Since the inception of Indian Premier League in 2008, the players are picked -up in the auctions based on their performances in their own countries or other international T20 tournaments. The franchisees supported by technical expert’s pick- up the players based on the talent, performance and also potentials especially among the uncapped players in the country. Ben Stokes, Pawan Negi etc are some examples who were picked up at a huge price but could not perform to their known abilities.
The 2018 edition of Indian Premier League has seen some top quality players not performing according to the price they were bought or expected performance.
Look at the 4 current IPL players who are likely to retire or go unsold in next year IPL :
1. Yuvraj Singh
In this year’s IPL auction, Yuvraj Singh was bought by Kings XI Punjab franchise for RS 2 Crores. He is one of the Indian players to be paid highest during 2015 season. This time, his old records helped him to be picked up by Kings XI Punjab. No other franchise showed interest for the southpaw who has won many tournaments for team India. The left-handed batsman, Singh has been in poor form so far scoring just 64 runs off 7 matches with an average of 12.80. His best score in IPL 2018 is 20 and also been promoted up the order to get back some form back but could not perform.
Yuvraj Singh has been dropped from Kings XI Punjab playing XI. He has not been a part of the Indian ODI and T20 team for quite some time. The southpaw might retire from next year’s IPL or no franchise would be interested in buying Yuvraj Singh.
2. Gautam Gambhir
Gautam Gambhir led Kolkata Knight Riders in two IPL titles in 2012 and 2014. Unfortunately, he was neither retained nor picked up by KKR this season. He was lucky that in the 2018 edition of IPL auction, Gautam Gambhir was not only picked up but also named as the captain of Delhi Daredevils franchise for a price of Rs 2.80 Crores. After Delhi’s first 6 matches, Gambhir stepped down from captaincy winning just 1, losing 5 matches. After that, he dropped himself down from Delhi Daredevils playing XI.
Gambhir scored just 85 runs from 6 matches with the best score of 55. Delhi is the first team to be knocked out of the 2018 edition. His poor performance could force him to retire from next year’s IPL or no other franchise would be interested in buying him.
3. Harbhajan Singh
The ace off-spinner Harbhajan Singh played for Mumbai Indians franchise till 2017 edition. In this year’s IPL auction, the Turbanator was bought by Chennai Super Kings franchise for a base price of 2 Crores. His performance in IPL 2018 edition so far has not been great so far as he has taken only 6 wickets in 8 matches with an economy of 7.16 runs per over.
His best figures have been 2/22 against Royal Challengers Bangalore at MCA Stadium, Pune. Despite his economic bowling performance so far in 2018 IPL, his continuation is at stake it does not pick up wickets for CSK in the remainder of the tournament.
With age not on his side and many young lots of spinners like K Gowtham, Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav the IPL franchises might not take him or he himself could decide to retire from the Indian Premier League in 2019.
4. Mitchell Johnson
The Australian left-arm pace bowler Mitchell Johnson was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders franchise for RS 2 Crores. He was supposed to partner Mitchell Starc but the injury to Starc left KKR with scare resources with the bowling department particularly pace bowling.
He had a fantastic record of picking up 61 wickets from 54 matches in the IPL till 2017. He played for Mumbai Indians and also played for Perth Scorchers franchise in BBL.
However, In the 2018 edition of IPL so far, Johnson has picked just 2 wickets from 6 matches and also went for an expensive run rate of 10.28 runs per over. With his bowling performances in this year’s IPL, he might retire or no franchises might bid for him.