3 past big buys who may not earn a hefty contract this time
The mega auction for this year’s IPL will take place on the 12th and 13th of February. A total of 590 players would go under the hammer. 48 players out of them have registered in the highest base price category of INR 2 Crores. Over the years, the IPL has seen some extraordinary bidding wars where players are sold for a much higher price than their base price.
Here, we will take a look at players who were sold for above 10 crores earlier but won’t go for much this time.
1. Manish Pandey
Manish Pandey had grabbed headlines when he hit the first century by an Indian player in the IPL in 2008. 14 years down the line, it is safe to say that he has never played up to his true potential. He was brought in the 2018 auction for a whopping price of INR 11 Crores. However, his performances were no way up to the mark as even though the Karnataka batter scored runs, they came at a big cost for the SRH. Out of his 10 fifties for the Orange Army in the IPL, only two have been in a winning cause. What’s even more disappointing is he has remained unbeaten in six of these 10 fifties.
2. Jaydev Unadkat
Featuring next on the list is another Saurashtra’s Ranji captain, Jaydev Unadkat. K Gowtham became the most expensive Indian player at the 2018 auction when he was sold for INR 11.8 Crores at the 2021 auction to the Rajasthan Royals. However, Unadkat’s has failed to put up a string of consistent performances along with his inability to stem the flow of runs in the death overs. It will be interesting to see if he gets the same kind of bids in the auction.
3. Pat Cummins
The Aussie quick started a bidding war between various franchises before eventually being brought by the Kolkata Knight Riders for a huge sum of INR 15.5 Crores, making him the most expensive buy in the 2020 Auction. Cummins, however, did not impress much as he picked up only nine wickets in the seven matches, he bowled with an economy towards the expensive side (8.83).
