IPL: This season's flop XI

While this season of the Indian Premier League saw the emergence of uncapped players like Stuart Binny, Mohit Sharma and Sandeep Sharma, a lot of big guns failed to get going in this tournament. A list of eleven players, who, on their day, could be potential match-winners, flopped big time to have an impact on their team’s fortunes this season.

Murali Vijay (15 matches, 312 runs, SR 109)

Coming into the IPL from what was probably the breakthrough series of his cricketing career with some impressive knocks against the Australians in the Test series at home, Vijay was expected to score heaps of runs  for CSK in this IPL. But he looked completely out-of-sorts for major part of the tournament, and except those three sixes off Ishant Sharma at Hyderabad, nothing went well to keep up his reputation. His form dropped to the extent that Wriddhiman Saha was selected ahead of him to play for a few matches.

Virender Sehwag (13 matches, 295 runs, SR 126)

File photo

The swashbuckling Delhi opener seemed like he had lost his love for the game as his lacklustre form in the international arena carried over IPL- a tournament he has dominated in the past. His form was a direct reflection on Delhi Daredevil’s hopes this time as the only match that the team won convincingly was scripted by a brilliant Sehwag (95*) against Mumbai Indians. But for that match, Viru was just a shadow of his past, scoring 200 runs in the remaining 12 games.

Ricky Ponting (6 matches, 52 runs, SR 69)

The Sheffield Shield player-of-the-season was appointed as the skipper of the Mumbai Indians side at the start of the tournament. All eyes were on him as he was captaining a side that boasted of names like Sachin Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh. And when he came out to open along with Tendulkar, it was termed as the biggest thing to happen in cricket. But he never dared to come even close to the hype as he was politely dropped from the side after playing just six matches.

Yuvraj Singh (13 matches, 238 runs, 6 wickets)

Things haven’t looked very good for Yuvraj Singh since he made his comeback to cricket post his cancer treatment. After being left out of the Test squad, Yuvi was also subsequently dropped from the ODI squad for the Champions Trophy, as he failed to win the selectors’ hearts after mediocre performances at home against England and Pakistan. His IPL form looked even poorer as he failed to cash-in on his opportunities for the Pune team. His bowling, too, didn’t look great either as he failed to get breakthroughs for his team with his bowling.

David Hussey (12 matches, 235 runs, SR 112)

One of the most experienced Twenty20 campaigners across the globe, he was believed to be the biggest hope for Punjab’s IPL campaign this season. And when Adam Gilchrist sat out on account of his inability to produce runs in the middle stages of the tournament, Hussey took over the reins, but that too didn’t have effect on his batting form, as he was dropped in the latter stages.

Kumar Sangakkara (9 matches, 120 runs, SR 88)

The former Sri Lankan captain was supposed to be the lone experienced hand for the Sunrisers batting line-up and was expected to lead the new franchise to glory. But he struggled against all bowlers irrespective of the kind of surface, fizzling to bring any sort of inspiration into the side and as a result, he was stripped off the captaincy. That worked well for the Hyderabad franchise as they went on to make the play-offs with a highly-inexperienced side.

Manoj Tiwary (10 matches, 146 runs, SR 104)

Believed to be the unluckiest player of the present generation after warming the Indian benches for around two years, IPL could have been Tiwary’s opportunity to reclaim his spot in the Indian team after his short-stint with fitness problems. But he failed to capitalize on that, and was neither amongst the runs nor was his strike rate convincingly good. He was also able to register only a single score of 30+ and was often dismissed to irresponsible cricketing shots.

Irfan Pathan (15 matches, 142 runs, 10 wickets)

Coming back after an injury lay-off, the only fast bowling all-rounder of the nation, was another reason for Delhi’s poor IPL season. Though he bowled decent spells with the new ball, Pathan looked costly in the death and failed to live up to his expectations. His performance with the bat also lacked power and the match-winner in him never peeped out during the entire tournament.

Morne Morkel (10 matches, 7 wickets, econ 8.37)

The lanky South African bowler missed a few matches in the beginning due to his South African T20 commitments, and was expected to lead Delhi Daredevil’s bowling attack on his return. But he never looked dangerous with the ball in hand, as the batsmen dominated his bowling attack even on helpful wickets.

Munaf Patel (4 matches, 3 wickets, econ 9.11)

A member of the 2011 World Cup winning squad, Munaf has lost his way since that epic happening. Munaf was never on the money right from the start of the tournament and the presence of two overseas pacers in Malinga and Johnson added to his woes, costing him his place in the Mumbai side. His bowling looked very awry, and uncapped players like Rishi Dhawan and Abu Nechim often occupied his place in the playing XI.

Ashok Dinda (13 matches, 16 wickets, econ 9.48)

Dinda had his best year in international cricket before the start of the IPL season as he managed to find a place in the Indian squad in all formats of the game last year. But IPL-6 seemed to have reversed his fortunes as he turned out to be the worst bowler of the season with a mind-boggling economy rate of 9.48 and an economy rate of almost 10 in the death overs. Termed as a ‘captain’s dream bowler’ at the start of the tournament by Rameez Raja, he eventually became the ‘batsman’s dream bowler’ by the end of the tournament.

12th man: Angelo Mathews (11 matches, 172 runs, 5 wickets)

The Sri Lankan-captain had a puerile season, and was a shadow of his self in this tournament.