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| Image Credit: wikipedia.org Image design: Bala Kumar |
Hello Friends,
How are you all? First of all I would like to inform you that I could not post anything in the past two months as I was having some health issues & had to undergo treatment for the same. It's great to be back amongst you guys now and start sharing some amazing posts. Though I am coming from a break it didn’t take me much time to decide upon what would be the topic of my first post. What can be a better topic than recently concluded IPL that yet again entertained us for the majority part of the scorching summer across the country.
Before getting into the cricketing stats let us first & foremost thank our brave soldiers who made us comfortably sit at home or grounds and enjoy the cricket whereas they were fighting at the border to make our nation proud. Salute to all those braveheart warriors. A huge round of applause for BCCI too who could restart the tournament & complete it post a brief halt due to the rising tension at border.
So what was the most exciting part of the 18th edition of IPL? Definitely first time champion Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). What a season they had. Ending the trophy drought of 18 years was the perfect climax to a season of extreme determination & hard work. This year’s IPL was noteworthy more because of the contributions made by the Indian contingent be it fresh faces like Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Priyansh Arya, Sai Sudharsan, Ayush Mhatre, Suyash Sharma, Digvesh Rathi or veterans like Surya, Virat, Shreyas. Finally Indian Premier League is being written by Indian talent.
It was yet another season of slam-bang cricket with plenty of fours & sixes, nail biting finishes, emergence of new stars, underwhelming performances by some of the star teams & season defining performances by some of the not so fancied teams. This season was also memorable for one more reason as barring Sunrisers Hyderabad rest of the nine teams had Indian captains. Finally the trophy was lifted by an Indian captain too. It was a great news for Indian cricket as IPL is now giving wings to future leaders of Indian cricket too.
When it comes to team performances Chennai Super Kings, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals surprisingly had the most disappointing outings despite having the history of consistent good performances & solid teams at their disposal. Five times champions Mumbai Indians tried their best for the sixth glory but fell short at the end. It was a surprising season for the Delhi Capitals who started the tournament with a bang under a new leadership group but eventually failed to qualify for the knockout stages. Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders & Lucknow Super Giants were hot & cold throughout the tournament. Gujarat Titans would have been disappointed who despite ruling the points table for a majority part of the league phase couldn’t hold onto the momentum towards the backend of the tournament & got knocked out. Both the finalists Punjab Kings & Royal Challengers Bangalore the two best performing teams throughout the tournament eventually battled it out for the final glory.
Let’s now have a detailed look on some of the most talked about topics of the season.
Price Vs Performance Debate
Over the years IPL has witnessed several high value purchases of players during the auction. At the same time all such players have come under regular scrutiny due to their performance be it good or bad. After 18 editions of the cash rich league franchises have now understood that the first step towards that coveted trophy is always taken during the auction where one tries to strike a cautious balance between their purse & an ever growing ambition of building a champion team. Those who succeed in striking that balance get their reward on the field. If we talk about the mega auction last year Punjab Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore & Gujarat Titans arguably had the best possible teams where they could cover almost all of their bases without putting too much stress on their purses.
On the other hand if we look at Chennai Super Kings or Rajasthan Royals who had a decent auction but left with too many gaps to fill due to some not so smart decisions taken during player retention process and auction. Biggest price vs performance debate this year though has been revolving around Rishabh Pant who was purchased at an all time record price. Pant has been a proven performer in IPL and his stocks rising to such level was no surprise. But his performance as a batter this year was definitely a surprise for his fans as well as his new franchise Lucknow Super Giants. To some extent his batting performance did affect his leadership too.
On the other hand if we look at LSG’s another purchase at the auction in Mitchel Marsh who came in at a price less than 4 crores was their best performer with the bat and arguably was the best value purchase this season. Probably LSG owners would have learnt a lesson or two on how to control their emotions while chasing a certain player keeping in mind the ever changing dynamics of the players' auction.
The Super Kings Conundrum
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| CSK had one of their poorest seasons this year Image Credit: pixahive.com |
Throughout the season a lot has been spoken or written in media about CSK’s poor performance due to their poor auction strategy. There are two ways to look at this situation. Firstly they have been one of the most successful franchises over the years by following a certain pattern in player selection or building team culture. They have been hugely successful in following that pattern. No harm in repeating the same framework this year too. But if we look at another aspect which is the changing landscape of T20 cricket, needs to be considered as well while selecting players.
