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IPL 2019 will witness teams with a totally different composition of players. In the last two days, all the franchises excepting CSK were busy releasing so many players ahead of the IPL auction next month.
On the last count, there were about 76 players who were either released or traded.
In this total revamping of the teams, there were three overseas players who were lucky to be retained by their respective franchises in spite of their poor performances in IPL 2018.
#1. Sam Billings of CSK
CSK has retained the core of their team releasing just three players. They had to release one overseas player to come within the maximum permissible limit of 8 overseas players.
In the last IPL season, CSK replaced the injured Indian player Kedar Jadhav with the overseas player David Willey. Mitchell Santner also missed the 2018 edition of the league due to injury. This situation has forced CSK to release one of their overseas players this year.
The players who were facing the hammer were Sam Billings, Mitchell Santner, David Willey, Imran Tahir and Mark Wood. CSK chose to release Mark Wood and in the process chose to continue with Sam Billings.
CSK bought Sam Billings at his base price of 1.00 crore. Billings justified his price tag with a match-winning innings against KKR in CSK’s comeback match on home ground. As it turned out, this was the only match that CSK played at Chepauk in the last season.
Chasing a tricky target of 203 to win against KKR, Sam Billings played a blinder scoring 56 runs off 23 balls with 5 sixes and 2 fours.
After that brilliant inning at Chepauk, a lot was expected of Sam Billings in the subsequent matches. But the opposition teams sorted him out as the tournament progressed. He was given an overdose of spin-bowling to keep him under check and teams succeeded in doing so.
At the end of the last IPL season, Billings ended up with an aggregate of 108 runs in 8 innings at a poor average of 13.50. He should thank CSK’s traditional approach to retain the core of the team.
Now it is up to Billings to repay the confidence the CSK management has reposed in him.
#2. Kieron Pollard of Mumbai Indians
Kieron Pollard has been with the Mumbai Indians since 2010. In fact, Pollard’s international career took off after his brilliant show for the Mumbai Indians in the early editions of IPL.
In the last IPL auction, Mumbai Indians used their RTM to buy Pollard at a walloping price of 5.40 crores. However, Pollard didn’t do justice to his huge price tag as he scored just 133 runs in 9 matches at an average of 19. Besides, a niggle forced him to stay away from the bowling crease the whole of last season.
In the last season, Mumbai Indians played their last league match against the Delhi Daredevils at Feroz Shah Kotla. It was a must-win game for the Mumbai Indians.
Chasing a target of 175, Pollard was promoted up the order at No 4. Pollard’s countryman Evin Lewis was on fire at the other end. All Pollard had to do was to give the strike to the in-form Lewis.
But at that crucial juncture, Pollard failed to deliver as he scored 7 runs off 7 balls. Mumbai Indians lost that match and were knocked out of the tournament.
Pollard’s current form for West Indies too has not been that encouraging. He should consider himself lucky to be retained by Mumbai Indians.
#3. Ben Stokes of Rajasthan Royals
After his wonderful IPL debut for Rising Pune Supergiant in 2017, Ben Stokes was the most adored player in the IPL auction 2018. There was a heavy competition for him before Rajasthan Royals acquired him for an astounding price of 12.5 crores.
Unfortunately for Rajasthan Royals, Stokes failed both as a batsman and as a bowler. As a batsman, he scored 196 runs in 13 matches at a meagre average of 16. In bowling, Stokes took only 8 wickets and his economy rate was 8.18 per over.
He had to leave for national duty when the tournament reached its climax. In spite of the absence of Stokes, Rajasthan Royals qualified for the playoffs where they were knocked over by KKR in the eliminator.
Stokes was not the same player in IPL 2018 as he was in IPL 2017 where he got the Most Valuable Player award. In 2017, it was largely due to his all-round efforts that Rising Pune Supergiant reached the final.
In 2018, he was overweighed by his heavy price tag and the huge expectations arising on account of that. Now that he has been retained by Rajasthan Royals, one can only hope that he becomes the impact player for Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2019 as he has been for England for so many years.
