IPL 2018: 10 expensive players who flopped this season

It has been three years since Kieron Pollard has been consistently under-performing for Mumbai Indians and despite that, they used Right to Match card for him during the auction to buy him at a huge sum.

Being an all rounder, he did not bowl throughout the season and from the bat, Pollard scored mere 133 runs from 9 matches at 19, including only one fifty.

The English all-rounder was bought for a huge sum of INR 12.5 crore by Rajasthan Royals (RR) — highest in the auction. Having given impressive performances in the previous IPL season for Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS), it was obvious that Ben Stokes would get picked for a huge amount but his performance remained under scrutiny. Not to forget that he was also awarded with Most Valuable Player of the Season in 2017.

From 13 matches he played this season, Stokes could not even register a single half-century and amassed only 196 runs at 16.33. With the ball, he took only 8 wickets and that too with an expensive average of 37.87.

Glenn Maxwell, who led Kings XI Punjab last season, was brought for a heavy sum by Delhi Daredevils this season. But like his team is placed at bottom, his performance was quite similar.

From 12 matches, Maxwell could score only 169 runs at 14.08, including no fifty and with the best of 47.

Despite not having an extra-ordinary year in international cricket or either in last IPL season, Aaron Finch was bought for quite a heavy sum. No doubt that he has the ability to hit the ball out of the ropes at will but there was no consistency to back him in his selection by KXIP.

He started this IPL season by scoring back-to-back ducks and then followed by string of low scores. In total, Finch scored only 134 runs from 10 matches at 16.75 in this IPL without any fifty.

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) put a heavy bet on Indian batsman Manish Pandey by investing 11 crore on the backing of previous season performances and he took failed to deliver. His team is at the top in points table but his performance is at the bottom.

From 14 games so far, Pandey has scored 276 runs at 27.6. The numbers sounds decent but it is certainly not up to the mark for a player like him.

The same franchise also brought left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat, who was an asset to RPS last season and took 24 wickets from 12 matches. However, in 2018, Unadkat has not been able to take half the number of wickets he took last season despite more matches.

From 14 matches so far, Unadkat has scalped 11 wickets at an expensive average of 41.18.

Being the captain of defending champion team — Mumbai Indians — Rohit Sharma failed both as a leader of the side and as a batsman as well. This was the first season when Rohit did not score 300 runs.

From 14 matches, Rohit amassed only 286 runs at 23.83, including only two fifties. And not to forget that he was retained by the franchise ahead of the auction.

After having made his name through Big Bash League, D’Arcy Short was brought for 4 crore by RR but he did not live up to the expectation. From 7 games, he scored only 115 runs at 16.42, with no fifty and the strike-rate was of 116.16.

He can still prove his worth by delivering a big knock in the playoffs.

In the absence of David Warner, SRH made Saha to open the batting but he failed. He was then given chance to bat in the middle-order, he failed there too. From 10 matches this season, Saha could not accumulate 100 runs. He scored only 87 runs, including no fifty and his best score of 24.

Axar Patel was the only player retained by KXIP and that for a huge amount. Despite that, Axar’s performance was certainly poor throughout the season. From 9 matches, Axar scalped only 3 wickets at a disastrous average of 72.66.