A brainchild of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the Indian Premier League has been one of the most exhilarating success stories in the history of world cricket. Since its inception back in 2008, the domestic Indian T20 league has been filled with some of the biggest cricketing names on the planet. Besides an abundance of glitz and grandeur has successfully been able to capture a month long attention of the 1.2 billion cricket aficionados in this part of the world for the past nine years.
This year’s IPL was indeed a special one since it marked the emergence of two new franchises- Gujarat Lions and Rising Pune Supergiants in place of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals. Although the Supergiants led by India’s most successful limited overs captain, MS Dhoni couldn’t quite make an impression in the tournament, the Rajkot-based franchise did pretty well to book a play-off berth.
Moreover, the incredible success story of the David Warner-led Sunrisers Hyderabad side, an exceptional fight back at the business end of the tournament by Royal Challengers Bangalore courtesy of the tremendous batting prowess of Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, the unfortunate slip-up of the defending champions, Mumbai Indians along with many other incidents had made the ninth edition of the coveted T20 tournament truly a nail biting one.
Having said that, the 2016 edition of the Indian Premier League had witnessed some occurrences which surely asked a number of questions which are yet to be answered. Here are a few of them:
#1 Why did MS Dhoni under use Ravichandran Ashwin?
Be it any international series, ICC event or the Indian Premier League, Ravichandran Ashwin had been his skipper, Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s go-to man since the past eight years or so. The Ashwin-Dhoni duo had formed a deadly combination in the franchise-based domestic Indian T20 tournament since their Chennai Super Kings days which dates back to 2009.
In what has been a tremendous IPL career, Ravichandran Ashwin had picked up 120 wickets for the ‘Men in Yellow’ in the 121 matches that he had played for them. He didn’t only exhibit an impressive average of 23.70 but his economy rate at the Chidambaram Stadium was also just as phenomenal. Giving away only 6.66 runs per over, Ravichandran Ashwin was undoubtedly one of the most feared spinners in the previous editions of the Indian Premier League.
Having said that, the Tamil Nadu cricketer’s recent string of international performances wasn’t as much effective as before. However, his contribution for the ‘Men in Blue’ in the Asia Cup and the ICC World T20- both of which took place earlier this year in the Indian subcontinent- cannot be easily ignored even by his critics.
Dhoni, on the other hand, might have viewed them differently. This year of the IPL was completely a different story for Ashwin who had been consistently underused by his captain for the Pune-based franchise. Although Ashwin did end up picking 10 wickets in the 14 IPL matches this year for the Rising Pune Supergiants, four of them came in a single fixture against KXIP. Moreover, the RPS captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni had bowled him a total of 44 overs in this year’s IPL out of the allotted 56.
#2 The success story of Sunrisers Hyderabad – is it a myth that it’s necessary to have a formidable spin attack in T20s?
The Hyderabad-based IPL franchise had defied all odds to overcome the in-form Royal Challengers Bangalore in the final match of the ninth edition of the Indian Premier League at the Chinnaswamy Stadium to clinch the coveted silverware for the very first time. Sunrisers Hyderabad who had an extremely well-balanced squad had lacked adequate good names in just a single department which is thought to be one of the most important aspects of a T20 side in the Indian subcontinent - spin.
A bowling attack which boasted names such as Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mustafizur Rahman, Ashish Nehra and Moises Henriques certainly lacked some quality spinners. The only two full-time spinners that the Sunrisers had in their squad were Vipul Sharma and Karn Sharma, neither of whom will send shivers down any batsman’s spine.
However, despite the dearth of proper spinners in their roster, the eventual champions had bowled consistently well throughout the course of the tournament to clinch the coveted silverware.
3) Why didn't Delhi Daredevils have a constant first XI throughout the course of the tournament?
Delhi Daredevils – one of the least successful franchises in the history of the Indian Premier League had looked pretty formidable at one stage of the ninth edition of the Indian Premier League. The Delhi-based IPL franchise which has a dubious record of not reaching the final of the coveted Indian T20 tournament even once looked like one of the title contenders in the middle part of the competition.
With the likes of Rahul Dravid and Paddy Upton in the dugout, the Daredevils led by Zaheer Khan didn’t quite start their 2016 IPL campaign against KKR as they would have probably wanted to. However, they soon gained momentum only to falter again at the business end of the competition. Although Delhi Daredevils impressed a number of cricket pundits this year who had completely written them off, their team selection process still left a lot of their fans dumbfounded.
The fact that Delhi Daredevils didn’t have a proper and constant first eleven throughout the course of such a lengthy tournament as the Indian Premier League is one of the mysteries that is yet to be dug up.
4) Why did Kolkata Knights Riders drop some of their key players like Piyush Chawla and Shakib Al-Hasan at the business end of the tournament?
The two-time IPL champions, Kolkata Knight Riders had an utterly forgetful Indian Premier League campaign last year in 2015. Not being able to qualify for the playoffs in the eighth edition of the IPL, the Knight Riders led by their skipper Gautam Gambhir started their 2016 Indian Premier League campaign with a bang.
Although the ‘Men in Purple and Gold’ had lost the plot midway into the competition, they soon pulled up their socks to finish third in the league table and successfully qualify for the eliminator. Although their IPL campaign ended abruptly at the hands of the ultimate champions, Sunrisers Hyderabad, one question that will loom in the minds of the KKR fans is why some of their key players such as Piyush Chawla and Shakib Al-Hasan weren’t a part of the first eleven going into the business end of the competition.
Shakib Al-Hasan who is undoubtedly one of the top all-rounders in world cricket at the moment along with Piyush Chawla were kept sitting in the dugout in the eliminator against Sunrisers Hyderabad while Andre Russell had already been ruled out of the fixture due to injury. Incidentally, both the cricketers had been in fine form and had showcased their true potential for the Knight Riders in a number of IPL matches earlier this month.
5) What were the actual reasons behind the unexplained departures of multiple foreigners?
This year’s Indian Premier League has witnessed a number of unexplained departures of multiple foreign cricketers which include some big names such as Marcus Stoinis, Steven Smith, Mitchell Marsh and Glenn Maxwell. Both Kings XI Punjab cricketers, Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell were a part of the Australian exodus from the IPL midway into the tournament.
Although, Maxwell had an apparent side strain, a source within Kings XI Punjab outfield confirmed that Stoinis had cited ‘personal unavoidable circumstances’ prior to his departure. Moreover, Mitchell Marsh and Steven Smith had also made abrupt exits from the T20 tournament citing fitness issues. However, it has been reported that both the cricketers are apparently quite fit now and will resume their cricketing duties very soon.
Although the news of their injuries might be completely true, a certain news report which had once gained a lot of public attention casts a shadow of doubt over the actual reason behind their respective exits. The aforementioned news report carried a rumour that mentioned of a brawl between the Indian cricketers and their foreign counterparts in the KXIP camp. However, both the sets of players have cleared the air citing that the aforementioned rumour as completely baseless.
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