Here are the five controversial and mind numbing decisions made so far in IPL 2020 by the teams.
The tournament has seen some amazing cricket with Rajasthan Royals chasing down the 224-run target in Sharjah, Chennai Super Kings struggling to find form in the first half of the IPL 13. Royal Challengers Bangalore winning a string of matches for a change and are in the top four teams on the points table.
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However the IPL 13 has also seen its share of controversial and mind-boggling decisions from franchises when it comes to coping up with resources, playing XIs, and strategies to confuse the oppositions.
Team COC shortlists five such unexplainable decisions from franchisees, which have affected their performance or might affect their upcoming future in the tournament.
Check out the 5 mind-boggling team decisions in the tournament so far
Washington Sundar and Shivam Dube promoted over AB de Villiers against KXIP
The duo had recently completed 3,000 partnership runs and 10-century partnerships in IPL history and RCB fans were waiting to see them bat again. However, inexplicably, RCB management sent in Washington Sundar ahead of AB, who made 13 runs in 14 balls.
With overs dwindling fast, RCB then sent in Shivam Dube, confusing the experts and fans alike, as De Villiers was in the form of his life, scoring three half-centuries in the IPL so far.
Dube made 23 in 19 balls before getting out to Jordan and then De Villiers walked in. He had no time to settle down with four overs left and got out for 2 in 5 balls trying to up the ante. It was only due to Chris Morris’ 8-ball 25 and Kohli’s 39-ball 48, that RCB managed 171/6 in 20 overs, which didn’t prove to be enough.
AB de Villiers explained the rationale behind sending Dube and Sundar before him in his column for Hindustan Times and wrote, “I was asked to wait because the coach and captain had decided to send out left-handers to face the two KXIP leg-spinners, who were bowling at the time.”
KXIP continues to bench Chris Gayle
Before that Gayle was battling a stomach bug for a few days, but the Punjab team management’s decision of not starting with Gayle right from the start shocked many fans and experts alike. The left-hander has an envious record in the league with 4537 runs in 126 matches with 6 centuries and 29 fifties and the highest score of 175*. His strike rate is 150.33 and he has hit 331 sixes so far.
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Therefore the rationale behind keeping him in the dugout was lost on the public. Though Rahul and Mayank did extremely well at the top, with both having scored a century in the tournament each, KXIP was constantly losing matches, and the inclusion of Gayle might have helped with the fragile batting in the middle order that has hampered the franchise so far.
Gayle showed his worth in his first game of the IPL 2020 but batted at no.3 for them and hopes are high that KXIP continues with him for the remainder of the matches.
MS Dhoni continues to bat lower down the order
This became more likely when Suresh Raina, their pillar of strength in the middle order, chose to opt-out of the tournament due to personal reasons, and everyone wanted Dhoni to bat at no.4. However, what they saw was Dhoni trying to push himself down the order further and giving chances to Jadhav, Jadeja, and others to go ahead of him and upping the ante.
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It resulted in CSK losing three straight matches after their win over MI in IPL 13 opener. They won against Kings XI Punjab but lost to KKR and RCB before a victory against SRH. Dhoni has made 133 runs in 8 matches at a strike rate of 135.71 with the highest score of 47*.
Unfortunately, the majority of his innings have come when CSK was down and out of the match and he worked towards lessening the amount of damage for the team.
Dinesh Karthik hands over KKR's captaincy to Eoin Morgan mid-tournament
Karthik led the franchise to the playoffs that season but failed to do so in the IPL 2019. Talks began about his captaincy style as well, despite the success. The matter got a lot more interesting as KKR acquired the services of England’s 2019 World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan in the IPL 2020 auction.
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Even experts believed that Morgan was going to take over from Karthik if the franchise had a bad start to the season. However, Karthik led well in the first half of the season, with KKR being placed 4th on the points table.
He even out-smarted MS Dhoni in their match-up, earning a brilliant victory over the three-time champions with his use of spinners in the second half of the innings.
But it seems that the constant hanging of the sword over him that he might be replaced any moment by the management, was enough for Karthik, as he handed over the captaincy to Morgan before their encounter against Mumbai Indians.
Though it was not welcomed by a portion of experts and fans, most were happy with Morgan taking over, which was more to do with Karthik’s leadership style, as Russell had spoken out against him and management in 2019 for not batting him up the order.
Ben Stokes opening the batting for Rajasthan Royals
Though RR has had their share of problems with captaincy, which changed hands multiple times over the last few years, with Ajinkya Rahane handing over the captaincy to Steve Smith mid-season in 2019 IPL. Their biggest concern going into the IPL 2020 was the availability of Ben Stokes, who was in New Zealand when the tournament started.
His father Ged was diagnosed with brain cancer and Ben was there for his father and family, skipping the West Indies and Pakistan series for England in the process. However, Stokes confirmed that he will play in the IPL 2020, though missing a few matches in the process.
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RR was in need of that boost from Stokes as they languished in the bottom half of the points table. He played his first match of IPL 13 against Sunrisers Hyderabad and for some reason, the Royals’ think tank decided that it would be peachy for Stokes, who is a gun finisher in the middle order, to open the innings with his England teammate Jos Buttler.
The experiment failed with Stokes making 7 runs against SRH, but he came good against DC, making 41 runs. But he didn’t look comfortable opening the innings, but RR has decided to stick with the decision for time being. Even in the recent match against RCB, he managed just 15 runs in 19 balls, and the realization must dawn on RR by now, that he is not an opener.
Let’s hope Stokes can inspire RR into the playoffs as they need atleast 5 wins from their remaining matches to do so.