Big guns yet to fire in this IPL

It doesn't matter for the audience if Shane Warne doesn't get the ball to turn like it used to happen in the Ashes. There is no one complaining if Sachin Tendulkar doesn't get a hundred in the IPL or becomes the highest run getter like he has done in the 2003 world cup in South Africa. But, if someone like Virender Sehwag fails to hit a six in almost every match, the fans are disappointed outside Delhi as well. And much to anybody's surprise, this has been going on for the past three weeks in the current edition of the IPL.

The big guns from whom fire crackers are expected happen to be Virender Sehwag, Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Sanath Jayasuriya, Yuvraj Singh etc to name a few. However, none of them have kept up their word which they meant when they were paid huge sums. Sanath Jayasuriya can be given an excuse with Sachin Tendulkar not making up his mind to include him in the playing XI. And, there have been quite a few players like Andrew Flintoff and Jacob Oram who can be as punishing with the bat as they can get. But, injuries have overpowered them once again unfortunately.

And then, there is McCullum and Ross Taylor who have made their entry into the IPL just a day back after finishing their full fledged series against Australia. Though Jacques Kallis and Sachin Tendulkar are found doing justice to the money paid to them and the expectations the fans have had in them, their nature of play can hardly be paralleled with someone like Gilchrist or Symonds. So far Gilchrist has had just one score above 50 and an aggregate of 118 runs from 8 games played so far. And, when it comes to Symonds, his record is just above Gilchrist's with the batsman scoring 2 half centuries and aggregating 232 runs but at a strike rate of 122 compared to 174 by Gilchrist.

Then we have Sehwag whose fastest fifty against Chennai Super Kings was overshadowed by 6 innings with scores less than 20. And, when it comes to Mathew Hayden who held the orange cap in the last season of the IPL, the only highlight this time would be the score of 93 he scored against Delhi Daredevils. And, nothing needs to be specially said about Yuvraj Singh who has had series of scores as follows: 4, 9, 4, 43, 15, 24, 2 and 36 which total upto 137 from the 8 games he has played so far. There have been situations in the past as well when a few or may be most of the expected batsmen disappoint. But, this time it is all the expected batsmen who have disappointed without any exceptions.