Indian Premier League has crossed its halfway stage and it has been the most open seasons in the tournament’s five year history. IPL has seen some fantastic individual batting performances and some pretty ordinary ones. Let’s have a look at some of the big players who have failed miserably with the bat in the tournament so far.

Virat Kohli (Royal Challengers Bangalore): Kohli entered the tournament as the most exciting talent in world cricket; Kohli earned that status with some amazing innings for India in which he single-handedly won India some important matches. Kohli was considered to be the back-bone of RCB’s batting line-up along with Chris Gayle. Kohli has played all the nine matches that Bangalore has played and has scored only 147 runs at an average of 18 and a pathetic strike-rate of 102. 

Yusuf Pathan (Kolkata Knight Riders): He was one of the biggest buy for KKR in IPL-4 and he was termed as one of the biggest hitter in the contest. He has not done justice to his reputation and has been one of the biggest disappointments of this season.  Pathan has taken eight innings to score 48 runs at a strike rate of less than 100. Pathan should consider himself lucky if he carries on playing with KKR.

Ross Taylor (Delhi Daredevils): The Kiwi captain was drafted into Delhi Daredevils from Rajasthan Royals this season but his form with the Delhi team is horrendous to say the least. He is taking too many balls to score and has been one of the weakest links in the strong Delhi batting line up. Taylor has batted seven times and has scored only 91 runs at a strike rate of less than 100.

MS Dhoni (Chennai Super Kings): The captain of the Chennai Super Kings is struggling to make an impression in this season. Though he is scoring some runs but the problem is that his runs are coming at a very low strike rate. He consumes far too many deliveries and has been putting tremendous pressure on the likes of Bravo and Morkel to up the run-rate. 

Jacques Kallis (Kolkata Knight Riders): He is one of the most trusted players going around in world cricket. Kallis has played well in all the IPL’s except this. He has not been able to convert the starts that he has got and his 183 runs have come at a very low strike rate of 100. Kallis’s bad form has put extra pressure on Gautam Gambhir and he will have to get his act together sooner rather than later if he wants his team to do well in the future matches.

By Gaurav Jha
Indian Sports News