IPL 2018: A playing XI of Indians who underperformed

Middle order

Manish Pandey (Sunrisers Hyderabad)

Over the past few years, Sunrisers Hyderabad relied heavily on Shikhar Dhawan, David Warner and Kane Williamson to score the bulk of the runs. They decided to address this issue at the auction this year and went all-out to secure the services of Manish Pandey.

They finally did get him at ₹11 crore, making him the costliest batsman along with Karnataka teammate KL Rahul. Both the batsmen have gone on completely different paths though.

Rahul ended as one of the best batsmen in the tournament but had to fight a lone battle for a below-par Kings XI Punjab team. Manish Pandey though has been the biggest disappointment of a Sunrisers Hyderabad team that has fired on all cylinders.

With talismanic skipper David Warner ruled out of the IPL, the onus was on Pandey to step up in his absence. However, Manish Pandey hasn't been amongst the runs as he has registered just three half-centuries, two of which were in a losing cause.

He also hasn't scored too many runs apart from those three fifties. For a player bought at such a high price and with such massive expectations, the 28-year old should have scored many more runs and should also be batting more responsibly.

Rohit Sharma (Mumbai Indians)

The skipper of defending champions Mumbai Indians, Rohit Sharma, had one of the most miserable seasons with respect to both batting and captaincy.

Rohit surprised fans by sacrificing his opening spot for Suryakumar Yadav. Batting at the No. 4 position or sometimes even lower in certain matches didn't help his cause and neither was it beneficial for the Mumbai Indians.

Being a batsman who likes to take his time to gauge the pace of the wicket, batting at No. 4 gave him lesser time and hence he was rushed into rash shots which he would normally avoid early in his innings.

In 14 matches, that he played in 2018, Rohit could manage just 283 runs at an average of just above 23. In fact, this is also his first sub-300 run tally in the 11 editions of IPL. Rohit's performances also cost his side a playoff-spot as they just missed out, finishing 5th.

Yuvraj Singh (Kings XI Punjab)

Yuvraj Singh was back with his home franchise-Punjab after his 7-year sojourn around India. Over the years, the stylish left-hander was picked for huge amounts of money in the auction by numerous teams but he never justified that price tag. A move back home was expected to fire him back to his best, but Yuvraj has been nowhere close to his best this season.

Yuvi was backed by skipper Ravichandran Ashwin, but he couldn't live up to the confidence placed on him. It's been painful to watch Yuvi succumb the way he did on numerous occasions.

The former self of Yuvi has been missing, and there are fears that we may never see the best of the dashing Punjabi batsman again. Yuvraj scored just 65 runs in 8 matches at a middling average of 10.83 and a dismal strike rate of 89.04, and few of his knocks drained the momentum from KXIP's innings.

The team management, later on, didn’t trust him as they sent Axar Patel before Yuvraj when KXIP required 38 off 19 balls in a crucial fixture. This might have been the final nail in the coffin and it's highly likely that the local boy will be released by KXIP going into next year’s auction. We hope that this isn't the last we have seen of the charismatic legend of Indian cricket.