IPL 2018: 5 biggest mistakes that teams committed this season

Every year the Indian Premier League (IPL) brings along tons of breathtaking cricketing action and fresh talent into the game. At the end of the exciting round-robin stage, only four teams are able to qualify for the playoffs. Whether or not a team survives the string of competitive matches is as much dependent on its collective performance as on the prudent decisions that it makes as a unit. One wrong step and you find yourself out of the race!

The 2018 edition of the tournament saw the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), Chennai Super Kings (CSK), the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and the Rajasthan Royals (RR) cross the league stage hurdle to move on to the playoffs. Why didn’t any of the other four teams qualify, you wonder? With the qualifiers just around the corner, let’s take a look at the major blunders the rest of the teams committed that led to their early departure from the league.

1. KXIP sending in Ashwin up the order

IPL is indeed known for being the seat of wacky and innovative strategies. However, there’s a clear line of demarcation you have to toe in order to enhance the winning rates of your team and not go ahead blindly with whatever seems ingenious at the outset. Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) most certainly missed a trick when they promoted their skipper Ravichandran Ashwin up the order.

KXIP had been cruising along at the top half of the points table at the half-way stage of the tournament when they suddenly made the decision to shake up their batting order and yanked Ashwin way up the order. Instead of his usual batting position of number 7 or 8, he was made to take the field at the one-down stage against Rajasthan Royals. He was bowled for a duck after facing just 2 deliveries by Krishnappa Gowtham and thereon ensued a landslide.

Ashwin has had a more than decent track record in the lower-middle batting positions in the IPL. His score of 45 runs off 22 deliveries while playing at number 7 against KKR a few days later was a testimony to his comfort zone. The bizarre decision of promoting him up the order at a time of the innings that needs consolidation from a batsman took its toll on Ashwin and was definitely a major mistake.

2. RCB under-using Washington Sundar in the power-play stage

The Royals Challengers Bangalore (RCB) bowed out of the tournament in what can be called one of their worst outings in the history of the IPL. Back to back meek surrenders followed by a short stint of revival, only to lose a crucial game to end it all sums up their efforts in 2018. Although their failure was the outcome of a disastrous cocktail of too many batting collapses, dropped catches and over-dependence on a select few batsmen, RCB’s bowling woes were the murkiest of them all.

Washington Sundar, who’d been drafted into the side in order to fortify the lower-middle batting order and provide Yuzvendra Chahal with a hunting partner in the spin department, the youngster was grossly under-exploited. Out of the 14 matches of the season, he was bowled in only half the games. Moreover, he was under-used in the power-play stage of the game, a stage where spinners have been generally found to dominate in this season of the tournament.

What RCB needed to do was to back Sundar like the KKR backed Shivam Mavi. The 18-year-old provided 4 crucial breakthroughs in the 7 games that he played and looked potent to create a lot more damage. However, RCB chose to bench him after the 31-run spell against the Delhi Daredevils. The move turned out to be a blunder, handicapping RCB owing to a lack of solidity in the lower-order of their batting as well as the spin department.

3. DD bringing in Sandeep Lamichhane into the mix too late

Nepalese youngster, Sandeep Lamichhane must have been a proud lad when he created history in IPL 2018 by becoming the first player from his country to play in the tournament. However, he was just another addition to the list of under-used players of the season in spite of providing some top-notch performances. The decision to sit him out may just top the unending list of mistakes that DD committed this year leading to their own downfall.

While many expected for Lamichhane to be brought into the mix from the very beginning, he was drafted into the playing XI almost as an after-thought against RCB on May 12 and played in 2 more matches, taking the tally of his participation to 3. This move came in very late as Delhi had already been knocked out of the tournament and a talent like Lamichhane could’ve very well aided them to reverse their fortunes, had he been brought into the mix at the right time.

In the three games that the 17-year-old spinner played, Lamichhane bagged 5 dismissals. The dream spell of his short stint came against the MI, where he scalped the all-important wickets of Krunal Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav and Kieron Pollard at the cost of 36 runs in his quota of 4 overs. What could’ve been the find of the season for DD turned into a vain attempt to salvage bits and pieces of their pride in dead-rubber games?

4. MI not handing opening responsibilities to Rohit Sharma

How many times has Rohit Sharma come in to bat at the top of the batting order and ended the innings with a match-winning knock for his side? You can go on counting as such instances have occurred in plenty, be it for the Indian team or the Mumbai Indians. MI’s decision to open the batting with players like Evin Lewis and Suryakumar Yadav, barring the first two matches of the tournament was a terrible mistake.

Admittedly, Sharma looked scratchy in the first two games that he played for MI in 2018 a the opener, scoring just 15 and 11 runs respectively in the two games. However, instead of giving their skipper the time and opportunity to settle into his role, Mumbai chose to hand over the role to Suryakumar Yadav. Prior to this, Yadav had played for the KKR, where he’d consistently hovered around the 6th or 7th position in the batting order. Although he turned out to be MI’s top run-scorer for the season with 512 runs, it wasn’t enough to take his team over the line.

MI’s lacklustre batting performance all throughout, save the last few matches where they almost made way to the playoffs on the back of back to back victories, was the root cause for their failure in IPL 2018. Replacing someone as seasoned and experienced up to the order as Rohit Sharma and the lack of a 2017 Parthiv Patelesque opening stint for MI hurt the team badly.

5. KXIP promoting Axar Patel ahead of the likes of Yuvraj Singh and Manoj Tiwary

Featuring once again on the list is the R Ashwin-led KXIP side. There’s a basic thumb rule in the game: when you have genuine all-rounders and proven classical big-hitters in your team, do not demote them down the batting order for someone who’s not half as experienced with the bat. KXIP chose to do the exact opposite and the results were inevitable.

The Preity Zinta-owned IPL franchise came up with the bizarre strategy in the latter half of the tournament in the game against the MI, which KXIP ended up losing by 6 wickets. Axar Patel was sent up the order ahead of the likes of Marcus Stoinis and Mayank Agarwal and he scored only 13 runs off 12 deliveries. What should’ve been a one-match experiment turned into a full-fledged strategy without a head or a tail?

The peak of the blunder came in against KXIP’s second game against MI where Axar Patel was sent in before the likes of Yuvraj Singh and Manoj Tiwary who are known hitters of the ball, drawing the ire of more than one observer. Had Patel turned out to be really useful with the willow, one could’ve hailed the move to be a masterstroke from KXIP. Axar Patel score 64 runs in the 6 games that he was promoted up the order and KXIP lost 5 of those matches.