IPL 2018 : One player from each team that has surprisingly under performed

Before the start of this season of IPL, only a few people were aware of who Mayank Markande was. Now, only 20 days and 6 matches later, the whole nation is talking about the young spinner from Punjab as he is fighting for the Purple Cap. Kane Williamson has been exceptional in the 6 matches so far and he has not let Sunrisers Hyderabad feel the absence of David Warner.

These two are not the only two players who have surprised the fans with their performance. While Ambati Rayudu, someone who was not even part of the playing XI in the last season, is leading the run charts, Siddharth Kaul is proudly leading the SRH bowling line-up with successive match winning performances.

However, there is a crop of players from whom there were high expectations before the start of the season, but have failed to perform to that level. Every team has one player who has under performed so far and has disappointed the fans. Here are those 8 players that are having a dismal season.

#1 Ravindra Jadeja (Chennai Super Kings)

Jadeja is the only weak spot in the CSK lineup

After a suspension of 2 years, Chennai Super Kings are currently enjoying a fairy tale season in IPL 2018. Not only are CSK at the top of the point table after 6 fixtures, almost every player in their lineup is playing the best game of their life.

Others like Shane Watson, Dwayne Bravo, MS Dhoni and Shardul Thakur have individually played match-winning knocks under tough circumstances. However, the biggest surprise for CSK in this season has been the lean and dismal performance of their premier all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.

While Watson and Bravo are leading the charts in both bowling and batting stats, Jadeja is struggling to find form in the early part. In 6 matches so far, he has only scored 47 runs at an average strike rate of 120. More surprising is the fact that Jadeja has only bowled 10 overs so far, and has only claimed 1 wicket. Considering that CSK retained him ahead of Ashwin, who is doing wonders for Punjab, Jadeja has been disappointing in this season.

#2 Wriddhiman Saha (Sunrisers Hyderabad)

A big drop in his performance from previous years

Despite the absence of David Warner from their lineup, Sunrisers Hyderabad have emerged as one of the strongest contenders for the IPL title this season. Kane Williamson, who replaced Warner as the captain, has silenced all his critics and has impressed even his ardent critics with his captaincy and performance this season.

In the absence of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rashid Khan has led the bowling line up that has defended two sub par total in two consecutive features. Shakib-al-Hasan has been exceptional in the role of the all-rounder, while Shikhar Dhawan and Siddharth Kaul have also played their role perfectly well so far. However, there is still a little instability in their middle order.Had he not played that gritty knock of 54 runs last night, Manish Pandey would have made this list.

But his underrated gem has forced one to include Wriddhiman Saha here. Although Saha has been exceptional behind the stumps, with Michael Clarke even calling him as good as MS Dhoni, Saha's perofrmance with the bat has seen a big drop from the last few years. In 7 matches, Saha has scored only 68 runs. Even though he has been tried at multiple positions in the batting order, he has failed to score in every position.

#3 Aaron Finch (Kings XI Punjab)

Finch has failed both at top and middle order

Just like Chennai Super Kings, the boys from Punjab are having a fairy tale run in this season of IPL. Under the rejuvenated captaincy of R. Ashwin, after playing half of their group fixtures, KXIP are fighting for the top spot on the points table with CSK and SRH. Chris Gayle and KL Rahul, two of their new recruits, have been wrecking havoc at the top of the order.

On the bowling front, Ashwin has the company of two exceptional overseas players in Andrew Tye and Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, while Ankit Rajpoot is slowly making his way up the bowling charts as well. However, just like every other team, KXIP too have a few weak links in their batting lineup, and the form of Finch and Yuvraj is the biggest issue for the team.

However, it is safe to say that Finch has been the biggest disappointment for the team, which is quite a surprise. In the last five years, Finch has scored over 300 runs 4 times, but this year, he has reached double figures only once. Be it the top order or the middle order, Finch has surprisingly failed everywhere and has a cumulative total of just 24 runs after 6 innings. It seems that after Yuvraj, it is now Finch's turn to make place for some other player in the lineup.

#4 Piyush Chawla (Kolkata Knight Riders)

Chawla was retained via the RTM card

Kolkata Knight Riders have had a rather average 2018 IPL season so far as the team currently sits at 4th on the points table with 3 wins and 4 losses in 7 matches. Despite the fact that they have unarguably the weakest squad among all the teams, the collective efforts of all their players has provided them some stability and standing in this season.

Led by Dinesh Karthik, who has been exceptional form himself, KKR's batting has been supported by Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa and Andre Russell. All rounders like Nitish Rana and Sunil Narine have been doing wonders with both bat and ball. Hence the only department of concern has been the bowling attack of KKR.

