IPL 2018: 4 players who are being badly missed by their teams

Kedar Jadhav

Kedar Jadhav suffered a hamstring injury while batting against Mumbai Indians.

With Kedar Jadhav in the middle order, CSK’s batting lineup looked complete, and unstoppable to say the least. That became obvious in the very first match of the league where despite suffering a batting collapse, CSK pulled off a victory, thanks to Bravo’s innings. But, had it not been for Jadhav, who, despite sustaining a mid-match hamstring injury that made him retire to the dressing room, came out at the fag end of CSK’s innings, and gave the finishing touch. Every CSK fan would have hoped then that his injury would be a minor one. Their hopes were shattered the very next day when it was announced that he was out of the IPL.

CSK tried Sam Billings in the middle order as a replacement for Jadhav. But, he hasn’t been consistent apart from the match against KKR in which CSK chased 203. They then looked up to an uncapped talent Dhruv Shorey to give impetus to their middle-order. That too resulted in a failure. In the single match, he was given an opportunity, he disappointed big time. CSK has so far been able to cover up, thanks to Dhoni's form and top-order's consistency. But, in a scenario where the top-order fails, CSK will find themselves in deep water. Such a case presented itself in their first match against MI. They had Jadhav then who held the fort with the bat. But, he is no more with them. With the bench strength failing miserably in providing Jadhav’s replacement, it is quite clear that he is being badly missed by CSK, more so as the tournament enters its business end.