Irfan Pathan, the former Indian all-rounder, has opined that all the cricketers being starved of cricket for a long while due to coronavirus induced pandemic made them give their best, thereby making IPL 2020 the most competitive edition of the league.
He made this observation in the recent edition of the Star Sports show — ‘Cricket Connected’.
Irfan Pathan Felt Cricketers And Teams Were Hungry For Success
Irfan Pathan was asked about the reason behind cricket being so competitive in IPL 2020. He responded that it was because all the players were eager to get back on the cricket field and perform their best, drawing an analogy to a person who is starved of food.
“I feel all the cricketers and all the teams were very hungry. If you are hungry and you don’t get food, the situation was the same for all of them. And when you get food after a long time, what will you do, you will try to eat the food of 4-5 days together although that does not happen,” Irfan Pathan said.
He added that the cricketers had not seen much action for a few months especially since lockdowns were imposed due to coronavirus pandemic resulting in cancellation and postponements of cricketing events before the IPL and thus showed their predator instincts on the field.
“But something like that happened with the teams. They did not get to play cricket for 4-5 months, they were in a lockdown and they came like hungry lions to the ground and gave their best performance,” he added.
Irfan Pathan pointed out that things could have gone wrong as the cricketers were playing in the IPL after a long hiatus and that the effects could be observed in some of the initial fielding lapses.
“A lot of things could have gone wrong there but that did not happen. Everyone showed their fitness in a brilliant fashion. You could see the impact on the fielding initially but after that the way all the teams picked up form.”
IPL 2020 became the most competitive ever as bottom-placed Rajasthan Royals had 6 wins and finished on 12 points which stand as the highest-ever surpassing IPL 2018 and IPL 2019. All the other editions saw the bottom-placed team having less than 10 points.
Irfan Pathan: Everyone Gave Best Performances, And Even Last Team Had 12 Points
Left-arm pacer Irfan Pathan observed that the cricketers had put up their best performances forward after the initial few hiccups and stood out in all three departments be it bowling, batting or fielding.
“Whether you talk about fielding, the brilliant yorkers and great bowling by the likes of Bumrah, Rabada or spinners like Chahal, everyone gave their best performances and even in batting we got to see so many sixes. We also got to see the record of 1000 sixes by Chris Gayle in this IPL as well.”
Irfan Pathan highlighted that even the last-placed team Rajasthan Royals were in with a chance to qualify for the playoffs till their last encounter. He concluded by iterating that the tournament had turned out to be so competitive because all the cricketers waited eagerly for cricket to resume after the induced break.
“And you got to see the last-placed team with 12 points in this IPL only and it is possible that if they had played one more match better, they could have also qualified. So the competition level was amazing but I feel the only reason for that is that all the cricketers were like hungry lions, who were waiting for cricket to start,” Irfan Pathan remarked.
The competitive nature of IPL 2020 can be ascertained by the fact that only the eventual winners Mumbai Indians had qualified for the playoffs before the penultimate match of the league phase.
The Sunrisers Hyderabad managed to book their spot in the knockout stage only in the last match of the preliminary stage by beating Mumbai Indians by 10 wickets, knocking out Kolkata Knight Riders in the process.