IPL 2022: 10 Players who could’ve been used better by other teams

2. Ajinkya Rahane by MI

Ajinkya Rahane has not been in the best of form in recent times as he was dropped from the Test squad for the home Test series against Sri Lanka. But he has excelled at the domestic circuit and was picked by the Kolkata Knight Riders ahead of IPL 2022. He had a great chance to make the most of this opportunity and show his intent to be back in the Indian squad. But unfortunately, he couldn’t capitalize on the opportunity, scoring only 133 runs in seven matches with a poor average of 19 and a below-par strike rate of 103.90. 

Speaking of the Mumbai Indians they are having their worst IPL season. The opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan was a downright failure. Their middle order was not solid enough to perform consistently either as they had inexperienced newcomers like Dewald Brevis and Tilak Verma along with the out-of-form Kieron Pollard. In retrospect, if Ajinkya were to play for MI as an opener alongside Ishan Kishan and Rohit were to bat in the middle order that would have made things go a little better for MI as well as for Ajinkya Rahane.

To make this speculation more substantial, Ajinkya Rahane is someone who knows his strengths and his limitations. Rahane alongside Ishan Kishan may have complemented each other a little better. Pollard’s lean patch and Hardik Pandya’s exit from MI made their middle-order fragile. The inclusion of Rohit Sharma in the middle order with Surya Kumar Yadav, Tim David, and Dewald Brevis could have solidified their overall batting line-up which in reality has looked pretty out of place.