Quite often we have seen in the IPL that a franchise goes all out for a player in the auction and spends a huge amount of money on him, but the player eventually fails in the tournament. And it has happened with some of the biggest names in world cricket.
Even some of the Indian players who have been bought for big money have failed despite them being suited to the conditions and the pitches in India.
Here is an all time IPL XI of players who were sold for many Crores, but didn’t perform –
Openers (Shane Watson, Robin Uthappa):
Shane Watson has been a star performer in the IPL for Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings and has even won the titles with both those franchises, but when he played for RCB, he didn’t perform anywhere close to his potential.
RCB had bought Watson for 9.5 crore ahead of IPL 2016, but they didn’t make the best use of him as they didn’t slot him to bat at the top of the order in a lot of games.
Robin Uthappa has also performed with distinction playing for Kolkata Knight Riders over the years, but he didn’t have a great time when he turned up for Pune Warriors India in 2011.
Pune Warriors India had bought Uthappa for 9.4 crore INR approximately, but Uthappa could score just 209 runs for them in 14 games at an average of 26.40. His strike rate was also less than 130.
Middle order (Kevin Pietersen, Dinesh Karthik, Yuvraj Singh)
Kevin Pietersen was bought by the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for 7 crore INR ahead of IPL 2009, but the former England captain had a horrible run in the tournament. He scored just 93 runs in the 6 games that he played. RCB, however, still managed to reach the final of the 2009 edition of the IPL.
Dinesh Karthik was one of the most fluent run-scorers in the domestic cricket of India around 2015 which was the reason why RCB bought him for 10.5 crore ahead of IPL 2015. A lot of people justified that price tag because of Karthik’s versatility as a batsman, but Karthik eventually averaged 12 with the bat in IPL 2015.
Yuvraj Singh was given huge contracts worth 14 crore INR and 16 crore INR by RCB and Delhi Daredevils respectively, but the left-hander couldn’t live up to the expectations playing for either of those two franchises. He was released by both RCB and Delhi after just one season.
All-rounders (Andrew Flintoff, Ben Stokes)
Andrew Flintoff had come to the IPL with a big reputation in 2009. He had been bought for approximately 7.35 crore INR by CSK and was expected to be the trump card for them, but as it turned out, he couldn’t do anything of significance for the men in yellow.
Having seen Ben Stokes’ heroics at Rising Pune Supergiant in IPL 2017, Rajasthan Royals spent 12.5 crore INR to secure the services of the English all-rounder ahead of IPL 2018, but Stokes couldn’t replicate his previous IPL heroics at Rajasthan.
Stokes has averaged just 17 with the bat for Rajasthan in the last two seasons of the IPL.
Bowlers (Pawan Negi, Jaydev Unadkat, Tymal Mills)
Pawan Negi had put on a few decent performances in domestic cricket as well as in the IPL in 2015. He was someone who was being talked about in the Indian cricketing circles when the IPL 2016 auction happened.
Negi was definitely expected to be bought at a decent price, but a price tag of 8.5 crore INR, which RCB bought him for, was definitely a bit too much for him. Negi eventually got just one wicket in 8 games for RCB in IPL 2016.
Jaydev Unadkat was given a contract worth 11.7 crore INR by Rajasthan Royals for IPL 2018, but he didn’t live up to the price tag at all. The left arm seamer averaged close to 45 with the ball and his economy rate per over was also more than 9.
Tymal Mills was one of the most hyped international players in 2017 and it wasn’t a big surprise for anyone that he fetched 12 crore INR in IPL 2017 auction. He was someone who could bowl real fast and also had variations to outfox the batsman and that’s why RCB paid such a huge amount for him.
Mills, however, ended up performing poorly for RCB as he got just 5 wickets in 5 games and went at an economy rate of 8.58 runs per over.