Probably it is fair to say that both the successful franchises of IPL MI & CSK need to have a relook on their overall strategy starting from the auction & player retention to continue the kind of success they have enjoyed in past. In CSK’s case change in leadership and simultaneous shift in overall strategy was evident. Ruturaj got injured and leadership reign again got transferred to maverick MS who as usual continued with his proven methodology. But consistent poor performances by players somewhere forced even captain cool to change his tactics and making regular changes in playing eleven in the quest of desired outcome. The good part though that their leadership group has identified the loopholes & way forward for the coming season. Infusion of some of the exciting young talents has brought in the desired results towards the end of the season & given a glimpse of the future.
The Leader Of Leaders' Pack
This year’s IPL was quite significant in terms of leadership as we got a glimpse of future leaders of Indian cricket. 9 out of 10 teams having Indian captains is such a loud statement in favour of creating more desi leaders on field. Another great part about all the Indian captains was that barring Dhoni who had to take up the leadership role in place of injured captain Ruturaj Gaikwad rest of the ones were without much exposure to captaincy duties be it at domestic level or international level. Before the closing of the season we have already got the news of Shubman Gill being appointed as Indian test captain. Hopefully the remaining bunch will also reach that level sooner or later. One captain deserves special mention in this post for setting up such special standards of leadership in past couple of years through his dedication, work ethics & determination. I am sorry to disappoint RCB fans as it’s not Rajat Patidar despite his heroic act of ending his team’s trophy drought in his first season at the helm.
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| Shreyas Iyer Image Credit: Bollywood Hungama, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons |
Shreyas Iyer has been the talk of the town for a while now specially after a stellar last year where he lead KKR to their 3rd IPL title & became an integral part of Mumbai’s successful domestic season across formats followed by a successful ICC Champions Trophy campaign earlier this year. But those who are only looking at his recent success as a batter or captain should keep in mind all the struggles that he has gone thorough prior to a successful stint or few of them which he is still going through. It’s not too long ago when he was thrown out of the Indian team due to form & fitness issues. Not only that he was also stripped of the central contract offered by BCCI.
During the same time he had to undergo a back surgery to regain full fitness. Despite all such struggles he started fresh for KKR & guided them to their 3rd title. In his own admission he didn’t get the due credit after a winning campaign. If we look at history Hardik Pandya started leading Indian T20I side in absence of Rohit Sharma post his debut IPL winning season as captain for Gujarat Titans. Whereas Shreyas is yet to find a place in Indian T20I side despite proving his credentials both as a batter & leader. But the great thing about Iyer is he keeps working hard on his craft rather than complaining.
He set the best example of keeping his own benchmark high specially when it comes to self worth by deciding not to continue with the franchise with whom he won his maiden IPL title just a few months back. He was absolutely right within his rights to ask for a higher remuneration post his success as a captain. Walking away from the group or organization where probably your self worth was not appreciated as much as it should have been specially after a successful campaign shows that he is not afraid to take bold decisions as an individual.
The outcome of his bold decision was immensely fruitful as he fetched the second highest IPL auction price (Highest being fetched by Rishabh Pant) which was more than double of his previous salary at KKR. Though there were lot of talks post auction whether his price tag is justified or not he shut all the critics with yet another outstanding performance this year for Punjab Kings both as a batter & leader. Self belief is such a big aspect in an individual’s career be it on or off the field.
Tactically he was at his best this season for Punjab Kings. From backing Indian youngsters to extracting the best out of each individual in addition to his calm demeanor as a leader in the middle makes him the standout. He also played some of the match winning knocks including a memorable 87* in the 2nd qualifier that took his team to their 2nd IPL final. Punjab Kings had most of the forgettable campaigns over the years. Moreover continuous shuffling in leadership group didn’t help their cause too. Leading such a franchise for the first time and bringing success in such a quick time was phenomenal. He definitely got a close ally in Ricky Ponting with whom he had a successful partnership in Delhi Capitals. But throughout the season his leadership spoke for itself. Whether he leads Indian team in near future or not is a separate debate but he definitely has taken the initial steps in his journey towards becoming a successful leader.
