The much-awaited, buzzworthy, and exciting auction for the upcoming Indian T20 League 2020 finally came to an end yesterday. While some franchises snapped up big players like Glenn Maxwell, Pat Cummins, Sheldon Cottrell, others roped in young guns like Virat Singh and Priyam Garg to bolster their squads. Some players were elated to join their new squad, whereas others went home empty handed as they did not get any takers. Every franchise looks for the best players to make their teams undefeatable, but sometimes, they end up making bad picks who might turn out to be unproductive for the league.
MyTeam11 has listed out some of the players who secured their spots at a high price, despite showcasing not-so-impressive performance in the past few months.
Chris Morris
Bangalore had a decent budget to spend on the players during the action. With 27.9 crore in their pocket and only a few slots to fill in, the franchise managed to buy 8 players. Since their middle order was already strong with Virat Kohli and AB De Villiers in the batting line-up, they needed an overseas finisher, and a fast bowler.
Chris Morris is undoubtedly a great all-rounder, but taking a look at his recent performances, it seems he did not keep his best foot forward. He made a disappointing appearance in the last edition of this league, ending up with the release from Delhi team. In fact, he had a dismal run in Africa T20 League as well. His base price was 1.50 Cr, and he was sold out for 10 Cr, so he could have bought at a bargain price, considering the fact that he hasn’t been good either with bat or ball.
Piyush Chawla
Last month, Kolkata franchise released the wily Chawla at the close of the trade window. Piyush Chawla was registered at the base price of 1 Cr and was signed up by the three-time champions Chennai, who went on to splurge a heavy price of INR 6.75 Cr. This deal looks like an overpriced arrangement. Moreover, Punjab and Chennai fought off to draft him for a reasonable price, but the latter took won the spinner at a whopping figure.
With Imran Tahir, Mitchell Santner and Jadeja already in the team, it does not make sense why Chennai considered him a significant pick for the squad. Had the team needed a spinner desperately, the Indian leggie could have been the perfect pick to attract high bids. What’s even more surprising is that Chawla also the most expensive capped Indian player at the auction.
Jaydev Unadkat
Rajasthan and Punjab indulged a head-to-head battle to bring him to their squad. Punjab backed off and the former shelled out 3 Cr for Saurashtra left-arm pacer. His base price was INR 1 Cr. Unadkat was released by the Jaipur-based franchise because he couldn’t do justice to his hefty price tag. Last season, he took 10 wickets, though his economy rate of 10.66 runs per over. So, he is not really a great player for Rajasthan. Now, it’s all depends on what tricks he has up his sleeve to restore his faith of the Rajasthan team.
Nathan Coulter-Nile
Chennai and Mumbai entered the bidding war and the latter earned him a spot in their squad at 8 Cr, eight times his base price (INR 1 Cr). His performance has been affected by a string of injuries he is dealing with. Despite that factor, he was sold out at such a big amount to everyone’s surprise. After having around three fast bowling options among overseas cricketers, out of whom only one will be in the playing XI squad, Nathan was not the right player Mumbai team needed.
Also Read: 5 BEST SIGNINGS OF INDIAN T2O LEAGUE 2020 AUCTION
Kane Richardson
The 28-year-old Kane Richardson was registered at 1.5 Cr, which had raised a few eyebrows. It was expected that he would attract high bids at the auction, but surprisingly he did. Even though he did not put a solid performance, Bangalore drafted him at massive price of 4 Cr. The Aussie bowler Kane has been part of the Australian T20 team off late, but he was not in his finest form. In fact, he has been struggling in every format recently. During his Indian T20 League 2020 career so far, he played only 14 matches in which he managed to pick 18 wickets at an economy rate of 8.38.
