New Delhi: One of the many debates about the Cricket World Cup related to the Indian Premier League (IPL). South Africa’s captain Faf Du Plessis blamed the T20 league for his side’s poor performance in the tournament, while India’s vice-captain Rohit Sharma praised the IPL as a good preparation ground for players before the World Cup.
Du Plessis had some reason to complain, as Dale Steyn got injured playing for the Royal Challengers Bangalore and could never get fit enough to play in the World Cup, while Kagiso Rabada, who had starred for the Delhi Capitals with 25 wickets in 12 IPL matches at an average of 14.72 and an economy rate of 7.82, took just 11 wickets in nine World Cup matches at 36.09 and an economy of 5.10.
“It was important for a few guys to rest; Kagiso Rabada, as you can see… his pace is probably a little bit down from where he normally is,” du Plessis said after South Africa’s hopes of progressing in the tournament came to an end with a defeat to Pakistan.
But ThePrint’s analysis shows that du Plessis’ observations don’t really apply to other teams. Many of the players representing the four World Cup semi-finalists also played a bulk of the IPL, and their performances—whether good or bad—didn’t seem to affect the impact they ended up having on the world stage.
Champions England featured four IPL-returns in their XI in the final, while New Zealand featured six.
The two top-scorers in the World Cup — Rohit Sharma (648) and David Warner (647) — had helped the Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad, respectively reach the IPL play-offs too.
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Batsmen
The two top-scorers in the World Cup — Rohit Sharma (648) and David Warner (647) — had helped the Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad respectively reach the IPL play-offs too.
Rohit Sharma: Five centuries, 648 runs and an average of 81. Rohit Sharma had a tournament to remember before India were knocked out in the semi-finals. But before that, in the IPL, he had suffered some patchy form and still helped Mumbai Indians win their fourth title. He had scored 405 runs at 28.92 in 15 innings in the league.
David Warner: Warner finished just one run behind Sharma in the World Cup run-scorers’ list, scoring three hundreds and three fifties and registering an average of 71.88. This form was carried over from the IPL, in which he had finished as the top run-scorer as well, with 692 runs in just 12 matches, with eight half-centuries and a century.
Kane Williamson: The agony of the final and his grace and poise in handling it left millions of cricket fans with a new favourite player. But Williamson wasn’t just the ‘good guy’, he was also the man of the tournament for his batting and astute captaincy. He scored 557 runs in 10 matches at 96.33 — the highest tally for a captain at a World Cup.
Fitness issues had kept him out of the early part of the IPL, but he did play nine games and captained Sunrisers Hyderabad to the play-offs. But he didn’t have a good time with the bat, scoring just 156 runs.
Jonny Bairstow: The second-highest scorer for eventual world champions England, Bairstow scored 523 runs in 11 matches, including two centuries and two half-centuries. Before that, Bairstow had played a starring role, also for Sunrisers Hyderabad, with 445 runs.
Ben Stokes: The man of the match in the final averaged 66.4 with the bat in the tournament, the best for any English player at a men’s World Cup since 1983. All-rounder Stokes also played a part with the ball—he was the only bowler out of 59 who bowled more than 30 overs in the tournament not to concede a single six.
Before the World Cup, Stokes had been expected to star for the Rajasthan Royals, but in nine games, he had scored just 123 runs at 20.5.
Bowling
Du Plessis’ angst was directed at the impact the IPL had on his bowlers, but that also doesn’t seem to hold true. Three of the top five bowlers in the World Cup played the IPL, including England’s Jofra Archer and New Zealand’s Lockie Ferguson.
Jofra Archer: He was drafted into the England side just before the World Cup, and the IPL was part of his audition. He took 11 wickets in 11 matches for the Rajasthan Royals, but it was his economy rate that stood out—6.76.
On the biggest stage, he delivered on that promise, with 20 wickets in 11 matches at an economy of 4.77, doing enough to have the faith of his captain to bowl the Super Over in the final.
Lockie Ferguson: The top wicket-taker for New Zealand and second overall behind Aussie Mitchell Starc, Ferguson consistently bowled above 150 km/h and scalped 21 wickets in 10 matches. It was a far cry from his IPL performance for the misfiring Kolkata Knight Riders—two wickets in five games at an economy of 10.76.
Jasprit Bumrah: India’s highest wicket-taker and fifth overall, Bumrah took 18 wickets in nine matches. He had also been a key player in the Mumbai Indians’ IPL-winning run, grabbing 19 wickets in 16 matches at an economy of 6.63.
Trent Boult: Like teammate Ferguson, Boult also put a disappointing IPL behind him to scalp 17 wickets in 10 matches with an economy of 4.86. He also bowled the most number of dot balls in the World Cup — 351.
Appearing for the Delhi Capitals in the IPL, Boult had managed just five wickets with an economy of 8.57.
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He never said IPL is responsible for the poor performance, its media which has made up and spices up his comments. He said he tried to stop Rabada because he wasn’t full fit and playing IPL could have risked his fitness ahead of the world cup, same goes yo Steyn and Ngidi who weren’t fully fit before the start of IPL