IPL 2022: One player from each team who has disappointed the most

The Indian Premier League schedule is set to begin its 15th edition on March 26 this year. While this edition has two new entrants - the Gujarat Titans and the Lucknow Super Giants - the other teams are household names. Players like Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja have contributed to the massive popularity of the league.

Over the course of 14 previous seasons, the fortunes of IPL teams have been far from equal. While the Mumbai Indians and the Chennai Super Kings have won five and four titles respectively, the Delhi Capitals, the Punjab Kings and the Royal Challengers Bangalore have never tasted IPL victory.

A lot of the success of franchises depends on the players they invest in and the returns they yield. Here is one player from each franchise who could not repay the faith bestowed over multiple seasons.

---

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Navdeep Saini

Delhi-based quick bowler Navdeep Saini was picked up by the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the 2018 IPL for a rather handsome INR 3 crore. With his raw pace, Saini was expected to solve RCB's death-bowling woes and even lead the attack upfront.

Unfortunately, 17 wickets from 28 games are not nearly enough from a pure bowler, and his economy too was on the higher side at 8.47. RCB did not retain him for the 2022 IPL due to their investment not quite working out.

---

Chennai Super Kings: Kedar Jadhav

Kedar Jadhav struggled for timing during IPL 2019 and 2020.

Kedar Jadhav's stocks soared after his strong performances for India in limited-overs cricket, particularly his match-winning hundred against England in the home series in 2017. Although his former team RCB did not fare particularly well in 2017, Jadhav's strike rate of 143.54 in the middle order impressed the Chennai Super Kings, who bid big to secure the Maharashtra player.

Jadhav's 2018 IPL was over in the blink of an eye, as an injury sustained in the first game of the season ruled him out. He did play two further seasons, but scored at under a run a ball to eventually be released. Despite CSK's patience and faith, Jadhav turned out to be a poor investment.

Click here to view the IPL Owners.

---

Mumbai Indians: Dhawal Kulkarni

Despite playing close to 100 IPL matches, Dhawal Kulkarni has been unable to establish himself as a frontline pacer for any IPL team. Aside from a good 2016 season for the now-defunct Gujarat Lions, Kulkarni has never played a full season for any team and has taken 86 wickets from his 92 games.

Kulkarni spent six seasons with the Mumbai Indians (MI) from 2008 to 2013, before returning in 2020. In the past two seasons, he has played just one game and gone wicketless both times. MI's consistent success has masked Kulkarni's insipid performances over the years.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Kuldeep Yadav

Kuldeep Yadav's numbers at KKR nosedived after a positive start.

Much of the Kolkata Knight Riders' strength over the years has been their spin attack, with the likes of Piyush Chawla, Sunil Narine and more recently Varun Chakravarthy bamboozling batters. Backed to the hilt by former skipper Gautam Gambhir, Kuldeep Yadav put in some good performances without quite setting the tournament on fire.

However, Kuldeep's trajectory fell off a cliff after a decent 2018 season. He picked up just five wickets from his next 14 IPL matches in 2019 and 2020, and barely troubled opposition batters. Kuldeep spent the entire 2021 season on the bench and will be hoping that a new team - Delhi Capitals - brings new fortunes.

---

Delhi Capitals: Shahbaz Nadeem

While Shahbaz Nadeem is an IPL old-timer, his statistics do not do him much justice. The 32-year-old has just 48 wickets from 72 IPL matches, although they do come at a handy economy rate of 7.56.

The left-arm spinner played for the Delhi Daredevils - the former identity of the Capitals franchise - between 2011 and 2018, picking up 40 wickets from 61 games. Delhi were one of the poorest performing franchises till 2018, and Nadeem's meager returns despite his years of experience did play a part.

---

Rajasthan Royals: Jaydev Unadkat

Jaydev Unadkat has an opportunity to set things right at Mumbai Indians in 2022.

Of Jaydev Unadkat's 85 IPL wickets, 24 came in his windfall 2017 season with the Rising Pune Supergiant. Unfortunately for the Rajasthan Royals, the left-arm pacer failed to come close to that effort in four years between 2018 and 2021, despite them paying the big bucks for his services.

The Saurashtra bowler has a tendency to leak runs, as evidenced by an economy rate close to 10 runs per over between 2018 and 2020. He spent time on the bench in IPL 2021 and will hope for a better showing in 2022.

---

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Vijay Shankar

After IPL 2018, where Vijay Shankar struck the ball at 143.24, Sunrisers Hyderabad chose to invest in the all-rounder as a middle-order cog. From that point onwards, however, Shankar's IPL returns dipped and he failed to impress with either bat or ball.

In three seasons between 2019 and 2021, Shankar scored a solitary half-century and picked up eight wickets from 29 matches. Despite the Sunrisers having an inexperienced batting line-up during this period, Shankar was unable to hold the team together or make a name for himself in the middle.

---

Punjab Kings: Glenn Maxwell

The dangerous Maxwell was totally ineffective during IPL 2020.

After making a massive impact in the 2014 IPL, catapulting the then Kings XI Punjab to their first (and only) IPL final, Glenn Maxwell was seen as a long-term investment by the franchise. In the next three seasons, during which he also briefly led Punjab, Maxwell managed just 634 runs from 36 games, not even a patch on his 552 runs from the 2014 IPL alone.

After letting Maxwell go for two years, Punjab bid strongly for him again in the IPL 2020 auction, only for the Australian to have a nightmare season. The all-rounder failed to clear the boundary even once in the season, finishing with 108 runs from 13 matches. Maxwell is still hot property in the IPL, but Punjab have been sorely disappointed by his performances over the years.