OPINION
Follow Usdud
/dʌd/
a thing that fails to work properly or is otherwise unsatisfactory or worthless
Not worthless, we don’t want to offend anyone here but there were quite a few players who delivered unsatisfactory returns for their side. Like Cricket.com picked the Best XI of the season, it was only fair to mould an XI out of the worst performers of the season.
Surprisingly, this XI has more captaincy options than the Best XI. More surprisingly, seven players in this XI were retained which hints at a major trend in the season.
Here is Cricket.com’s Dud XI of IPL 2022. Remember, no offence!
Kane Williamson
(Innings 13, Runs 216, Average 19.6, Strike-Rate 93.5, 50s/100s 1/0)
SRH’s bold call of preferring Kane Williamson over Rashid Khan backfired in its first season. Amongst batters who opened in more than two innings, he was the only one with the strike-rate under 100. His incessant slow starts put an otherwise in-form batting unit under undue pressure. Consequently, SRH had the lowest run-rate in the powerplay (7 per over). Neither did Williamson convert his starts which reflects in his average and 50’s column. He is the unfortunate captain of this side.
Rohit Sharma
(Innings 14, Runs 268, Average 19.1, Strike-Rate 120.2, 50s/100s 0/0)
Rohit Sharma came into the tournament developing an unwanted habit of not converting his starts and the pattern continued in the IPL season. There were many games where he looked good but couldn’t carry on. When he didn’t find his touch at the beginning, he seemed like a fish out of water as innings like 2 (13) and 3 (12) suggest. Consequently, he played his first IPL season without scoring a fifty which is quite a story for an opening batter.
Matthew Wade
(Innings 10, Runs 157, Average 15.7, Strike-Rate 113.8, 50s/100s 0/0)
Our search for a wicketkeeper brings Matthew Wade into the limelight. The left-handed batter returned to IPL after 11 seasons and averaged only 15.7 with the bat in 10 innings. As a wicket-keeper, he averaged 13.6. No fifties. Except the horror call by the third umpire on one occasion when Wade smashed his bat in the dressing room, there is no reason to sympathize with him.
Mayank Agarwal
(Innings 12, Runs 196, Average 16.3, Strike-Rate 122.5, 50s/100s 1/0)
Mayank Agarwal’s first season as captain was quite forgetful for him as a batter. After two stellar editions with the bat, he averaged a mere 16.3 this year. His misfiring form was the biggest missing piece in Punjab’s batting jigsaw. The skipper also moved down to the middle order with the vision to tackle the spinners but could manage only 35 runs in four innings.
Kieron Pollard
(Innings 13, Runs 144, Strike-Rate 107.5, Wickets 4, Economy 8.9)
It was Kieron Pollard’s worst IPL season in terms of both batting average (14.4) and strike-rate. In the absence of the Pandya brothers, the Trinidadian couldn’t bear the load of Mumbai’s middle-order on his shoulders. He was also tackled repeatedly in his weak zones - leg spinners, persistent short balls and wide lines. Have we seen the last of Pollard in the Mumbai jersey is a relevant question now.
Shahrukh Khan
(Innings 8, Runs 117, Average 16.7, Strike-Rate 108.3, 50s/100s 0/0)
Shahrukh Khan looked every penny worth his signing amount of 9 crore at the auction. However, he turned out to be one of the biggest disappointments of the season. None of his power-hitting materialized as you can comprehend from his strike-rate. His top score of 26 came from 28 balls.
Ravindra Jadeja
(Innings 10, Runs 116, Strike-Rate 118.4, Wickets 5, Economy 7.5)
The CSK skipper 1.0 for the season had a shocker of an IPL year. And that was underlined by goof-ups in his fielding. It would be tough to recall if we had ever seen Jadeja dropping catches before. He dropped quite a few this season and that too dollies.
His batting numbers were minuscule in comparison to what he did last year. He was fine on the economy metric but only five wickets in 10 matches neutralized his impact. We won’t burden him with captaincy duties here. The less said about it the better.
Shardul Thakur
(Innings 14, Wickets 15, Average 31.5, Economy 9.8)
The bustling all-rounder was the biggest let down in Delhi’s campaign this year. He struggled to contain runs and went wicketless in seven of the 14 matches he played. A big reason why Thakur played all games was the way he could contribute with the bat. But he failed in that metric as well despite plenty of opportunities.
Shivam Mavi
(Innings 6, Wickets 5, Average 45.4, Economy 10.3)
You gotta feel for the young Shivam Mavi. Kolkata’s faulty setup demanded more from the 23-year old than he could handle. But then you can argue he was paid 7.25 crore. More than his average, it was his economy that hurt Kolkata the most. Who can forget his 19th over against Lucknow where he was hit for five sixes in an over.
Mohammed Siraj
(Innings 15, Wickets 9, Average 57.1, Economy 10.1)
Among the 40 bowlers who played 10 matches or more, Mohammad Siraj’s economy of 10.1 was the worst. He conceded most sixes in the season (31) and picked only nine wickets in 15 games. One of their three retained players, Bangalore kept playing him hoping for improvement but Siraj went from bad to worse.
Varun Chakravarthy
(Innings 11, Wickets 6, Average 55.3, Economy 8.5)
Another retained player whose stars came crashing down this year. Among specialist bowlers, Chakravarthy was the spin equivalent of Mohammed Siraj. He suffered the third worst economy and the second-worst bowling average in the competition. Considering his spin partner, Sunil Narine went at an economy of 5.6, there was certainly something that Chakravarthy did wrong this season.
