Indian Premier League (IPL) 2015 has seen some excellent performances so far. Young players like Shreyas Iyer and Sandeep Sharma have impressed, but there have been some senior pros who have had a forgettable tournament so far.
Note: The players have been picked based on their expected impact in the side and past performances. The players are not ranked, but listed alphabetically according to their teams.
1: Mohit Sharma, Chennai Super Kings
Mohit Sharma has not had a terribly poor IPL, but given his tremendous record in the last two editions and his good form Down Under coming into the tournament, much was expected of him. That he has only taken 11 wickets in 13 games is not the problem. It is his economy rate of 8.43 that will be a bit of a worry for Chennai Super Kings (CSK). It’s the performances of Ashish Nehra, Dwayne Bravo, and the spinners that has covered up for Mohit’s below-par performances so far in the season.
2: Yuvraj Singh, Delhi Daredevils
There is little doubt that Yuvraj was one of the most popular Indian discards going into IPL 2015. The World Cup snub had left a lot of his fans heartbroken, while Yograj Singh’s insinuations and Delhi Daredevil’s (DD) 16-crore shell-out had put an unwanted spotlight on Yuvraj. Despite having scored two half-centuries, Yuvraj has managed only 237 runs at a lowly 19.75 and a poor strike-rate of 116.74. A key player, his failure is one of the major reasons DD are languishing at the No. 7 position in the points table.
3: Glenn Maxwell, Kings XI Punjab
Undoubtedly the biggest let-down of the tournament, Glenn Maxwell has been a pale shadow of the man who tore into bowling attacks with abandon in IPL 2014. One of the cleanest hitters in the game, Maxwell has managed to score his runs at 146.59 in IPL 2015; unfortunately, he has only scored 129, 43 of which came in one innings. His abject crash in terms of form is one of the major reasons KXIP are at the very bottom of the table.
4: Mitchell Johnson, Kings XI Punjab
If Maxwell’s failure hit KXIP’s batting, it has been Mitchell Johnson’s horrendous form with the ball that has let the bowling department down. The left-arm speedster who terrorised batsmen in IPL 2013 and IPL 2014 has been horribly off colour this time around. He has taken nine wickets in as many games, but has been spanked around in virtually every game for an economy rate of 9.37. The way Parthiv Patel tore into Johnson spoke volumes of the Aussie’s lack of intensity.
5: Virender Sehwag, Kings XI Punjab
Though Sehwag was not his team’s lynchpin in IPL 2014, he provided Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) with consistent starts. Sadly for Sehwag’s fans, he has looked well and truly past his prime in IPL 2014. With a mere 99 runs in eight matches this season, Sehwag has rarely got to double figures. It is also the only time in his IPL career that he has failed to score a half-century in a season. Yes, he still has one match to go, but regardless of what he does in it, he will have failed his team when it mattered.
6: James Faulkner, Rajasthan Royals
Faulkner has not been in particularly bad form with the bat, having scored 134 runs at 22.33 and an impressive strike-rate of 135.35. However, he has not been his usual reliable self with the bat and has been rather shoddy with the ball. Faulkner has taken only seven wickets in 11 matches, but it is his economy rate that is troubling: 9.16!
7: Dinesh Karthik, Royal Challengers Bangalore
Dinesh Karthik may be accused of being a bit overpriced at Rs 10.50 crores and perhaps a tad overrated, but he has done nothing at all to help his case so far in IPL 2015. He has only managed 101 runs in 11 games, and has yet to go past 30 in an innings. He has taken a couple of blinders behind the stumps, but as a batsman he has been a huge disappointment.
8: Varun Aaron, Royal Challengers Bangalore
Though Aaron has only played six games, his performance so far has been way under par. With only three wickets (two of which came in one match) and a terrible economy rate of 10.21, Aaron has been a far cry from the man who impressed with his excess pace in England and Australia.
9: Dale Steyn, Sunrisers Hyderabad
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) are a side that prides themselves in their heavy-duty bowling arsenal. With both Trent Boult and Dale Steyn in the side, they were expected to blow apart the opposition batting more often than not. Unfortunately for them, Steyn has been far from his best this year. Boult has been the preferred foreign pacer, and as a result Steyn has only played four games for SRH in IPL 2015. He has not given them reason to reconsider though; three wickets at an economy rate of 8.40 cut a sorry tale for arguably the world’s best pace bowler.
10: Ishant Sharma, Sunrisers Hyderabad
If Steyn has been ineffective, Ishant has been downright slapdash. In the same number of games that Steyn has played (4), Ishant has taken a solitary wicket. A bowling average of 159 and a strike- rate of 84 is bad enough, but when his economy rate is taken into consideration, Ishant descends to a whole new level. The Indian pacer has leaked 11.35 runs per over; unforgivable numbers for someone as experienced as him!
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