10 superstars who have let their fans down this IPL
The IPL player auctions sometimes feel like Russian roulette; at times the buyers get a great deal, at times the buyers would have done better just shooting themselves. Big bucks often don’t translate into big runs or big wickets. At times, they translate into nothing.
Every year, there are three categories of players in the IPL – the players who emerged out of nowhere to have a positive impact on their team’s fortunes, the superstars who lived up to their billing and the star players who had a torrid time. When superstars are unable to perform, it is bad news for the teams not just because they are missing out on runs or wickets but also because their psyche is dented.
Most teams plan their strategies around the star players and when they fail, most coaches don’t have an option as they cannot afford to drop them either.
Here are 10 superstars who were a disappointment in IPL 2015.
(Note – Dinesh Karthik, in spite of doing a grave injustice to the amount he fetched at the auction, hasn’t been included in this list as he is not among the top international players in the IPL)
1. Yuvraj Singh
Delhi Daredevils’ big ticket buy had an interesting season. It started slow, went up for a couple of games and then went downhill. In 13 innings, he managed just 248 runs at an average of 19 and a strike-rate of 118 with two fifties. RCB made a smart move in hindsight to not pursue him.
There might yet be a comeback left in the Man of the Tournament of the 2011 World Cup. The Daredevils would hope it comes for their team next season. Yuvraj, after two good years at Kings XI Punjab, has rarely been successful at the IPL. Without him coming to the fore, JP Duminy was left with too much to do and not even Gary Kirsten could prevent DD from finishing seventh on the table.
2. Glenn Maxwell
Glenn Maxwell was as big a casualty at this year’s IPL as Yuvraj, if not bigger. What makes it a hard pill to swallow was the scintillating form he showed for KXIP just a year back. His performances had fired them to the top of the table and to the IPL Final. One year later, Maxwell has finished way down on the list of top run-scorers with 145 runs in 11 innings at an average of 13.5 and a strike-rate of 129. His highest score was 43. No surprise, then, that KXIP finished bottom of the table, quite a sharp dip in just one year.
3. Virender Sehwag
His stocks have dropped of late but after last year’s stunning comeback in the IPL that saw him make it to the list of top 10 run-scorers, hopes were high. However, Sehwag disappointed and how! By the time, he was dropped in favour of an equally out of form Manan Vohra, Sehwag had collected just 99 runs in eight innings at an average of 12 and a strike rate of 118. A score of 47 was his highest, which means he scored 52 runs in the remaining seven innings.