winner.

8) Stuart Binny (5 batting innings, 44 runs, S/R of 112.82; 1 bowling innings, 0 wickets, E/R of 16.50)

Wish this was a gif, so we could see Stuart Binny hit the ball.

You might not believe me, but I really wanted Binny to succeed. He has been on the fringe for what seems like an eternity now. I thought reuniting with his former franchise (where he enjoyed moderate success) would bring out his old best, which to reiterate again is moderate success for a T20 player like him who is unexpected to shoulder either batting or bowling responsibilities. I was wrong. Jaydev Unadkat, Shreyas Gopal, Deepak Chahar, Tim Southee and Rashid Khan all scored more runs than him this season. With the ball, only Vinay Kumar had an economy rate worse than him. Binny conceded 9 runs off his first two balls of the season without conceding a six, which I am assuming is some kind of a record but one that I can’t be bothered/have no idea how to check. To be fair, he lured Watson into edging a ball in the same over which Rahul Tripathi promptly dropped. Watson went on to score a century and Binny would bowl only one more over in the entire tournament. Oh Stuart!

9) Mitchell Johnson (6 bowling innings, 2 wickets, E/R of 10.28)

Big Bash League might be the only competition where we get to see Johnson again.

The mighty Mitch, the Mo, 60th of his name and the breaker of English bones. It has been 54 months since the iconic 2013 Ashes, the adulations of which still keep pouring in and rightly so but we might have seen the last of Johnson in the IPL. On an average, Johnson went for 41 runs off his four overs without picking up a wicket this IPL. For each of his wicket, he conceded 108 runs (worst amongst all bowlers this IPL, even Vinay Kumar). It is easy to forget that he bowled a critical last over in the IPL 2017 final but would it really be Mitchell Johnson if not for his extravagant anomalies. Commiserations to those who thought he could be a potential replacement for Mitchell Starc just because he is another left-arm fast bowler from Australia.

Rajasthan Royals v Delhi Daredevils - IPL T20 cricket

10) Jaydev Unadkat (15 bowling innings, 11 wickets, E/R of 9.65)

708 Test wickets between them.

The most expensive Indian player to be picked up in the auction had an absolute stinker of a season. His sudden success at the last IPL was something that was hard to fathom, what was making him successful? His slower-ball cutters picked up a lot of wickets, especially as the batsmen targeted him as a rookie bowler. Unadkat tried the same thing this year and got absolutely battered. Batsmen grew smarter and started predicting Unadkat’s lengths much more easily and once that happened, the pacer from Porbandar couldn’t find a way out. Not the first person from his state to falter at the biggest stage in the last few years.

11) Mohit Sharma (9 bowling Innings, 7 wickets, E/R of 10.85)

Mohit Sharma took a fair beating this IPL.

KXIP helped CSK dodge a massive bullet here, one that could potentially have meant CSK not winning the title. One signing that could have changed the course of IPL 2018. After CSK decided to buy Mohit Sharma for a value of 2.4 crores in the 2018 auction, KXIP snooped in with their Right-to-Match (RTM) card to reacquire his services. To be fair, Mohit did entertain the spectators as he splattered hit-me deliveries throughout this IPL. Mohit’s debut IPL season in 2013 was probably his most successful one, where he operated as much as possible in the Powerplay overs. But with his franchise hell-bent on bowling him at the death, it doesn’t look like an RTM card will ever be used on him again.

Honorable mentions (substitute bench):

Gautam Gambhir (5 innings, 85 runs, S/R of 96.59)

Axar Patel (8 batting innings, 80 runs, S/R of 115.94; 8 bowling innings, 3 wickets, E/R of 8.38)

Mayank Agarwal (11 innings, 120 runs, S/R of 127.65)

D’Arcy Short (7 innings, 115 runs, S/R of 116.16)

Imran Tahir (6 innings, 6 wickets, E/R of 9.09)

Aaron Finch (9 innings, 134 runs, S/R of 134)

Sam Billings (8 innings, 108 runs, S/R of 138.46)

Deepak Hooda (8 innings, 87 runs, S/R of 107.40; 2 bowling innings, 0 wickets, E/R of 8)

Tom Curran (5 innings, 6 wickets, E/R of 11.60)