The White Elephants of the IPL

We have all heard it – T20 is a batsman’s game. The bowler just has to turn up and ensure that he escapes with a respectable economy rate.

Games like Chris Gayle versus the Pune Warriors prove it to a certain extent. On the other hand, bowlers like Malinga and Amit Mishra have tried their best to prove the converse. The jury is still out on this.

But there are a certain breed of T20 bowlers who, despite their day job, seem to put their heart and soul behind this philosophy. They are otherwise respectable statesmen for their country’s bowling line-ups and have done stellar duty on more than one occasion. But somehow, T20 and the IPL specifically has been a bowl of scalding water for them rather than their cup of tea. The second part of this series takes a look at the bowlers who have made most of the howlers in the IPL.

Murali Kartik – Murali Kartik has been a loyal servant of Indian cricket for long. Unfortunately, the batsmen seem to have taken the sobriquet “servant” too seriously for him in recent times.

For a long time, Kartik served as India’s number 3 spinner after Kumble and Harbhajan. He too had a special liking for Australia and especially in Mumbai. The first time, he took seven wickets on a dustbowl to keep Australia to a fourth innings score of 93 chasing a score just above 100. The next time, he took a six-for in an ODI on another dustbowl and then played a crucial knock to take India home in a low-scoring encounter. An interesting fact to note is that India had already lost the series in both cases.

Nobody could fault him for trying though, and when success eluded him at home, Kartik made a name for himself as a purveyor of thrift in the English county circuit. So much so that he became the first Indian to represent an overseas team in the Champions League Twenty20.

In the IPL, Kartik was, at best, parsimonious for KKR. His friendly, devoid-of-guile left-arm spin was not going to get too many wickets and this did not help in a side of misfiring guns for hire. When the side underwent a makeover, Kartik was bought by the Warriors to add some local stability to a youthful line-up and, in 17 appearances in the last two editions, he has managed a grand total of 5 wickets. While he hasn’t been too expensive, his impotency of striking has cost his team quite a few matches.

So far this season, Kartik has taken 4 wickets in 6 matches for his new team Royal Challengers Bangalore. But one gets a feeling that Kartik is playing only because Daniel Vettori hasn’t done enough as a foreign player, and it is a matter of time before the likes of Syed Mohammad and Appanna take over the mantle from him.

Brett Lee – Most of us knew where things were heading when Lee was named as the bowling mentor of the Knight Riders ahead of this year’s IPL. I, for one, was not overtly surprised when they dropped him for Senanayake – it was a time bomb ticking for a long time.

Lee turned out for the Kings XI Punjab in the first part of his IPL career and managed 9 wickets in 12 games over a 3-year period where he fought a multitude of injuries to keep his place in the Australian team. His transfer to Kolkata coincided with the final breakdown – his body had suffered too much to go through the rigours of international cricket again.

It showed in the IPL too, as Lee went 22 games over 2 years for the Knight Riders taking 12 wickets with a best of 2 for 26. The lack of penetration was masked by the efforts of the other bowlers as KKR slowly but surely built a potent line-up. In effect, Lee was doing nothing more than mentoring the young Turks to make full use of their potential.

It might sound too critical for a bowler who had been a cornerstone of the mighty Australian bowling line-up, but Lee has done nothing to warrant one of the four crucial slots for foreign players in an IPL team. Next year, we should see him slowly easing into the role which Wasim Akram had held so far – and being comfortable at that.

Daniel Vettori – Think of Murali Kartik wearing glasses, keeping a bit of stubble and looking infinitely more handsome, and you get Daniel Vettori in the IPL. 28 wickets in 34 matches at an economy rate of 6.77 does sound decent, but definitely not for a foreign player.

This could possibly be the reason why Vettori has not featured in this year’s IPL so far. His international career is already nearing its natural end – he hasn’t played in any of the formats since last year’s World T20. Neither has he shown any signs of the all-round skills which were necessitated by a largely inept New Zealand middle order during the latter part of his career.

The game is a great leveller – Vettori could play the next match and pick up a fiver and make me eat humble pie. I wouldn’t mind that, having admired the way he has led a below-par side by example for a significant part of his career; but Bangalore’s strong recent performances have more or less put paid to a fairytale comeback – at least in the IPL.

Ajit Agarkar – If social media had existed in the early 2000s, Ajit Agarkar would have been Sir Ajit Agarkar. Becoming the fastest bowler ever to reach 50 wickets in ODIs, he was also one of the architects of a jaw-dropping victory in Adelaide 2003. Otherwise, Agarkar getting thrashed by opening batsmen across the world was a common sight of the times. He has a Test century at Lords – something which Sachin Tendulkar doesn’t – and once held the record for the fastest fifty by an Indian in ODIs. Add to that 5 consecutive ducks in Australia.

Clearly this man is made to baffle. He has taken 11 wickets in 11 games for Delhi over the last two seasons, but at an economy rate close to 9. He had touched his nadir earlier with Kolkata – 17 wickets in 27 games at a slightly better economy rate. We were always used to Agarkar going for runs, but at least he used to pick up wickets in the process.

Agarkar has been a beneficiary of Delhi’s all-out pace strategy, but his profligacy with the ball has kept his IPL appearances to the bare minimum. For someone who was touted to be the next Kapil Dev, this is probably the bottom of the Mariana Trench. At 35 and with a host of young speedsters (including a couple from the Daredevils itself), Agarkar has clearly seen better days.

Praveen Kumar – To be fair to him, he has had a good start this season with 9 wickets in 7 games. But 34 wickets in 38 games is not what you expect from your lead medium-pacer, and so, Praveen was sold at quite a modest price in the 2011 auctions to Punjab after a three-year stint with the Royal Challengers.

He did not repose the faith, picking up 19 wickets in 29 matches. During this period, he missed the World Cup through injury but then came back to pick up a fiver at Lord’s as India began their downhill slide in Test cricket. He managed to scrape through the rest of the season, but that was about it.

For a frontline bowler in the IPL, his returns are the worst for anyone who has played 70 matches or more. Unlike the likes of Irfan Pathan, he hasn’t also scored substantially with the bat to at least warrant his place in the side.

What worked for Praveen is the lack of experience and quality in the Punjab bowling line-up. For one of the bigger names, he might have been warming the benches. This season has been very so far so good for him; but then his bowling is very much like his mood swings – you never know what to expect.

Footnote: One might say that Jacques Kallis too has under-performed as a bowler – 52 wickets in 81 games does not suit the calibre of a player like him. However, it would be literally cruel to suggest something on these lines. In any case, the debate crops up only because of what he has achieved so far – for a lesser player, we wouldn’t have had the need to even discuss.

Check out the first part here: The White Elephants of the IPL – Part 1