The much-awaited Indian Premier League began with a bang, literally, with Kolkata Knight Riders’ Brendon McCullum blasting 158 off just 73 balls. The promoters couldn’t have asked for more. It generated a lot of curiosity amongst the audience and the expectations from the cricket heroes (read icon players) rose to a new high.
So, when Indian T20 and ODI captain M S Dhoni, who went to Chennai Superkings for $1.5 million, came out to bat on Saturday, all eyes were on him. He however disappointed, getting out on just 2! This seems to have been a trend in the IPL series so far with icon players Sourav, Sehwag and Dravid failing with the bat.
During the IPL auction, these players were sold to the highest bidders – Rahul Dravid, captain of Bangalore Royal Challengers received Rs 4.14 crore; Sourav Ganguly, captain of Kolkata Knight Riders got Rs 4.4 crore; Virender Sehwag, captain of Delhi Daredevils received Rs 3.3 crore; Mohammed Kaif got Rs 2.7 crore; and the costliest of them all, Dhoni was sold for Rs 6 crore – but not one of them has been able to justify their price till now. In their respective last matches, Dravid scored 2, Ganguly 10, Sehwag 12, Kaif 9, and Dhoni 2.
On the other hand, the foreign players, some of whom are not even popular faces in India, have rained sixes and fours to all parts of the ground and entertained the crowd. After McCullum’s brilliant 158, Michael Hussey hit 114 not out for Chennai Super Kings on Saturday. Delhi Daredevils lesser known Indian player Shikhar Dhawan and Punjab”’s Aussie player James Hopes also impressed with their inning. IN fact, besides Gautam Gambhir and Dhawan, no Indian player has been able to leave a mark in the IPL so far.
Hopefully, as the tournament progresses, the Indian cricketers may eventually fire.
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