IPL 2022, Captaincy Report Card, Part II: Mayank Agarwal, Ravindra Jadeja failed to leave an impact during their first stint as IPL Captain.
In the concluding part of our Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 captaincy report card, we look at the captains who made notable errors of omission and commission which cost their franchises dearly this season.
Sunrisers Hyderabad - Kane Williamson (Rating - 5/10)
Kane Williamson scored a mere 8*, 9, 0 and 4 in his last four games for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). Even when he was scoring 20-30s, his strike rate of 93.51 was putting a lot of pressure on the other opener and their middle-order batters. Kane Williamson scored 216 runs from 13 games in TATA IPL 2022.
Tactically, the Orange Army’s skipper did well after losing the first three games and coming back in the season with five consecutive wins but bad form struck again in the business end of the season and put curtains for his side well before the league stage got over.
But one has to admire Williamson for backing Umran Malik throughout the season despite his rough patch in the mid-stage of the event.
Williamson left SRH to fly back to New Zealand for personal reasons just before the final game against PBKS.
Delhi Capitals - Rishabh Pant (Rating - 4.5/10)
Sometimes, captaincy can’t win you matches but it makes you lose for sure. The prime example of this is Rishabh Pant who himself put curtains on DC’s playoff hopes. Whether it’s dropping a sitter of Brewis against MI, and not going for a review against David in the same match.
Pant’s immature captaincy has cost them a golden opportunity this season. His batting numbers aren’t as great as they should be. Even though the southpaw scored 340 runs at a strike rate of 151.79, throwing wickets in crunch situations has hurt his side.
However, Pant must be credited where it's due; with constant backing, trust and confidence, he has revived Kuldeep Yadav’s career. Kuldeep has scalped 21 wickets this season with an average of 19.95, and remained the backbone of Delhi’s spin department.
Read More: IPL 2022, Captaincy Report Card, Part I: Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson most tactically astute
Punjab Kings - Mayank Agarwal (Rating 4/10)
If one says that Mayank Agarwal proved to be the most underperforming captain in IPL 2022, then it won’t be an exaggeration. Agarwal only managed to score 196 runs in the season for Punjab Kings (PBKS), at an ordinary average of 16.33. In the initial phase, he started as an opener but consistent failures forced him to bat in the middle-order where he failed again. They had a good attacking option who can bat at 3 and 4 in the form of Bhanuka Rajapaksha, but the Sri Lankan was dropped from the squad after a couple of failures. However, he was brought back into the business end of the season.
Mayank’s side looked very unpredictable; they lost games from relative positions of strength, because of shuffling of the batting order and because of Mayank not taking the responsibility when it mattered.
Though opening with Jonny Bairstow worked for them later on as the England player scored quickfire 23, 28, 66 and 56 in his last four games. They managed to win 7 matches after peaking late in the season but unfortunately for them, it wasn’t good enough to secure a playoff berth.
Kolkata Knight Riders - Shreyas Iyer (Rating - 4/10)
The way Kolkata started this season (three wins in four games), everybody had a gut feeling that like last season, they will go big in this season as well. But the constant shuffling of the playing XI made things worse for them.
Apart from Shreyas Iyer, no one’s place in the batting order looked certain. Shreyas’ side tried Venkatesh Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane, Sunil Narine, Aaron Finch, Sam Billings and Sheldon Jackson at the opener’s slot. Bowling all-rounder Pat Cummins was excluded from the playing XI mid-season.
Furthermore, as per reports, Shreyas and KKR's head coach Brendon McCullum had an exchange of words over team selection as well.
Shreyas hadn’t used the pair of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy in tandem frequently. Moreover, Varun’s performance declined considerably as well; the spinner only took six wickets this season, while he had scalped 18 in the 2021 edition.
Shreyas, the batter, tried to rescue KKR, along with star all-rounder Andre Russell. Iyer smashed 401 runs for KKR this season with three half-centuries. In addition, Umesh Yadav was struggling to get his name enlisted with any franchise in IPL mega-auction 2022, but Shreyas backed him with a brave heart and in return, Umesh bagged 16 wickets in the 12 matches he played.
Mumbai Indians - Rohit Sharma (Rating - 4/10)
Nothing went right for Mumbai this season; they have faced horrendous defeats in the season and have finished on the last spot for the first time in IPL history.
MI skipper Rohit Sharma looked clueless, seemed like whatever he was doing wasn’t working at all. Furthermore, Rohit had a very pathetic season with the bat as well. The Mumbai skipper scored only 268 runs in 14 matches at an ordinary average of 19.14 without even a single half-century.
His constant shuffling around of new players in the MI set-up like Dewald Brevis and Tim David, while overtrusting Kieron Pollard in the early stage of the tournament, cost Mumbai many games. Also, he was using Jasprit Bumrah mostly as a defensive option, bowling him in only one over in the powerplay to reserve him for the end overs.
However, Rohit has given a few good things to Mumbai's fans. For instance, giving Hyderabad youngster Tilak Varma proper chances, who also did justice to his skipper’s faith in his abilities, by scoring 397 runs in the season. Also, the re-addition of David in the later part of the event has allowed Mumbai to taste a couple of victories at the fag end of league stage of IPL 2022. For instance, David’s blistering knock of 34 runs against Delhi Capitals allowed Mumbai to sign off the season on a high note.
Chennai Super Kings - Ravindra Jadeja & MS Dhoni
Ravindra Jadeja (Rating - 3/10)
What captaincy can do to you was shown by Ravindra Jadeja this season. The burden of captaincy made him go off-colour this season both with bat and ball. Jadeja played 10 games before getting injured and eventually ruled out of the competition; he scored only 166 runs at an average of 19.33 and best score of 26*. As a bowler, Jadeja picked a mere five wickets at an average of 49.60.
The additional pressure of captaincy was clearly visible on Jadeja’s countenance, which made him sloppy in the field on a couple of occasions as well. As result after the first eight matches played by CSK, Jadeja handed over the captaincy to MS Dhoni again. The little achievements for him as a captain were wins against MI and RCB.
MS Dhoni (Rating 4.5/10)
MS Dhoni took CSK’s baton forward after eight matches but couldn’t change their fortunes. Dhoni led them in six matches this season, and managed to win only two of them. However, his return to captaincy gave a big boost to openers, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway, who chipped in with huge opening stands in the last few games.
In addition, CSK found a great talent in the form of Mukesh Choudhary, who was backed decently enough by Dhoni. Choudhary bagged 16 wickets in 13 matches he played this season for CSK.
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