Indian Premier League 2020 has seen many high performance players who have not been used in the best way by their respective franchises. Either these players have been ignored or are being used out of their natural batting / bowling positions. Despite all their talents, these cricketers never received enough support from the teams they represent.
Here we take a look at the five most underutilized players in the tournament so far:
Sarfaraz Khan (Kings XI Punjab): Sarfraz Khan used to be a top hitter when he was with the Royal Challengers Bangalore for four seasons. However, KXIP, which bought the batter during the 2019 IPL auction for Rs 25 lakh and retained him for the 2020 season, has not been able to properly utilize Sarfaraz as they send him to bat in the low-middle order.
The puncher, who scored 180 runs in 8 games at the 2019 IPL, has been sent to bat at 6th or 7th by Punjab this season and has scored just 33 runs in five games with a strike rate of 113.79.
Rahul Tripathi (Knights Horsemen of Kolkata): Tripathi, who is a regular starter, was surprisingly sent to bat at No. 8 by KKR when they were chasing a mammoth 229 run goal against Delhi Capitals in match No. 16 of the 2020 IPL.
Despite reaching the bat so late, Rahul impressed everyone with 16 36 balls that included 3 fours and as many sixes.
Even though KKR lost the game by 18 runs, they realized their mistake and sent Tripathi to start in the game against Chennai Super Kings, and the 29-year-old hitter did not disappoint when he broke 81 of just 51 balls, including 8. four and three sixes, to help his team win the game by 10 runs. He was even named ‘Man of the Match’ for his outstanding entries.
However, it remains to be seen if Kolkata will continue with Tripathi as a starter or if they will re-experiment with their batting position.
Andre Russell (Knights Horsemen of Kolkata): KKR has been confused about Russel’s batting position for quite some time. The franchise has been criticized time and again for sending the off-roading Windies to hit lower in the order even though he is one of the best hitters in the tournament and can change the game with his big-hitting prowess.
Even when Kolkata needed to chase a mammoth 196 run goal in the 2020 IPL opener against the Mumbai Indians, they sent Russell at bat at No. 6, surprising many. Many cricket experts, including Sunil Gavaskar, were baffled by KKR’s tactics and criticized the franchise for failing to send Russel higher in the order.
In particular, Kolkata Knight Riders made the same mistake in 2019 and that took them quite a while last season – not giving their best hitters enough in a big chase.
Abdul Samad (Hyderabad Sunrises): Samad, a native of Jammu and Kashmir, recently made his IPL debut for Sunrisers. He is a powerful hitter by nature and can hit big runs if he is hit in higher order.
Interestingly, the 18-year-old made his J&K debut in a T20 against Nagaland at the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in the 2018/19 season. He scored a 76 * of 51 balls as a starter.
However, SRH has yet to find a suitable batting position for Samad, as they sent him to bat at No. 5 in his debut game, where he broke 12 of 7 balls, including six, and in the next two games, the The franchise sent Abdul to bat at No. 7, which is too short for a hitter of his caliber.
Overall, the explosive hitter has scored 40 runs in three games so far with a strike rate of 181.81, but he can hit many more runs if he moves up the order.
Chris Gayle (Kings XI Punjab): KXIP starters KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal are in top form, having scored 302 runs and 272 runs respectively in five games so far. However, due to the duo’s form, Punjab has yet to give ‘Universe Boss’ Chris Gayle a chance to play this season.
But one cannot ignore a player like Gayle for too many games, as his ability to smash six and four at will is unparalleled.
Additionally, the Windies hitter has recorded the highest score of any hitter in IPL history.
Playing his third season with RCB, Gayle went berserk in the league stage game against the Pune Warriors and broke 175 unbeaten in 2013. He hit the triple-figure mark with just 30 balls and finished with a score of 175 out of 66 balls. when RCB scored. 263/5. He still holds the records for the highest IPL score and the fastest century in T20 cricket.
Furthermore, it has crushed most of the six in IPL. The ‘Universe Boss’ has a total of 326 sixes to his name during his period with three franchises (KXIP, KKR and RCB) in the IPL. It has taken 124 entries to reach the figure.
If that’s not enough, here’s one more record to his name: Gayle is the only hitter to score more than 700 runs in IPL twice. The starter had a purple patch during his first three years at RCB. He managed more than 700 races in 2012 and 2013, while in 2011 he had scored 608 races.
The stats mentioned above are enough to show why Gayle can’t be benched and bringing him back to the team could see him bowling and lengthening the middle order by separating Rahul and Mayank Agarwal.
