RESERVES

MUSTAFIZUR RAHMAN (SRH), AJINKYA RAHANE (RPS), GAUTAM GAMBHIR (KKR) & SHANE WATSON (RCB)

For a tournament which spans over 50 days, having strong bench options is a pre-requisite. Since we could include only 11 players in the main team, some highly proficient cricketers such as Ajinkya Rahane, Gautam Gambhir, Mustafizur Rahman and Shane Watson had to miss out. However, they will add to the depth of what is already a splendidly nuanced team; courtesy their outstanding performances in the ninth edition of the highly acclaimed tournament.

Even though he is at the nascent stage of his career, 20-year old Mustafizur Rahman took the tournament by storm by bagging 17 wickets from 16 games at a miserly economy rate of 6.90. Mustafizur has been dominating the headlines since bursting onto the scene last year with valiant contributions to two major ODI series victories of Bangladesh against India and South Africa respectively. The novicebowled like a champion in his debut IPL season, as he went about his business of rattling the stumps and inducing fear in the minds of batsmen with his noxious cutters and threatening yorkers which proved detrimental in helping SRH claim its maiden IPL title. Hailing from the Bangladeshi village of Tetulia, Mustafizur is the first overseas players to receive the ‘Emerging Player of the Tournament’ award. With age on his side, the lean pacer could go on to become a world beater if he works hard on honing his skills.

Playing for a team which was skating on thin ice for a major part of the tournament, Ajinkya Rahane pulled the fat out of fire and saved his teammates’ blushes many a times as he stacked up 480 runs from 14 games at an excellent average of 43.63 and at a strike rate of 126.94 with 6 fifties and a top score of 74.  In an edition which was mostly dominated by batsmen, Rahane finished as the seventh highest run scorer of the tournament.

Leading run scorer for KKR this season, Gautam Gambhir got his name etched on the score sheet on multiple occasions. After suffering from a slump in form in 2015, the KKR captain bounced back this season, scoring 501 runs from 15 matches at a fair average of 38.53 and at  a strike rate of 121.89 with 5 half-centuries and a highest score of 90*. The open-chested stance came in handy for the 34-year old left handed opener as he returned to form and turned out to be a catalyst for his side at the top of the order. One of the few reasons why KKR stumbled a wee bit towards the business end of the season was because the opening pair of Gambhir and Uthappa failed to get the team off to flying starts in the last few league games. Even though he has been ignored by the selectors for the upcoming tours to Zimbabwe and West Indies, a string of consistent scores in domestic cricket might see him force his way back into the Indian team in the near future.

Although Shane Watson’s crafty medium pace helped pitchfork RCB to victory many a times this season, the 34-year old Australian all-rounder failed to deliver the goods when it mattered the most by conceding 61 runs from his 4 overs in the summit clash against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Bangalore. Despite the fact that his batting form gradually weaned away as the tournament progressed, he proved his worth with ball by picking up 20 wickets from 16 games at an average of 24.25 and an economy rate of 8.58. With the bat, he amassed 179 runs at a shabby average of 13.76 and at a strike rate of 133.58 with 36 being his highest score. Since RCB’s top order is packed with explosive batsmen, Watson was sent at no. 5 or 6 on most occasions; a slot where batsmen generally don’t get enough time to settle on the crease. One of the key members of the RCB team which stormed into the finals, Watson becomes an essential fixture for whichever team he plays for and rightly deserves a place in this fictional squad.

This brings us to the end of this feature. We hope you enjoyed reading it and we thank you for sparing some time from your busy schedules.