3 times a pre-tournament favorite failed to live up to expectations in an IPL season
The Indian Premier League (IPL) has been one of the most competitive leagues in the world. The league has evolved a lot ever since its inception in 2008, and even in its 16th edition, the tournament continues to amaze fans night after night.
When the IPL 2023 mini-auction took place in December last year, a majority of fans felt that the SunRisers Hyderabad have assembled a stellar squad. Quite a few members of the cricket universe even picked them as the favorites to win IPL 2023.
One of the reasons behind it was that SRH covered almost all bases at the auction. They added Harry Brook, Mayank Agarwal, and Heinrich Klaasen to a lineup that already had Aiden Markram, Rahul Tripathi, Abhishek Sharma, Abdul Samad, Washington Sundar, and Glenn Phillips.
SRH retained Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Umran Malik, Marco Jansen, Kartik Tyagi, and Fazalhaqi Farooqi in their pace attack. They bolstered their spin attack by signing international stars Adil Rashid and Akeal Hosein along with an in-form Mayank Markande.
Hyderabad appointed South African batter Markram as their captain. Just a few months ago, Markram led the Sunrisers Eastern Cape team to the SA20 championship.
With Brian Lara, Muttiah Muralitharan and Dale Steyn present in the coaching staff, it looked like no one could stop SRH from winning the title this year.
However, after 50 matches in the league stage, the Hyderabad-based franchise find themselves at the bottom of the points table. They have managed only three wins from nine matches and their chances of qualifying for the playoffs are slim.
Meanwhile, this is not the first time a pre-tournament favorite team has let fans down in the league's history. Here's a list of three other teams which started as favorites to win the title but failed to live up to the expectations.
#1 Punjab Kings, IPL 2015
Punjab Kings (PBKS) qualified for their maiden final in the 2014 season. They failed to defend a 200-run target in the final against the Kolkata Knight Riders and settled with a runner-up finish.
PBKS retained their star performers from the 2014 season, namely George Bailey, Virender Sehwag, Mitchell Johnson, David Miller, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Manan Vohra, Wriddhiman Saha, Sandeep Sharma, Karanveer Singh, Axar Patel, and Rishi Dhawan for the next season.
Fans had high hopes from PBKS, but they failed to get going. Punjab finished last in the IPL 2015 points table with only three wins from 14 matches. It was one of their worst seasons.
#2 Mumbai Indians, IPL 2021
Mumbai Indians (MI) were in red-hot form in 2019 and 2020, winning the titles in both seasons.
With Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Quinton de Kock, and Rahul Chahar in the squad, MI were the favorites to complete a hat-trick of title wins in IPL 2021.
Quite surprisingly though, MI failed to even make it to the playoffs. They won only seven of their 14 league stage matches and finished fifth in the points table. Mumbai's performances in the UAE leg of the tournament were not up to the mark.
MI lost four of their first five games in the Gulf nation, which ultimately led to their early exit from the tournament.
#3 Delhi Capitals, IPL 2013
Delhi Capitals (DC) topped the points table in the 2012 season, but they could not make it to the final.
DC retained their star players Mahela Jayawardene, Morne Morkel, Kevin Pietersen, Virender Sehwag, David Warner, Irfan Pathan, Andre Russell, Naman Ojha, Umesh Yadav, Pawan Negi, and Roelof van der Merwe for the next edition.
Despite having such a strong squad, DC finished last in the standings. The Delhi-based franchise lost 13 of their 16 matches and ended ninth in the nine-team tournament.