6 times Rajasthan Royals overspent during the IPL auctions

IPL auction is one of the most important aspects for any IPL franchise, and it's often said that a team's fate is decided on the auction table. So, the selection of the right players becomes crucial for the teams and they can be seen spending heavy bucks to secure a particular player's service.

The IPL bidding process is designed in such a way that it provides all the teams and players, an equal and a fair chance to select and get picked respectively. Due to this one may see teams spending good money on players who they feel would fit into their team well.

Good amount of research is done before the bidding day and they look to spend their purse accordingly. But on a few occasions, the team bidders get themselves caught in the hype and end up spending large sums of money on players who turn out to be real blunders for them.

So without much ado, let's take a look at six instances when Rajasthan Royals overspent on their players in IPL auctions:

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#6 Tyron Henderson - $650,000 (2009)

Tyron Henderson played just twice in 2009

A relatively unknown name Indian circuit, Tyron Henderson was the fourth most expensive buy in the 2009 IPL auction. Rajasthan Royals is a team that is known for buying talented and unknown players for a reasonable price.

But on that occasion, they showed a good faith in Henderson by spending a whopping $650,000 to secure his services. The main reason behind this was Tyron's performance for Middlesex in 2008 Twenty 20 Cup, where he played a crucial role with both bat and ball.

At the time of 2009 auctions, he was leading wicket-taker in Twenty20 cricket with 74 wickets in 62 matches at an average of 21.

Such a decent record sparked the interest amongst the teams and a bidding war ensued between Deccan Chargers and Rajasthan Royals, and thus, inflated Henderson's salary beyond the $475,000 Rajasthan paid the previous year for Warne and Graeme Smith, two of the world's great players, making him Royals costliest buy of the time.

However, he managed to play just two matches for Rajasthan that season and picked just one wicket. As a result, was released by franchisee afterwards.

#5 Ross Taylor - $1,000,000 (2011)

Ross Taylor was poor for the Royals in the 2011 edition

Ahead of the 2011 IPL auction, no one expected Ross Taylor to break the one million mark after his below-par performance in the 2010 IPL. The New Zealander featured for Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2010 and scored just 88 runs, and was released by the franchise ahead of the 2011 auctions.

Despite this Rajasthan Royals showed good faith in the New Zealand batsman and surprised everyone when they bought him for a whopping one million to make him Royals' most expensive buy of the 2011 auction.

However, Taylor's time with Shane Warne and co. brought no change in his performance, as he failed with the bat and managed just 181 runs in 12 matches without scoring a half-century, with his best score being 47. These numbers prompted the Jaipur based franchise to release him next season.

#4 S Sreesanth - $900,000 (2013)

Shanthakumaran Sreesanth

Shanthakumaran Sreesanth famously known as S. Sreesanth can be described as cricket's lost talent. A talented fast bowler who was known for his match-winning spells, was a go-to man for any team at the time of Auctions.

As expected the bowler triggered a condensed bidding war, before being brought by Rajasthan Royals for $900,000, which later proved to be their biggest blunder till date.

Despite being a wonderful player, the 2013 IPL turned out to be his worst and last season of his career. The pacer featured in just seven fixtures for the Royals and picked just five scalps at an average of 32.30.

A spot-fixing scandal emerged against the man from Kerala, leading to the curtains on the two-time world champion's (World T20 2007 and Cricket World Cup 2011) IPL career.

#3 Abhishek Nayar - ₹1 Crore (2014)

Abhishek Nayar

In the 2014 auctions, the bidding day witnessed some unexpected moves by teams and one of them was Rajasthan Royals' bid for Abhishek Nayar.

The Royals showed good faith in Nayar and roped him at the 2014 auctions for one crore INR, which was quite surprising considering his performances in the 2013 season for Rising Pune Supergiants, where the batsman managed just 66 runs in his nine outings (11 matches) at an average of 11, with his high score being 25*.

Despite the price tag, there was nothing too surprising about his performance as he featured in just five fixtures during 2014 edition, managing 43 runs at an average of 14.33, with his best being 23.

Though his performance in the domestic circuit helped him retain his place in the side for next season, he was still not able to crack his place into the playing XI afterwards.

#2 D'Arcy Short - ₹4 Crores (2018)

D'Arcy Short had a wonderful Big Bash tournament earlier that year

Leading to the IPL 2018, there was a tremendous hype surrounding the explosive Australian opener D’Arcy Short. In the Australian domestic T20 competition, Big Bash League, Short amassed 572 runs in his 11 outings for Hobart Hurricane, making him a hot property at the 2018 auctions.

And fans witnessed a tough battle for him between Delhi Daredevils and Rajasthan Royals. In the end, Royals purchased him for a whopping price of four crores.

But the Aussie opener found it difficult to cope up with Indian conditions and was reluctant against spin bowling. As a result, he had a below-par season with Royals and managed to play just five matches for the franchise that season, scoring 115 runs at an average of 16.62.

As a result, he finds his name in the list of players released by the team ahead of the 2019 auctions.

#1 Jaydev Unadkat - ₹11.5 Crores (2018)

Jaydev Udankat was superb in the 2017 edition

In the 2018 IPL auction, Rajasthan Royals played a big blinder and broke their bank to buy Jaydev Udankat for whooping 11.5 Crores. The left-arm pacer went on to be below-par for them in the IPL before getting released after just one season.

Udankat was bought on the basis of his performances in the 2017 IPL, where he finished as the leading wicket-taker of the Rising Pune Supergiants and was the season's second highest wicket taker with 24 wickets at an impressive average of 13.41.

This made him a hot property at the auctions, and Royals secured his service after a condensed bidding war with KXIP.

But in contrast to the expectations, the bowler had an ordinary season where he could pick only 11 wickets in 15 games at a disappointing average of 44.18. As a result, he was released ahead of the 2019 edition.