Although he is the senior-most spinner in the lineup, Piyush Chawla has just had a slightly more disappointing season than Kuldeep Yadav. Being the second highest wicket taker among spinners in IPL, it is just a little surprising to see Chawla effecting only 5 dismissals in 6 innings. While Sunil Narine is leading the bowling charts, Chawla is struggling to find his rhythm this season.

#5 Jaydev Undakat (Rajasthan Royals)

Feeling the pressure of his high auction price

To the shock of every cricket fan, Rajasthan Royals went all in to buy some of the most sought after players in the 2018 IPL Auctions. With a stacked up roster and a new skipper in Ajinkya Rahane, Royals' return to IPL after 2 years has not been as eventful as they would have asked for as, after 6 matches, they currently sit at 5th spot on the points table.

On one hand, Sanju Samson and Ajinkya Rahane have been playing their best game after returning to their fortress in Jaipur, while Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler have also provided good support to the two main batsmen. On the other hand, however, the bowling form of the team has been a matter of major concern, with Shreyas Gopal leading their bowling charts with 5 wickets in 6 matches.

The biggest concern for the Royals has been the performance of their premier fast bowler. After finishing last season as the second highest wicket taker, Unadkat's form has taken a surprise dip this year as he has struggled to rattle the batsmen the way he did last year. After 6 matches, Unadkat only has 3 wickets to his name and has bowled at a horrendous economy of over 10. Guess the pressure of living up to his auction price is finally showing of on his performance.

#6 Brendon McCullum (Royal Challengers Bangalore)

The destructive batsman is going through a lean phase

There certainly are some faults in RCB's stars. After a few dismal seasons during the initial years of IPL, the team went through a revamp under Virat Kohli's captaincy in 2011. However, even with the presence of Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers and Mitchell Starc in the lineup, the team failed to win any of the subsequent IPLs and even finished at the bottom of the table in the last season.

This time out as well, despite having a strong lineup, RCB are drooling at number 6 on the points. However, this doesn't mean that their players are not performing well. Both AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli are among the top 5 run scorers so far in this season, while Umesh Yadav and Chris Woakes are doing wonders with the ball. It is the performance of the rest of the players that has prevented RCB from winning those vital matches.

The biggest surprise of the season for the team was the mediocre performance of Brendon McCullum in the first few matches of this season. Even though he retired from international cricket 2 years ago, Baz has been scoring runs all over the world in T20 leagues. Hence, his performance in the first 3 matches, where he just managed 47 runs, was a huge let down for a player of his caliber. Owing to his poor outings, Baz was dropped from the playing XI and has not played since.

#7 Gautam Gambhir (Delhi Daredevils)

Can leaving the captaincy bring back his form?

Just like Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Daredevils have been rather unlucky during thje first 10 years of IPL. The only team to have never made it to the finals of IPL, DD have often ended their season drooling at the bottom end of the points table despite having one of the better squads every time. The lack of an experienced leader was certainly a big issue, but it was solved with Gautam Gambhir's return to the team after 7 years.

Yet, the team currently sits at number 7 in the points table half-way into this season. Not that their players have not performed to the level that they should have - Trent Boult has taken 11 wickets so far and owns the Purple Cap whereas Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant are among the top 10 run-scorers in the tournament. The problem is that the team has not performed well as a unit, and the biggest surprise was the string of poor performances by their skipper.

Gambhir was expected to lead the team from the front and use his experience to score the runs for the team. However, to the surprise of everyone, Gambhir only managed to score 85 runs in the first 6 matches. Right when everyone thought Gambhir might bounce back, he relinquished the captaincy of the team and was subsequently dropped from the team for the next match. Since DD won that match in his absence, it seems like this indeed is the end of road for Gautam Gambhir.

#8 Kieron Pollard (Mumbai Indians)

Is it finally the time to drop the Big Man?

Who would have thought that half-way through this season, the defending champions would be lingering at the bottom of the points table with only 1 win in 6 matches? Yes, Mumbai Indians are the perennial slow starters of IPL, but the circumstances are not the same this time out. Mumbai Indians have lost 4 close contests now, and the way other teams are performing, the road is really tough ahead for the defending champions.

It's not that Mumbai players have not performed well. The likes of Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan and Evin Lewis have scored plenty of runs, whereas their wild card Mayank Markande is fighting for the Purple Cap with Narine and Boult. It is, however, their core that has failed to make an impact this season. Rohit Sharma and the Pandya Brothers have struggled with the bat, but no player has been a bigger disappointment for MI than Kieron Pollard.

Once regarded as the greatest power hitter in the world, Pollard has shockingly failed to provide MI stability in the middle order. In the 6 matches he has played so far, he has only managed to score 63 runs at a highly disappointing strike rate of just 110. Despite being regarded as an all rounder, Pollard is yet to bowl a single delivery this season. Pollard was the main force behind each of MIs previous title wins, hence watching him struggle to make contact with the ball is certainly a hard pill to swallow for the fans.