Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL
While there were several hit makers this time around in the IPL, such as the likes of Buttler, Tewatia, KL, Tilak Varma, “Killer Miller,” Samson and Umran Malik who, time and again, put forth entertaining and inspiring performances, there was also a herd of failures that didn’t impress anyone whatsoever.
But that among the uninspiring lot of the IPL 2022 were big names especially when you consider the international arena, was something surprising.
Though, what was bitterly disappointing was that some who utterly failed to impress in this ongoing season, happened to be captains of their respective franchises!
So which names simply flopped in the 2022 IPL?
1. Kieron Pollard
2022 performance: 11 matches, 144 runs, highest score 25, average 14, took 4 wickets at nearly 9 an over
It might sound a tad bit rude to say but this time around, Kieron Pollard was a giant failure in the IPL, the magnitude of his incapability nearly matching the giant physicality he owns.
In making nothing substantial to note with the bat, the woes exacerbated by the inability to come to terms with spin, Pollard’s staple diet in the IPL 2022 was his consumption of too many dot balls.
It did nothing to help his already struggling team’s performance.
Furthermore, when in an earlier game against the RR, his West Indies teammate Shimron Hetmyer plonked him for 26 in an over, Pollard’s insignificance was further exposed.
You could only sit and wonder- and rather cluelessly so- as to what may have the thoughts been of a man who became the first in the world to play 500 T20’s?
For someone who has gone on to score 3400 plus runs in the IPL- one can only hope that Polly, as he’s called, comes back stronger the next season. But there again - will he be picked to play again?
2. Rohit Sharma
2022 performance: 13 matches, 266 runs, highest score of 48, batting average of 20.
It was a long and harrowing wait in the IPL 2022 to see runs from the usually blazing bat of a certain Rohit Sharma. Though that never happened.
For someone who has against his name a stunning aggregate of 5,877 runs in the IPL including a century and 40 fifties, that Rohit didn’t score any this time around was nothing less than shocker.
Though, for his own team, it was a horror run that should’ve never been in the first place.
For a batsman nicknamed the “Hitman” and admirably so, that Rohit Sharma - a true great of the modern game - turned out to be an uninspiring, insipid performer with the bat was a serious low point of the IPL.
And when he finally looked in touch, scoring his personal best of 48 off just 36 deliveries against the SRH, a knock that included 4 sixes, it was clearly a case of brilliance coming through a touch too late.
3. Jasprit Bumrah
2022 performance: 13 matches, 12 wickets, conceded 358 runs, took a fifer (5/10), bowling average 30
There are no two ways about the skill and temerity of Jasprit Bumrah, undoubtedly a fast bowling great of his generation.
But even as one of the more reliable and consistent performers for Mumbai picked a brilliant 5 for 10, that he never featured among the wickets regularly and was found minus his usual rhythm played well into the hands of MI’s opponents.
Was Bumrah really at his best during the death overs - is a question that startled fans and perhaps hurt the Mumbai Indians’ chances in a tournament where they were anything but at their best.
For someone who’s gone on to gather 142 IPL wickets, having featured in the world famous franchise ever since 2013, the Jasprit Bumrah of 2022 wasn’t quite the menacing force with the white ball we’ve seen him in the past editions.
An out of form Rohit coupled with Bumrah seeming a touch listless compounded the woes for a side that quite simply tanked in this edition of the IPL.
4. Jason Holder
2022 performance: 12 matches, 58 runs, highest score of 16, batting average of 9.
Fared better as bowler with 12 matches, 14 wickets, bowling eco of 9.4.
A fine all-round cricketer of repute who puts the team first over and above his own objectives, Jason Holder, quite frankly, endured a horrid run this IPL season.
For someone who bowls with a sense of control and purpose particularly in the death overs, there was nothing considerable or noteworthy that Holder brought home for his Super Giants side.
That he went for over forty in his spell of four overs on more than an occasion and was picked apart for easy and free flowing hits all over the park never made for a pleasant sight.
Moreover, Holder hardly seemed capable of bat like he’s been in white ball cricket, where it came to deliver big hits and blows for his Lucknow side. Which was strange since many such as Rahul, de Kock and even Krunal Pandya amassed runs with carefree abandon.
5. Ravindra Jadeja
2022 performance: 10 matches, 5 wickets, bowling average touched 50. 116 runs with the bat from 10 matches, at a strike rate of 118.
Ravindra Jadeja brings much excitement and spark to any contest regardless of the stage of competition and the format. And he’s proven himself as an outstanding all round performer in the IPL.
But this time around, as he was offered the captaincy by Dhoni, which is nothing less than a prized responsibility and also a result of one’s trust in another’s capability, there appeared chinks - not chunks of great performances in Jadeja’s armoury.
Insipid with the bat, uninspiring with the ball, Jadeja hardly looked the figure of stoicism he’s so often been for the world famous Chennai Super Kings outfit.
That he could hardly put on a whack with the bat and didn’t even feature among the wickets, Jadeja, quite simply, endured a nightmare season. And one’s rather glad that it’s over for him. For you don’t want to see a towering figure in the game stoop to a state of ordinariness - do you?
What was rather awful and even unprecedented was that this time around, one even saw Ravindra Jadeja, usually an ace on the field, drop catches. How often has that happened in the past?
6. Kane Williamson
2022 performance: 13 matches, 216 runs, 1 fifty, strike rate of 93, batting average of 19.
When you have big names in the IPL - you cannot imagine them not performing and you’d much rather expect great results from them. But when that doesn’t transpire- you’re at a loss of words.
One of the most unproductive and unimaginative batters in the current IPL - if not the worst - Kane Williamson hardly did anything noticeable, which was such a disappointment.
A batsman who, over the course of the last three years or so, has beautifully adapted himself in the briefest format of the game, it were Williamson’s brief outings with the bat and the litany of shrinking scores that prompted some of the cruelest meme making moments of the current IPL edition.
What went wrong with someone that you’d put to bat for your life - is something none can answer.
But here’s an affirmative - Williamson’s poor form and evident struggles with the bat did put pressure on the likes of Nicholas Pooran, among the young guns of the very promising SRH outfit.
The most fluent he looked was in the game against Gujarat Titans where he came to strike his only IPL 2022 fifty. And that was that!