Poor Defence Of Defending Champions
There are lot of instances of defending champions performing poorly to defend their title in IPL. But this year KKR’s effort to defend their IPL title was marred more by off the field decisions rather than on field performances. Some of the decisions taken by their management post title win last year were really baffling and somewhere showed their desperation to hide one or the other wrong decision. Firstly letting go your title winning captain was not justifiable under any circumstances. Monetary decisions can mostly be negotiated with proper discussions. But in this case that didn’t happen.
Probably losing the captain & going into the auction without a proper plan of getting another captaincy candidate was the biggest mistake that defined their campaign this year. They certainly didn’t have a proper captaincy candidate among the retained players. They were almost able to build the same team as the previous year barring a few key absentees. Shreyas Iyer, Mitchell Starc, Phil Salt were key to their success last year & all three were missing this year. Some miscalculations during the auction saw them going for Ajinkya Rahane at the last minute to accommodate a somewhat makeshift captaincy arrangement rather than a long term thinking.
In another major decision they decided to bring in West Indies great Dwayne Bravo as the team mentor in place of Gautam Gambhir (Who left to become India head coach) to assist head coach Chandrakant Pandit. Pandit was already in the news due to his coaching style which was not being appreciated by some of the foreign players. Combination of a new captain, new mentor & an already struggling coach was the perfect recipe for a disaster. Their decision making in terms of player selections, batting slots or overall strategy seemed confusing most often than not. That hunger of the defending champions was somewhat not visible on field.
An individual or two should not be blamed for the team's performance this year, rather the onus should equally be taken by the leadership group & team management. Mostly players or coaches get the blame for team’s poor performance. But this instance is an ideal example of how some tactically awful decisions can affect the performance of an entire organization. How they bounce back next year starting from the right retention & auction strategy to keeping the right personnel at the helm would be the key. Let’s hope that next year we can talk about the journey back to the top of one of the most loved franchises of IPL.
A Tireless Journey Of 18 Years
How can we conclude this post without a mention for the biggest story of the season? Jersey no. 18 lifting the IPL trophy ending a wait of 18 years was definitely the biggest buzz. Year after year RCB has given it all but the most coveted trophy of the T20 era remained elusive to them. It’s a fact that almost everything worked out for them this year starting from some smart picks during players' auction. Over the years RCB has made the headlines for their star power in the team. But unfortunately that star power could not deliver a championship win.
This time their management decided to deviate from the star culture. Also this year they arguably had the best bowling line up in a long time. They handed over the captaincy to Rajat Patidar who is again not a big star in Indian cricket yet but has a calm personality on & off the field. Ultimate result justified the faith shown on Rajat. If we look at their bowling line up Bhubaneswar Kumar, Hazlewood, Krunal Pandya, Yash Dayal are not runaway T20 legends or crowd pullers. But all of them proved to be match winners on their day. Combination of Bhuvi & Hazlewood proved to be the right solution for the problem of pace bowling leader in the group. Also it was important that the entire bowling group performs well on a consistent basis to win the tournament. They did exactly the same.
When it comes to batting again they didn’t have much star
power barring Kohli but enough fire power to set or chase daunting totals. Salt,
Kohli, Padikkal, Patidar, Jitesh, Tim David, Livingstone, Shepherd as a batting unit
can be really dangerous and the performances have shown that time & again
during the tournament. On field if it was Patidar’s calming influence combined
with Kohli’s tactical inputs, off the field it was the strategical brilliance of
head coach Andy Flower. Andy as a coach might not be as flamboyant as any of
his counterparts, but has excellent cricketing acumen. Apart from that Virat’s energy on & off the field was another
big factor in keeping the team motivated. It was great to see that the owners
& team management finally realized that it’s the best team that wins you a tournament
like IPL not few best players.
RCB’s success is a great example of perseverance, hard work & passion. Not to forget the role of their ever faithful fans who keep coming in big numbers year after year despite disappointing performances. The team definitely owes it to their fans. It was definitely heart breaking to witness the tragedy happened during RCB’s roadshow in Bangalore. Such incidents can definitely be avoided by proper planning specially when it’s going to be an activity involving such a huge crowd. Despite that I am sure fans will again galore in huge numbers next year to take the success story of the red brigade to the next level.
That's all from IPL 2025. But It's not the end of cricketing season this year, rather it's the beginning of yet another blockbuster year of international cricket. Stay tuned here for more updates.
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