The IPL extravaganza will continue to roll on as the tournament is set for its 15th edition after the conclusion of the IPL 2022 auction, a two-day event in Bangalore during which a total of 204 players were bought. The IPL 2022 is reported to start in the last week of March with all games to be played in Mumbai and Pune.
Ishan Kishan was the most expensive pick at the IPL 2022 auction this year – bought by Mumbai Indians for 15.25 crore. CSK roped in Deepak Chahar for 14 crore, making him the most expensive Indian pacer in the auction history. KKR also spent big, 12.25 crore, on their new skipper, Shreyas Iyer.
Several other players were bought for massive sums at the mega-auction. Let’s see 5 such players who could underwhelm in IPL 2022 under their big price tag.
Harshal Patel
Harshal Patel will be a centre of the limelight this season: he will be under the pressure of repeating his heroics – 32 wickets bagging the Purple Cap – of last season for RCB, who splurged out 10.75 crore for Patel in the mega-auction after surprisingly releasing him.
However, he is likely to struggle on flatter and truer surfaces of Mumbai and Pune in IPL 2022, while he took most of his wickets last year in the slow, tacky pitch in the Chennai leg and then in the UAE.
Prasidh Krishna
Prasidh Krishna has grown in stature over the last year with making impressions at the international level after his impressive performances for KKR and in domestic cricket.
However, Krishna, who has been bought for 10 crore by Rajasthan Royals at the IPL 2022 auction, has struggled to close out games in the IPL with the ball: in the death overs for KKR, according to ESPNcricinfo, Krishna has a high economy of 10.96. With Krishna being more of a length bowler and hasn’t shown any ability to bowl yorkers, he may struggle to contain runs in IPL 2022 which will be played on batting-friendly surfaces in Mumbai.
Tim David
Tim David, who played one game for RCB last season, will come into IPL 2022 as a reputed hard-hitter, having made his name in franchise leagues around the world. Mumbai Indians splashed 8.25 crore for the burly Singaporean.
David has a strike rate of 192 in the death overs across his T20 career so far. But, that has come while playing in the T20 leagues – and that strike rate could dip down when he faces the best bowlers in the world in the IPL. Mumbai have got the 25-year-old with a long-term vision, in the short term though David may not live up to his hefty price tag.
Devdutt Padikkal
Devdutt Padikkal is touted to be a future star, and had two brilliant seasons for RCB and a staggering show in domestic cricket. All those runs have come as an opener though, and now he could be asked to play a different role at his new franchise, Rajasthan Royals, who bought the left-hander for a 7.75 crore large amount.
Although he has scored over 400 runs in each of the last two IPL seasons for RCB, Padikkal has came under the scanner for his mediocre strike rate of 125. With RR already having a settled pair of Jos Buttler and Yasahvi Jaiswal from last season, Padikkal would be challenged to bat at number 3 or lower in IPL 2022 – positions in which he is yet to prove.
Rahul Tewatia
Gujarat Titans snapped up Rahul Tewatia for a whopping 9 crore price after staving off CSK and RCB at the mega-auction. Batting for Rajasthan, Tewatia played one of the greatest IPL innings in IPL 2020 against Punjab.
However, he hasn’t been able to make any significant performances since then – last season he averaged 15 with the bat and took 8 wickets while going at over 9 runs an over. Despite his under-par show last season, the Titans decided to fling out 9 crore for Tewatia, who really isn’t an elite cricketer, and not a consistent match-winner.
