Absence of Gilchrist felt greatly

Well this year's IPL has seen a lot of changes with the likes of Sanath Jayasuriya missing out from the tournament and lots of players like Adam Gilchrist, Gautam Gambhir shifting from their original teams. The list also includes Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly. However, in the second game of the tournament itself, the Deccan Changers have lost to the Rajasthan Royals with the Deccan Chargers team now being captained by Kumara Sangakkara. However, Kumara Sangakkara is also a decent captain but not a better batsman compared to Adam Gilchrist. The hard hitting Australian wicket keeper is second to none.

One has to decide the fortune of the team which has its captain out for a duck. Despite eight batsmen making it to the crease, the team total towards the end of the first innings of the Deccan Changers read 137 runs for the loss of 8 wickets. In my last post I had cited that a run rate below 9 an over is as good as a below par total equivalent to a total of just over 200 in a one day match. A minimum run rate in a T20 game needs to be 180 at 9 runs an over.

Had Adam Gilchrist been there, then may be the total would have touched that figure. I used the word "may be" because, Adam Gilchrist has last played cricket somewhere one year down the lane in last year's IPL where his performance was also below par. In the edition before that, at South Africa, Adam Gilchrist was awarded the man of the series award for his splendid performance both the the bat and behind the stumps. Added to that was the fact that he guided his team to victory beating Anil Kumble led Royal Challengers Bangalore. But, as time goes by, body fades.

Someone like Mathew Hayden, Glenn McGrath and others have been opted out for the same reasons we guess. Despite being the highest run-getter in the 2009 edition, Hayden was hardly preferred in the playing XI a year later. But, that was not the case with the Rajasthan Royals with someone like Ross Taylor and Johan Botha around. They did most of the scoring for the Jaipur team with Siddharth Trivedi, Shane Warne and Amit Singh doing the damage with the ball. One has to see the way Shane Warne has made his presence felt despite his age deafening.So, lets look at other games as well.