IPL 2021 season review: The four that didn't make the cut

Mumbai Indians

Where they finished
The defending champions slipped four places to fifth this time. They left it to the very last day of the league stage to keep their qualification chances - however unlikely - alive, before they fizzled out.

How the season went
It mostly went fine for Mumbai until the tournament moved to the UAE. They had won four of their seven games in India in the first leg, but in the UAE, it was almost as if they had left their batting smarts behind.

What went wrong
Like captain Rohit Sharma said before the last league game, they "didn't bat well in the UAE leg", and it cost them a playoff spot.

Mumbai are known for their star-studded line-up, and their campaign took a beating when a number of those stopped clicking. Quinton de Kock's strike rate dipped under 105 in the last three games he played, Rohit produced two single-digit scores when they needed to win desperately, Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav clicked a little too late, and Hardik Pandya didn't come to the party at all. To add to that, Trent Boult, the powerplay king of IPL 2020, went wicketless in powerplays five games in a row.

In the news
The one who was under scrutiny the most was Hardik, who was off the boil with the bat and didn't bowl a single over in the tournament. He is in the squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup as an allrounder but with no overs and hardly any runs under his belt, fans and several former players have started asking about his position. When at his best, there aren't many in India like him. But he is far from at his best right now.

Punjab Kings

Where they finished
For the second year in a row, they finished sixth on the table with 12 points.

How the season went
Starting the season with a new name, Punjab Kings opened their campaign with a win but went on to lose five of their next seven games. Coming to the UAE, their struggles to string wins together continued and they ended in a complicated four-way muddle in the middle of the points table. They did win their last three games but fell out of the race because of their poor net run rate. They continued to have issues in their batting line-up, which seemed to misfire once the opening pair of KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal was done. But on the positive side, their uncapped Indian bowlers Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Bishnoi and Harpreet Brar stood out.

What went wrong
Their over-reliance on Rahul and Agarwal. While the two continued to be the team's backbone, Nicholas Pooran had to be dropped after being unable to reprise his 2020 IPL form. The uncapped Indians in the middle order - Deepak Hooda, Sarfaraz Khan and Shahrukh Khan - could also not deliver enough. Their middle-order (Nos. 4-7), in fact, had the second-worst batting average (16.68) this season.

Rahul was among the top three scorers in the tournament for the fourth year in a row, scoring 626 runs in 13 matches, but his strike rate was again a big talking point. He started off the 2021 season with a 50-ball 91 but went back to scoring sedately, barring two innings, against Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Super Kings, where he scored a 57-ball 91* and 42-ball 98* respectively. His strike rate was just about 114 in the rest of the ten matches. His conservative approach did not always have the desired impact on the team, something he also admitted to.

In the news
Chris Gayle left the Punjab Kings' UAE set-up citing bubble fatigue. Having just arrived from the CPL bubble, the veteran star said he was looking to mentally refresh himself ahead of the T20 World Cup.

Rajasthan Royals

Where they finished
Rajasthan Royals had yet another dull season, finishing seventh with five wins in 14 games, a minor rise from the last spot the previous season.

How their season went
Royals won just three out of the seven matches in the first leg and continued to be inconsistent in the UAE as well, going on to win just two out of their seven games. In the second half, nothing really went their way. They were without some of their big guns, and were weighed down by familiar shortcomings, remaining a top-heavy side. The absence of a spearhead in their bowling attack also hurt them.

What went wrong
Royals did not get everything right in the first half of the season but Jos Buttler, Chris Morris and captain Sanju Samson made sure to step up and keep them mid-table, despite their two biggest names - Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer - being unavailable.

Buttler did not make it to the second half but they got an able replacement in Evin Lewis, who along with Yashasvi Jaiswal, got them off to rapid starts. Samson, who had his best-ever outing in his nine-year IPL career, making 484 runs in 14 games, was also a force at the top of the order.

But that was it. The middle order remained their weak link, and Liam Livingstone and Glenn Phillips couldn't help much. Neither could Morris. He was also poor with the ball. Morris not only went wicketless in the first three matches in the UAE but was also expensive, leaking 47 and 50 runs against Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore respectively, and was dropped as a result. There were a few good individual performances, from Kartik Tyagi, Chetan Sakariya and Mustafizur Rahman, in their otherwise wayward bowling attack, but the constant shuffling towards the business end of the tournament did not work well either. And, if anything, the end was terrible: 90 for 9 and 85 all out in their last two league games.

In the news
Royals were without their three biggest overseas stars for varying stretches. Archer was ruled out due to an elbow injury right at the start, Stokes took a break from the game for mental-health reasons and Buttler opted out of the UAE leg because of the birth of his second child. That was too much to make up for.

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Where they finished
Sunrisers Hyderabad had the biggest fall compared to the 2020 season, going from third place to the very bottom. They finished the 2021 edition with just three wins from 14 matches.

How the season went
Sunrisers just did not turn up. Even when the first leg started in India, they took as many as four matches to register their first win. They lost another three before the IPL was postponed, and then started the UAE leg with another two defeats. Only one win from their first nine games meant their season was virtually over well before it actually was.

What went wrong
The loss of form for David Warner and the unavailability of Jonny Bairstow in the UAE leg meant their bowlers had to do the heavy lifting again, but Sunrisers' inability to cross 150 regularly hit them hard.

They started the season by squandering chases in matches they could have won. It was because of the old issue: an inexperienced and feeble middle order. And when they batted first, they crossed 135 only twice in five attempts and defended only one of those totals successfully.

In the bowling too, T Natarajan's Covid-19-enforced absence dented their plans and the high economy rate of Sandeep Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar in non-swinging conditions didn't help either. Rashid Khan was their leading wicket-taker once again and Jason Holder also inspired them in the UAE leg with his strikes, but if there's one team that needs a complete overhaul, it's Sunrisers.

In the news
Warner, one of the most consistent batters in the IPL in the last few years but woefully out of form at the moment, not only lost his captaincy but was also dropped from Sunrisers' plans completely after scores of 2 and 0 in the UAE leg. He was left in the team hotel for a couple of games, before being seen waving the Sunrisers flag from the stands towards the end of the league stage. The Warner-Sunrisers marriage could well be over.