IPL 2018: 5 players whose price tags will haunt them

In the past few seasons of the Indian Premier League, we have seen a lot of players getting big paychecks on auction day but not being able to prove their worth in the tournament itself, when it mattered the most.

Even though the players have not 'asked' for the prices that they were bought for, the fact of the matter is that extraordinarily high prices result in extraordinarily high expectations, which players often do not live upto. These high prices lead to the particular player's focus wavering from the cricket itself, and this loss of focus shows on the field.

This slideshow is a list of five such players who may find it difficult to cope with the pressure and expectation that their high price-tags bring.

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#1 Manish Pandey (Sunrisers Hyderabad)

Manish Pandey is a good batsman but is he good enough to justify his price tag?

Manish Pandey, who was bought by the Sunrisers Hyderabad for ₹11 crore, is undoubtedly a great player and a proven match-winner in the IPL.

That being said, one must really question whether he will be able to do justice to the humongous price tag, especially considering the fact that players such as Gautam Gambhir (₹2.8 crore) and Robin Uthappa (₹6.4 crore) went for much lower prices, even though they performed better in the previous IPL.

Further, Pandey has shown an inability to accelerate the scoring rate in the middle overs. Most recently, this was perfectly on display in India's first T20 against South Africa. Only time will tell whether Pandey has a good IPL or not, but justifying a ₹11 crore price-tag would require a whole lot more than just 'good'.

#2 Chris Woakes (Royal Challengers Bangalore)

Chris Woakes's 2017 campaign with KKR was the only year in which he played in the IPL

Chris Woakes, the English all-rounder, was sold to the Royal Challengers Bangalore for ₹7.4 crore. Woakes is known as a good bits-and-pieces cricketer in English conditions, but playing Test or ODI cricket in England is extremely different from playing T20 cricket in the IPL.

In his only IPL so far, Chris Woakes had an economy of 8.77, which becomes even worse when one considers the fact that he was often not bowling the difficult overs. His impact with the bat was negligible as he made only 46 runs in seven innings.

While one may argue that he did not get enough opportunities with the bat, he is not known for his hitting prowess either and has a career T20 strike rate of 134.34; RCB will be expecting a lot more than that from him lower down the order.

#3 Jaydev Unadkat (Rajasthan Royals)

Jaydev Unadkat is currently representing India against South Africa in the T20 Internationals

Probably an extremely unexpected name in this list, Jaydev Unadkat was bought for ₹11.5 crore by the Rajasthan Royals. To put things into perspective, Jasprit Bumrah was valued at ₹7 crore and Bhuvneshwar Kumar at ₹8.5 crore (both of them were retained, so the dynamics are not the same, but still an interesting reference).

Given that Basil Thampi (₹95 lakhs), Mohammed Siraj (₹2.6 crore), and Sandeep Sharma (₹3 crore) were cumulatively bought for about half of Unadkat's price at the auction, justifying his price becomes even more difficult.

While he is definitely a talented bowler, one must question whether he can really put his hand up and be the gun bowler like how Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are for their respective IPL sides.

Even in his 'breakout' season in 2017, while he did play well, he did not threaten oppositions in the same manner as other top bowlers, and a lot of his wickets came against lower order batsmen. To prove his worth this season, Unadkat will have to do something he has never done before in the IPL: be the go-to bowler that the opposition fears.

#4 KL Rahul (Kings XI Punjab)

KL Rahul is an explosive top order batsman

In 2016, KL Rahul was being touted as the next big thing in Indian cricket and cricket followers the world over were sure that a future star had been unearthed. Two years later, KL Rahul has been in-and-out of the Test and T20 teams and has been altogether dropped from the ODI team.

Despite this, he was able to attract a bid of ₹11 crore from the Kings XI Punjab. KL Rahul has been in good form in T20Is for India (he scored two fifties in the series against Sri Lanka). Despite this, he found himself relegated to the bench in India's 1st T20 against South Africa.

More than cricketing performances, Rahul will have to deal with the enormous expectations on him because of his high price-tag. It will also be interesting to see what kind of mindset he is in, having been dropped from the Indian team in one format, and finding his place in the team in the other two riddled with uncertainty.

#5 Sarfaraz Khan (Royal Challengers Bangalore)

Sarfaraz Khan missed the IPL in 2017 with an injury

For Sarfaraz Khan, more than the ₹3 crore that he was retained for, he will have to justify the retention itself, something that might prove to be a challenge considering his recent form in domestic cricket.

In seven innings in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Sarfaraz made a meagre 70 runs. If he is unable to turn his performances around in the IPL and put in a good performance, he is bound to draw a lot of criticism from everyone watching.

Having said that, Sarfaraz Khan has a strike rate of 173.52 in his IPL career and can play the role of a handy lower-order pinch-hitter.