IPL 2018: 5 brave decisions that have paid off 

When a team is allowed to pick over 20 players, they do it in such a way that every player can be utilized by the team whenever they want. Over the past decade of uncontaminated entertainment, we have seen teams taking some harsh decisions, which have later turned to gold.

In the eleventh edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) as well, we have seen teams taking the route less traveled by to find the antidote for their problems. While some may have backfired, there are many instances where the team got rewarded. Here are some brave decisions that were taken by either teams or skippers, which have proved match-winning, or might even become tournament-winning.

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#5 Ravichandran Ashwin deciding to bat first against SRH

Virender Sehwag (right) has done a great job by appointed Ravichandran Ashwin (right) as KXIP's skipper

This is the age where no one waits to watch what a captain will decide after winning the toss. One can easily change the channel and predict the outcome of the toss like a cricket expert because a skipper will bowl first 9.99 times out of 10. Kings XI Punjab skipper Ravichandran Ashwin decided to try the 0.1 side and opted to bat first against Sunrisers Hyderabad afer he won the toss on April 19.

Hyderabad were coming from three straight victories and they won all three games chasing. Hence, it seemed a foolish decision by Ashwin until the end of the game when he was hailed as a cricketing genius. Batting first, KXIP scored 193 runs, which was too big a total for SRH who were till now chasing small totals.

#4 Using Ambati Rayudu at number 4 against SRH

Ambati Rayudu scored a match-winning 79 against SRH

At the age of 32, Ambati Rayudu is having his best ever IPL campaign in Chennai Super Kings colours. CSK leader MS Dhoni has used Ambati Rayudu mainly as an opener but he batted at number 4 in the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 22.

South African Faf du Plessis was introduced to the team and he was expected to bat in the middle-order as Rayudu was doing a commendable job as an opener. But batting was quite difficult earlier on in the game and CSK found themselves at 32 for 2 in the eight over. It was when Rayudu changed the complexion of the game by scoring 79 runs in just 37 deliveries, proving Dhoni's decision of using him at the middle-order unerring.

#3 Using Suryakumar Yadav as an opener

Suryakumar Yadav has done an exceptional job for MI so far

Suryakumar Yadav is not a newbie. He has been on the circuit for quite some time now but is showing his true class this year batting as an opener. The former vice-captain of Kolkata Knight Riders was used as a finisher by his former team and though he came in handy more often than not, his talent was not being properly utilized.

After losing two games, Mumbai decided to change things and sent Yadav up the order alongside Evin Lewis in the match against Delhi Daredevils. The Mumbaikar scored 53 runs in just 32 balls. There has been no looking back for him ever since as he has amassed 230 runs thus far at an average of nearly 40. However, that has not changed Mumbai's fortunes as they have got plenty more decision-making to do.

#2 Making Shreyas Iyer skipper of DD and dropping Gautam Gambhir

Iyer (left) won his first match as a skipper by defeating Dinesh Karthik's (right) KKR

Former Delhi Daredevils skipper Gautam Gambhir was having a horrendous season and the skipper's failure was affecting the team. Gambhir is no novice and he was well aware of that and hence he decided to step down from captaincy. Not only that, he asked the new skipper Shreyas Iyer to drop him and it resulted in a comprehensive victory against Kolkata Knight Riders on April 27.

DD opted for the Prithvi Shaw-Colin Munro opening pair. While the former scored a well constructed 62, the latter scored a quick-fire 33 to get DD off to a flyer. They built the base for the rest of the batters to come and have a swing.

#1 SRH management making Kane Williamson their skipper

Kane Williamson is having a good season both as a batsman and as a skipper

Sunrisers Hyderabad received a major setback when David Warner was banned from all forms of cricket for a tenure of one year for indulging in a hideous ball-tampering scandal, something which severely violates the cardinal laws of the game. Many thought Shikhar Dhawan or Bhuvneshwar Kumar would be selected as SRH's skipper.

But Dhawan has failed in a skipper's role in the past and was even sacked for Darren Sammy and Kumar is not very experienced in this particular stream. Hence, SRH management took a brave decision by making Kane Williamson their skipper who probably would not have even played had Warner been available. But the Kiwi is a seasoned skipper and hence SRH management had faith in him. Williamson has excelled in both the roles of a batsman and a skipper so far and while it is not easy to fill into Warner's shoes, he is doing a praiseworthy job as SRH have won 5 games out of 7 in his captaincy. They sit below table-toppers Chennai Super Kings only on the basis of net run rate.