IPL 2018: Team-wise one retained player who failed badly

The league stage of the 11th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has finally come to an end. The points table was never as interesting as it was this year. As many as five teams were competing for two playoff berths right till the last week. The top-four teams were not to be known until the last game of the league was played. However, it was the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Rajasthan Royals that held their nerves till the end and managed to cling on to the remaining two playoff places.

Except for DD, all other teams have done relatively well in this tournament. Although a few teams took some time to get their combinations right early on, they did manage to get them alright towards the end. The players who were retained and for whom the RTM cards were used were expected to play big roles in the team.

However, that wasn’t to be the case with all these retained players. In fact, some of them had a really terrible season to the extent that they had to be benched for a few games. These players didn’t fit in right into the combinations of the team and remained to be severe disappointments.

Here are the retained players team-wise who failed this year:

1. Sunrisers Hyderabad – Deepak Hooda

There would be very few who would have given the Sunrisers a chance after the initial jolt at the beginning of the season. Having lost David Warner, Sunrisers faced a major set back and it seemed really tough for them to make it into the playoffs. However, they have defied all the odds and emerged as the table toppers after the league stage.

Deepak Hooda was one of the five retained players in the Sunrisers setup. He was expected to play the finishers’ role in the lineup. He did that up to a certain extent when he managed to pull off a blinder against Mumbai Indians. But, later on, he failed to live up to the expectations. Hooda only managed to score 65 runs in the 7 games that he played at a strike rate of just over 110.