It’s being a week that much awaited 2020IPL finally started in UAE. In the current pessimistic scenario because of Covid-19, IPL is much needed boost for many people across the globe.
Undoubtedly, we are missing watching this extravagant event live in the stadium but at least watching on television has helped in creating much needed diversion in the minds of the people from Corona.
As I said- IPL is different from other leagues. There are many reasons- Money involved in this league, star players across globe participate in this event, glamour quotient of the event & many more. But for me, it is the opportunity that it provides to the rookie players to play alongside with the legends of the game is very special. It has created an atmosphere where legends mentored these rookie’s player & prepare them for the future.
We have seen some of the IPL teams having star players are not performing as per the expectation. Last year RCB finished last despite having services of world best cricketers likes of Virat Kohli, AB De Villiers, Moeen Ali. Almost on the same lines, Kolkata night riders did poorly in last edition. The team boasting international stars Andre Russel, Chris Lynn, Dinesh Kartik, Kuldeep Yadav failed to make it to play-offs.
This brings me to my next point- Stars power is no guarantee for success in IPL. If we go back & try to analyze earlier seasons of IPL, all the teams who have won IPL so far are champions team mentored by great leader & not the team of star players. Rajasthan Royals won the first edition of IPL & they have probably one-star player- Shane Warne who was also nearing to the fag end of his carrier.
So where is the gap & why team spending heavily on the star players not able to win the coveted titles. What are the missing links- The number of choices available to the captain & the coach is the one of the big problems? Unlike national team where they must select from 14 players, here every team has 25+ players at disposal & Coach/Captain has the liberty of choosing from any of these players within the rules of IPL. The 7-4 policy (Domestic/International) of choosing the players is a tricky challenge for all the captains & many a times they fail to maintain the balance of the team. Couple of examples of team imbalance are like KKR playing Naik at number 7 which effectively means KKR is playing with only 10 players & Naik is there to complete the 11 numbers in the team. Same is the case with Riyan Parag of Rajasthan Royals.
After carefully watching a week of 2020IPL, I can sense that the two teams which are most balanced are Delhi Capital & Rajasthan Royals. Many will not fancy them in Play-offs but these two have most of the bases covered & have very high chances of making it to top 4. All other teams have 20+ players but still struggling to figure out the balanced combinations. Star value is shadowing the common sense. A champion player will win you few matches, but a champion team will always do better. The best of the team building lessons can be learnt in IPL. Players of different culture across the globe assemble at one place for two months & those who succeeds to gel with each other are the ones who perform relatively better than others. In 2020 edition of IPL, DC looks the most balanced team & I will be surprised if the didn’t qualify for Play-offs.
As the saying goes- “A champion team will always perform better than a team of champions”. The biggest difficulty most of the leaders are facing in IPL is to get the right balance of the team. The one who gets it right are the ones who are destined to get positive results in the IPL.