IPL: The auction for the 13th season of the IPL took place in December at Kolkata. All the teams tried to fill their holes by buying the players they wanted. Many teams spent a lot of money on some players. But now with less than 3 weeks remaining for the tournament, the news of players getting injured is coming out.
Rajasthan Royals suffered a body blow as Jofra Archer won’t be taking part in this year’s IPL. England seamer Chris Woakes won’t be participating in the IPL as he wants to stay fit for the upcoming England summer. Ishant Sharma and Glenn Maxwell might miss the first half of the tournament due to injuries.
Every year players get injured and replacements are named for these players. Most of the time these replacements don’t have the same quality as the original player but sometimes the replacements perform exceptionally well. So, let’s have a look at three such players who came in as replacements and performed well in IPL:
Washington Sundar – RPS
RPS had a horrific season in IPL 2016 and they suffered a huge blow before the start of the 2017 season as their primary off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was ruled out of the IPL due to an injury.
Steve Smith who was leading the Rising Pune Supergiant, along with the team management decided to take the services of the Tamil Nadu off-spinner Washington Sundar in place of Ashwin. Sundar wasn’t picked in the XI from the first game but later in he got his chance.
In the 11 IPL games which he played in that season, he picked up 8 wickets at an economy rate of just 6.17. He was one of the most economical bowlers in that season and that too after bowling the majority of his overs in the powerplay. He played an important role in the Qualifier 1 as RPS reached the final after winning that game. He proved to be a handy replacement for R Ashwin.
Imran Tahir – RPS
In the same season, RPS suffered another blow as their overseas all-rounder Mitchell Marsh was ruled out of the IPL. RPS had bought Ben Stokes for 14.5 CR and hence choose not to get another all-rounder. Instead, they decided to pick the South African leg-spinner, Imran Tahir, as the replacement.
RPS already had Adam Zampa in their squad but they preferred to play Tahir in place of Zampa. Tahir was brilliant in that season of IPL as he picked up 18 wickets in 12 games at an average of 20.50.
Imran Tahir came in as a replacement for Mitchell Marsh and did his job to perfection for his team.
Chris Gayle – RCB
This is one of the stories of the IPL. Chris Gayle was sitting in a bar in Jamaica when he received a call from Vijay Mallya asking him whether he is fit to play and he said yes. A couple of days later he was smashing the KKR bowlers out of the park at the Eden Gardens.
Chris Gayle was called in as a replacement for Dirk Nannes in the 2011 season and what a replacement it was. He was the leading run-scorer that season as he scored 608 runs in 12 games at an average of 67.56. RCB didn’t release him for the next six seasons as he became on the iconic players for RCB and at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Chris Gayle has to be the best replacement anybody has ever chosen in the IPL up till now.
