IPL 2022: 3 players who started well and flopped midway in this edition

The ongoing Indian Premier League season (IPL 2022) is now in its full swing with every side having played at least nine matches. With 46 of 70 league matches already done and dusted with, we have a big-enough sample to evaluate players' performances.

While some players have been consistent with their performances over the course of the season, some are yet to pick up steam. However, there are also some players who started the season strongly but fizzled out as the tournament progressed.

On that note, we will focus on three players who started IPL 2022 with a bang but their form deteriorated over the course of the tournament. Their respective teams will want these players, who are all match-winners on their day, to return to form as the league enters its business end.

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#1 Shubman Gill

While the Gujarat Titans continue to dominate the league, leading the standings with 16 points from nine matches, the form of their opener Shubman Gill has taken a sharp dip.

The former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) batter started the season with a duck against the Lucknow Super Giants but roared back to form with consecutive 50s against the Delhi Capitals (84) and Punjab Kings (96) respectively.

Gill was expected to kick on from there but he has only gone on to disappoint. A string of low scores (7, 13, 0, 7, 22, 31) has followed the two half-centuries to take his total to 260 runs in nine matches.

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#2 Ishan Kishan

Ishan Kishan was expected to take IPL 2022 by the scruff of its neck and emerge as one of the best batters, especially with the T20 World Cup coming up later this year. However, the Mumbai Indians wicketkeeper-batter has disappointed so far.

He started the season with consecutive half-centuries, against the Delhi Capitals (81*) and the Rajasthan Royals (54), respectively, but has fallen off the radar since.

The 23-year-old has crossed the 20-run mark just twice in seven matches in IPL 2022 since and has also been dismissed for a duck. In all, he has managed 225 runs in nine matches, which is nowhere near good enough for an opener.

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#3 Pat Cummins

The Australia Test captain missed the first few matches due to international commitments. But upon joining the Kolkata Knight Riders team, Cummins delivered almost instantly. He smacked a 15-ball-56 in his first match of IPL 2022 against the Mumbai Indians while returning figures of 2/49 from his four overs.

The bowling all-rounder was expected to pick up from there but he only regressed, losing his batting form and failing to build any sort of bowling consistency. He picked up just two more wickets in the next three matches which eventually led to him getting dropped from the squad.

In four IPL 2022 matches, the 28-year-old has picked up four wickets while conceding runs at 12 per over. He could add just seven more runs to his name after the first match to take his tally to 63 runs for the season. The Aussie has since failed to return to the KKR starting XI.