IPL 2017: Rating the bowling attack of each team
The first half of the 2017 IPL is done and dusted and the teams have already played a fair number of matches. Mumbai Indians are on top of the points table with 12 points from 8 matches and are followed by Kolkata Knight Riders, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rising Pune Supergiant. Gujarat Lions are at the bottom of the table and their season is all but over.
Though a few teams have already found their right combinations, few are still struggling to get it right and it is stalling their progress in the tournament. Talking about the team combination, the bowling attack of a team is very crucial in getting the right balance. Let us take a look at how the bowling attacks of the eight IPL teams have fared thus far.
Extra Cover: IPL 2017: Sourav Ganguly picks his fantasy IPL team for this season
#8 Gujarat Lions
At a point in time, Gujarat Lions had picked up 15 wickets conceding 885 runs while the purple cap holder, Bhuvneshwar Kumar picked up the same number of wickets conceding just 108 runs in the same number of matches. Nothing can describe the Gujarat Lions’ bowling unit better than the stat mentioned above.
Barring their best bowler in the tournament, Andrew Tye, who has an economy of 7.50, none of the other bowlers (at least four overs in the tournament) have an economy of less than 8. Tye himself has taken nine wickets in the tournament in just four matches while the other bowlers have accounted for just 16 wickets, something that suggests how poor their bowling line-up is.
Their premier bowler, Dwayne Bravo, who has now been ruled out of the tournament, was supposed to miss just a few matches for the Lions and the team management decided not to get a worthy replacement for the West Indian. Alongside Tye, Basil Thampi is showing a lot of promise for the Lions with some accurate death bowling in spite of conceding runs at the rate of over 9 an over.
Gujarat will need a miracle from their bowlers if they are to salvage some pride over the remainder of the tournament.