IPL 2021 is just a few weeks away, and with each passing day, the excitement grows. We all look forward to a fast-paced two months after India’s long-running test engagement. But let’s pull you back a little bit before you all start with those IPL discussions by looking at the five most expensive players who failed in the IPL.
Whenever a conversation about IPL stirs up, people never miss out on expensive players, auctions, and squads. And why not, as these things have earned IPL the status of the greatest T20 league in the world. Anyway, IPL auctions have witnessed some of the costliest buys all around the world. Some of them have delivered impactful performances for their franchises, while some have failed miserably. So, let’s look at the most expensive players who couldn’t make a mark in the IPL.
1. Yuvraj Singh (Delhi Daredevils – 2015) – 16 crores:
The sixer king tops this list. Yuvraj Singh was paid a massive amount of 16 crore rupees for his services in the 2015 edition of IPL by Delhi Daredevils. Well, that turned out to be one of the worst seasons for Yuvraj Singh.
Yuvi faced 210 balls that season and could manage only 248 runs off of them. He scored these runs at an average of just 19.07 and a low strike-rate of 118.09. He did score two half-centuries that season, but his strike rate in both of them didn’t do justice with his image and the amount he got paid.
2. Ben Stokes (Rajasthan Royals – 2018) – 12.5 crores:
Rajasthan Royals bought Ben Stokes for 12.5 crores just before IPL 2018. Although he was pretty decent with the ball, his batting failed miserably in 2018. He could only manage 196 runs from 161 balls in that entire season. Stokes ended that season with a low batting average of 16.33 and a strike-rate of 121.73 without scoring a single 50+ score. We all know that Ben Stokes is a batsman whom people expect to rain sixes. Unfortunately, his boundary count couldn’t exceed 6 sixes and 13 fours at the end of the tournament.
3. Tymal Mills(Royal Challengers Bangalore – 2017) – 12 crores:
Tymal Mills can be considered the biggest fail on the list as he only played five games for RCB. In these five matches, he could only pick five wickets at a bowling average of 30.6 and an economy rate of 8.57. 2017 was one of the most disappointing seasons for the popular franchise as they finished bottom of the table and created the record for the lowest IPL score of 49 that season.
4. Jaydev Unadkat(Rajasthan Royals – 2018) – 11.5 crores:
Rajasthan Royals may have qualified for the play-offs in 2018, but their most banked players didn’t do much. Jaydev Unadkat was another one of RR’s 2018 disappointments. Rajasthan bought him for a whopping 11.5 crores at the 2018 auction. Unadkat bowled 50.2 overs in IPL 2018 and picked only 11 wickets at a bowling average of 44.18 and an economy rate of 9.65. Thanks to Jos Butler‘s extraordinary season that helped Rajasthan Royals book their play-offs berth in that season.
5. Glenn Maxwell(Kings XI Punjab – 2020) – 10.75 crores:
The Big-Show of the shorter format of the game hasn’t put up much of a show in the past few editions of IPL, and 2020 was the worst. Rarely does a superstar like Glen Maxwell goes without hitting a single six throughout the entire tournament. Well, 2020 was that kind of year for Maxi. He only scored 108 runs at an average of 15.42, and that too with a run-a-ball strike rate of 101.88. This resulted in KXIPs poor run in the tournament despite getting some of the best starts of the season.
