While the IPL 2020 was high on quality with every team pretty close to the other sides on paper, there were a few dip in forms, questionable team management decisions and losses of concentration at crucial junctures which pegged some of the sides down.

Here, in this piece, we focus on the bizarre calls from the various team managements that no one saw coming.

Persisting with Maxwell

Maxwell was bought for a massive sum of INR 10.75 Crore in the IPL 2020 auction – the second costliest buy after Pat Cummins – but performed poorly, scoring just 108 runs in 13 matches and failed to hit even a single six. The question that crops up is why he continued being a part of the playing XI even after a forgettable start to the tournament, both for Maxwell and the team? With Karun Nair out the side and the likes of Jimmy Neeshan and Chris Jordan possible overseas replacement, KXIP should have done without him much earlier.

ABD made to bat at 6!

This one just didn’t make any sense. With the team struggling to get going against Kings XI Punjab, even with Virat Kohli on the crease, everyone was waiting for AB de Villiers to walk in and steady the ship. But the RCB management, or captain Kohli, had other plans. First Washington Sundar walked in at four, followed by Shivam Dube at five but AB was nowhere to be seen. He eventually came in at four down, but scored just two runs before taking the long walk back. RCB, who had had a smooth season till then, lost to Punjab which triggered a dip in form and ultimately led to them finishing fourth on the table when they were once looking good to finish in the top two.

Why Kedar Jadhav?

Kedar Jadhav’s IPL run with the Chennai Super Kings might have come to an end after a disastrous season. But he can’t blame the franchise for not presenting him with enough chances. Even when CSK were struggling to find their lost mojo, they retained Jadhav in their playing XIs for the first six matches, of which they won two and Jadhav accumulated just 58 runs. His off-breaks weren’t used at all, either. He was dropped for two matches before being reinstated into the side even when CSK youngsters continued warming the bench. 62 runs in eight matches were all he managed.

Morgan’s batting position

KKR’s batting order was all kinds of messed up, especially after their Narine-at-the-top plan failed again. And the most bizarre move of all was to send Eoin Morgan, who was probably the best batsman in their line up, down at five or six in the first five matches. They corrected the course by promoting Morgan to number four in the following matches but it was already too late by then as, despite the England white-ball captain’s heroics, they failed to make the playoffs.

No Tahir for CSK

The purple cap winner from the previous edition of the IPL got just three matches to prove his worth, that too after CSK were knocked out of the tournament. Had the Chennai team management decided to include Tahir into the XI early on, their fate might have been different.

 

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Indian Premier LeagueGlobal T20 LeaguesGlenn MaxwellAb De Villiers