IPL 5: When tweets have to depend on players' form

Cricketers and their form seem to have a direct link to how much and how well they connect with fans over social networking sites like Twitter. So, while 'established' active tweeters like Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle spent a lot of their time on the micro-blogging site earlier, their rather shoddy form in the ongoing Indian Premier League has had their accounts show messages which are 'uncharacteristically dated.'

While Kohli was active with his tweets while touring Down Under, his frequency of messaging has come down drastically since the IPL began. As for his performance, he has managed 93 runs from four innings with a single knock of 57. His otherwise pale performance has seen  Bangalore's standing drop to seven out of the eight competing sides, according to the points table on Sunday.

Gayle has been writing more than Kohli but it is not much when compared to his tweets last year, when his bat was breathing fire against most teams. This year, the Jamaican's 'club' has yielded 78 from three innings with 68 off just one match. It may appear decent but Gayle has the reputation of plundering a lot more than he has so far in this year's IPL. His Twitter account, has been equally silent with the occasional mention of traveling from a city to another, compared to messages of parties and team celebrations last year. "I'm cutting out of your town now!! U got me! We will be back for that final....see u in the bull pen Bangalore soon," he wrote on April 13 after his team's loss to Chennai.

When the runs are flowing however, the same seems to be the trend with tweets as well. Ask Rohit Sharma whose team - Mumbai Indians - is at the top of the standings. The 25-year-old has been enjoying the victories, spending time on his Playstation and has managed quality time with his family, all mentioned in tweets on his official page. The right-handed batsman has a decent average of a little over 36 from four innings and hit an impressive 73 against the Deccan Chargers, a knock that even had Sachin Tendulkar tweeting praises despite his injured finger!

With a little over 50 days of IPL still left to be played out, fortunes can change with remarkable speed and fans who follow their stars on the micro-blogging site may well be able to gauge their form through what they write. Or of course, if they don't.