Flop 11 of IPL 2024 ft. David Warner and Glenn Maxwell

IPL 2024 was one of the most exciting seasons of the tournament because it brought a ton of novel narratives with it. Gautam Gambhir's redemption arc, the rise of Mayank Yadav, Pat Cummins winning the hearts of Indian fans, Rishabh Pant's return, Rajasthan Royals' unbelievable first-half run, and so on.

But it all came at the cost, like always. A lot of deserved players were caught in the wrong teams while some excellent teams were let down by players who just couldn't strike form.

Below, we have tried to pick a hypothetical playing 11 of these players who also reflect on the performances of their teams. Check it out:

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Openers: David Warner and Ajinkya Rahane

Delhi Capitals (DC)'s senior batter David Warner had his worst season since 2009 in IPL, managing just 168 runs at an average of 21. Apart from a decent knock against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Vizag, he looked far from his best, struggling against the new ball and often getting out against the run of play.

He got injured in between. But when he returned, DC gave him one game and dropped him again. It felt like a legendary IPL career was coming to a sorry end.

Similarly, at CSK, senior Indian pro Ajinkya Rahane never got going. He got five single-digit scores in 12 innings at an overall strike rate of 123.47, a blemish compared to 172.49 last year. CSK shifting him from number three to opening made a lot of sense on paper but it never materialised into runs.

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Top and middle-order: Devdutt Padikkal, Aiden Markram, Glenn Maxwell and Hardik Pandya (C)

The Rajasthan Royals (RR) certainly saw the sunnier side of the Devdutt Padikkal-Avesh Khan trade. In a team full of big hitters that were only able to carry one anchor in skipper KL Rahul, Padikkal rarely looked at home, let alone manage some runs. Even when he came in seemingly good situations for the game, he couldn't get going. 38 runs in seven innings were less than his debut score of 56 in 2020.

A lot of overseas players didn't have a good time this year but Glenn Maxwell and Aiden Markram's cases were particularly stark. The former had as many as seven single-digit scores and a best knock of 28 (19). He pulled himself out of the playing 11 in the middle of the season, put up a good all-round show against CSK in the must-win game after coming back, and then failed again in the Eliminator.

Markram's 220 runs at an average of 24, just added to the intrigue of why a player as good as him has failed to crack the IPL. Despite being SRH's captain last year, he might be the first batter they put out the release list after IPL 2024.

This team will be captained by Hardik Pandya, whose shift from the Gujarat Titans to his ex-franchise Mumbai Indians was nothing but a disaster. His bowling was excellent and got progressively better as the season went on which was a good sign for India. But his batting -- 216 runs in 13 innings - and captaincy which was full of basic tactical mistakes from start to finish, was a no-show.

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Wicketkeeper: Jitesh Sharma

Punjab Kings' Jitesh Sharma had the perfect opportunity to get in a half-decent season and his place in the T20 World Cup squad would have been booked. But despite getting multiple opportunities to change games around, he never clicked and ended the year with 187 runs at his IPL-worst strike rate of 131.69.

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Bowlers: Ravi Bishnoi, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar and Rashid Khan

This is the most surprising section but that's how IPL 2024 was for even the best bowlers. Two leg-spinners, quite similar in their skill, Gujarat Titans (GT)'s Rashid Khan and LSG's Ravi Bishnoi recorded their worst IPL numbers -- average of 36.70 and 38.30, respectively, -- and were simply inconsistent and open to attack.

Their performances played a major role in the two teams' failure this season, similar to how Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur's form tanked CSK. Both highly paid fast-bowlers had expectations due to their own past successes but picked up only five wickets each in eight and nine matches, respectively.