IPL 2019 | Team of IPL week 2

David Warner: Comebacks are never easy and for David Warner, it must have been a little more difficult. But look at the man, the way he is playing now and how could you say that he had been subjected to some of the darkest days in his life a few days ago. Warner started the tournament with a couple of fifties, but he truly unleashed himself in the third game against RCB, guiding his way to his fourth IPL century. Not only did it set the Twitter world on fire, but it also ensured that the Aussie selectors had a tough decision of whom to settle with for the World Cup, considering both Aaron Finch and Usman Khawaja made a brilliant turn-around of fortunes in the Pakistan series.

Jonny Bairstow: Even though David Warner failed against Delhi Capitals, the Englishman carried his momentum for another game and his 46 was a pretty good attack in itself. However, that innings could take a backseat now and let’s talk about the century against Bangalore. What an innings it was! It is not always you see an opener outscoring and outwitting a player of David Warner’s calibre and that’s why Bairstow’s innings stood out. Against spinners in both matches, Bairstow stepped out of the crease to create a strong base for himself down the ground, and unlike the Indian youngsters, who decided to rock back and play it along cover and point, the Englishman dominated with sheer hitting prowess that found cow corner and long on as the easiest scoring area. 

Suryakumar Yadav: It could have been someone else, it might have been Ishan Kishan. You never know. Right? Being ahead of Ishan Kishan in the pecking order, probably because the franchise wanted a more experienced campaigner for the No.3 spot, Yadav showed his class against Chennai Super Kings. When he came out to bat, the team had just lost Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock, and he had a very difficult job to handle. Yuvraj Singh started to struggle at one end, and that made Yadav’s job even tougher. Credit to him, that he came out of that, and with “nudge here, push there” technique, he ended up scoring a fine fifty and gave the solid base to the team’s much-celebrated all-rounder duo to have a late flourish.

Rahul Tripathi: Solely because Rajasthan Royals decided to promote him and he delivered to the best of his potential, Tripathi is making it to the team without any fuss. Coming in at a difficult time against CSK, Tripathi hung in there and helped Steve Smith in the run-chase. However, his best contribution came against Royal Challengers Bangalore and his pyrotechnics helped his team be ahead of the opposition. The calls to promote Tripathi up in the order is gaining momentum now and one will hardly be surprised if he actually bats ahead of Steve Smith in the next matches.

MS Dhoni: One of the reasons teams never dare to count MS Dhoni off from a game - even though when he goes through a terrible run of form - is because of his understanding of the match situations. Whenever he takes the game deep, it is the bowlers who are under pressure and the duo of Dhawal Kulkarni and Jaydev Unadkat understood in a way Axar Patel did three years ago. By milking 24 runs off the Mumbaikar and 28 runs off Saurashtra captain, Dhoni played to his strength and ensured that the Royals were deceived by his traditional approach. This may sound simple, but doing it time and again while having the same level of impact requires immense confidence in one's ability, and for that match alone - he failed against Mumbai - the CSK skipper makes it to the side as the wicket-keeper and skipper. 

Hardik Pandya: The Mumbai Indians all-rounder was in a league of his own against Chennai Super Kings and just went on to prove his growing prowess of a clean-hitter and impact all-rounder in T20 cricket. Coming in at a time when Mumbai were steady but was behind the eight-ball, Pandya provided the much-needed flourish lower down the order which eventually became the difference in the game. That should’ve been enough for the all-rounder to have a nice sleep after the game, thinking he had done his part, but Pandya was not done by then. His three overs with the ball conceded only nine runs and in between that, he dismissed two Chennai batsmen, including MS Dhoni, to ensure that the result would be a formality for Mumbai that point on. Against Kings XI Punjab, Pandya also had his moments under the sun with a quickfire 31-run cameo and nevermind the result of that match, he would make it this week’s XI.

Mohammed Nabi: Did you know that Sunrisers Hyderabad haven’t lost a single game in the Indian Premier League with Mohammed Nabi in the side? The lucky charm of the franchise was kept out of the team for the first two matches but made a comeback in style against Royal Challengers Bangalore with a stunning spell of 4/11 in four overs. The spell not only ensured that the game was literally out of RCB’s grasp in the powerplay but took a lot of burden of Rashid Khan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who had one more bad day on the field. If that performance was just the beginning, he reiterated his importance in the side with his performance against Delhi Capitals, against whom he ended with 2/21 in four overs.

Andre Russell: Imran Tahir has always been one of CSK’s prime wicket-takers, but when dew took over the arena against Rajasthan Royals, a thread of self-doubt must have engulfed MS Dhoni’s mind. But Imran Tahir battled dew and many preconceptions to reiterate the fact that a calm head at the time of devastation is the ultimate thing to have, even in a fragile format like T20s. However, after watching the Russell-Muscle, I will definitely have to add him, but the cap of four foreign players meant I have to go with something more impactful. The way Russell performed against Royal Challengers Bangalore, it took the roof down and made Twitter world going abuzz. Hands down, Russell is making it to the team of the week for the second consecutive time.

Shreyas Gopal: How could I not add Gopal straightaway to this team after his performance against Royal Challengers Bangalore? It was as straightforward it could get as the leg-spinner bowled only six conventional leg-spinning deliveries while unleashing as many as 18 googlies in his four-over spell. In the process, he managed to get rid of Virat Kohli, AB de Villers and Shimron Hetmyer, which not only broke RCB’s back in the very beginning, but it also put him as one of the most important cogs in the Royals’ wheel this year. Gopal would make it to this week’s XI as the second spinner in the side to assist Imran Tahir.

Navdeep Saini: Sometimes, it is better to be in a bad team because it is only when the world gets to know about your true potential. Royal Challengers Bangalore might not have produced the kind of cricket they would’ve liked in a normal scenario, but Navdeep Saini has emerged as a bright spot in the side. He definitely had the pace, but the intelligent use has made him stand out, probably alongside Prasidh Krishna of KKR. Against Sunrisers Hyderabad, he hustled in and didn’t give any freebies and even in the unfortunate outing against KKR, he was the most impressive of the lot. 

Yuzvendra Chahal: Just like Navdeep Saini, Yuzvendra Chahal gave his all, but ended up being on the wrong side of the result. The leggie bowled with panache and ended up being economical, but the lack of support from the other end meant that was not highlighted. The trend in the IPL always suggests the fact that leg-spinners take more wickets, but simultaneously concede more runs as well. But Chahal rubbished the theory altogether with his clever use of variations and forced the batsmen to take more risk against the Pacers.