For the IPL 2018, franchise picked Indian and foreign stars based on their performances in domestic T20 leagues around the world in a competitive auction. Some of them like MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Jasprit Bumrah, Rohit Sharma, Risbabh Pant etc were also retained efficient players by the franchises based on their contribution during earlier years. Some of them were thrown into open auction like Gambhir, Yuvraj, Ben Stokes, Chris Gayle, R Ashwin, KL Rahul etc.
The current year auction was highly competitive with Ben Stokes being the highest paid player in the auction with Rajasthan Royals buying him for a whopping amount of INR 12.5 Crores and Glenn Maxwell by Delhi Daredevils for INR 9 Crore. Domestic players who fetched huge amount include Jaydev Unadkat for INR 11.5 Crores, KL Rahul for INR 11 Crores, Manish Pandey for INR 11 Crores,
The IPL 2018 having reached the knockout stage it is proved that all who earned more did not necessarily perform according to expected outcome and failed to create an impact on the team with their performances with either bat or ball, even fielding.
Here we look at the 6 biggest flops of IPL 2018
- Ben Stokes
Ben Stokes, the hard-hitting all-rounder from England was bought by Rajasthan Royals for a whopping INR 12.5 Crores. Last year, he did a brilliant job for Rising Pune Supergiants. This time around he failed to create an impact with the bat or ball.
In this year’s season with the bat, Ben Stokes had a poor outing scoring 196 from 13 matches with an average of 16.33. His best score in the tournament was 45. With the ball also, he had a poor outing just picking 8 wickets from 13 matches at an economy of 8.18 runs per over with best figures of 3/15. Fortunately, his poor performance did not hold Rajasthan Royals making it to the playoff stage.
- Glenn Maxwell
Known for his hard-hitting abilities for Australia, Delhi Daredevils bought him for INR 9 Crores. In the 12 matches he played in this tournament, Glenn Maxwell scored just 169 runs at an average of just 14.08. His best score in the tournament was 47.
He was not able to hit a single 50 plus score in the tournament. With ball too, Glenn Maxwell did not do any justice as he picked only 5 wickets from 12 games at an economy of 8.25 runs per over. He did contribute in fielding to his known reputation. In 2 matches, he was dropped from the playing XI due to poor form.
- Ravichandran Ashwin
The ace off-spinner for India was bought by Kings XI Punjab for INR 7.6 Crores. He was named as the captain of the franchise as recognition as he is known as an intelligent cricketer. He played a total of 14 matches and picked only 10 wickets with an economy of 8.09 runs per over which is far above his records so far.
His best figures in the tournament were 2/18. After the first 6 matches, R Ashwin captaincy did not justify his cricketing intelligence as his decision regarding batting order faltered. With the bat also, he just scored 102 runs from 14 matches with the best score of 45. Kings XI Punjab finished a disappointing 7th in the tournament.
- D”Arcy Short
Darcy Short made his mark in the Big Bash League 2016 for Hobart Hurricanes in Australia. In this year’s Big Bash League, he scored the highest individual score of 122 in Big Bash history. He also played for Australia in T20I format scoring 196 runs from 5 matches with a strike rate of 149.61. Because of his exploits in T20 format, Rajasthan Royals bought him at price money INR 4 Crores.
He got initial chances and dropped due poor form to come back again with no improvement. He scored just 115 runs from 7 matches with an average of 16.42, with the best score of 44.
- Yuvraj Singh
Yuvraj Singh the match winner for team India and highest paid player of 2015 was bought by Kings XI Punjab franchise for the base price of INR 2 Crores this season. He found a place in playing XI in 8 matches and just scored 65 runs with a poor average of 10.83 and the best score of 20.
Yuvraj Singh performances have been on the decline since 2015. His best performance was 376 in 2014, followed by 248 in 2015, 236 in 2016 and 252 In 2017, Yuvraj Singh scored 252 runs from 12 matches with the best score of 70*. He is not a part of the Indian ODI team for quite some time and this performance could crash his dream of returning to the national squad of World Cup 2019.
6. Rohit Sharma
Mumbai Indians retained Rohit Sharma showing confidence in his batting and captaincy skills. However, He did not have a great season with the bat and also failed to take his team to the playoff stage. In this year’s IPL he scored 286 runs from 14 matches with an average of 23.83, with only 2 half-centuries to his credit with a strike rate of 133.02.
His best score in the tournament was 94 against Royal Challengers Bangalore. This was not expected from an experienced player like Rohit Sharma.