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Most of the fans may watch an IPL game to enjoy the fours and sixes smashed all over the park, but the bowlers do play a very important role.
If a team has a good bowling attack which can defend low totals over a period of a season, then more often than not, that particular team is successful.
Even in the ninth season of the IPL, teams with good bowling attacks like the Sunrisers Hyderabad and Gujarat Lions have put up a good performance.
The Quint takes a look at the five bowlers who didn’t live up to their expectations in IPL nine.
Ravichandran Ashwin (Rising Pune Supergiants)
R Ashwin picked up 10 wickets in 14 matches this season – four of those wickets came in the season-ending match against Kings XI Punjab. The Chennai lad finished with identical returns as last season, but his economy rate dropped from 5.85 to 7.25.
One will never know the frame of mind that Ashwin was in or the dynamics within the Rising Pune Supergiants dressing room. But the fact that the off-spinner didn’t get to bowl his quota of four overs on as many as five occasions in the season, and that he was generally handed the ball very late in the innings, was indicative that everything wasn’t quite right.
But he was in the right hands; Ashwin has grown to become MS Dhoni’s go-to-man and one is therefore certain that whatever the reasons the captain did not utilise Ashwin to his potential, he knew what he was doing and had the best interests of the off-spinner in mind.
Murugan Ashwin (Rising Pune Supergiants)
Murugan Ashwin started his IPL career with a bang; he picked up a total of six wickets in his first three matches, improving on his performance every match. Thereafter though, the Chennai lad lost his sting; not only did the wickets dry up, but he also leaked runs.
For someone who was rated very highly, even by the likes of former CSK batsman Michael Hussey, it was disappointing to see the leg-spinner struggle to pick wickets; he only managed one wicket in the following seven matches and even conceded runs at a rate of nearly ten runs an over, and not surprisingly lost his place in the side.
3. Harbhajan Singh (Mumbai Indians)
It wasn’t the most memorable IPL season for Harbhajan Singh. The MI spinner has seldom picked up bagfuls of wickets in the past, but he almost always did a very good job in restricting the flow of runs.
In IPL 2016 though, not only did he not pick up as many wickets as he would have liked, but also conceded runs at a faster rate; his season economy rate of 8.00 was his poorest in a complete season.
4. Jasprit Bumrah (Mumbai Indians)
Fifteen scalps in an IPL season might not sound poor returns for a bowler. But a close study of Jasprit Bumrah’s performances in IPL 2016 will reveal that he had a modest season overall – poor, if one were to compare his performances in the past.
He picked up four three-wicket hauls in the season and picked up three wickets in two other matches. For someone who had established a reputation of being a wicket-taker and a specialist death bowler, he was disappointing on both fronts; he went wicket-less in eight matches and his economy rate in the death overs – between overs 16 and 20 – stood at a poor 9.39 (in comparison to 7.34 in T20 Internationals).
5. Varun Aaron (Royal Challengers Bangalore)
Pace is one virtue, which is used with discipline, can buy a bowler wickets irrespective of the conditions and format. Varun Aaron has plenty of pace and can consistently hit the 140kph mark on the speed gun. But he lacks discipline and therefore generally comes in for plenty of stick.
The Jharkhand lad played eight matches for RCB in IPL 2016, but failed to pick up a wicket in seven of those outings. He also leaked runs; in the 23.4 overs that he bowled, Aaron conceded 20 boundaries and was hit for 9 sixes, and even ended up bowling 11 wide deliveries and two no balls. Those are poor returns for someone who has aspirations of becoming the leader of India’s bowling attack.