IPL Auction 2019: Top 4 overpaid players

On a day where a total of 351 cricketers went under the hammer, only 60 managed to bag an IPL contract for the 12th edition of IPL. The eight franchises competed with each other as they tried to buy players to fill the gaps in their teams. Among these 60 players, certain players took the entire auction by storm as they went for huge sums of money. While some of these buys were understandable and reasonable, some of them left the fans bamboozled.

The price-tag of a player represents the expectations that the franchise has from the player. What follows is a list of 5 players who may not be able to covert their big price tags into equivalent performances in the upcoming season of the IPL and hence can be termed as 'Overpaid players'.

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#4- Mohammed Shami- KXIP- 4.8cr

Mohammed Shami

An important part of the Indian Test bowling lineup, Mohammed Shami is not the same bowler in the T20 format, especially in the IPL. He is popularly called ' Second innings Shami' due to his great performances in second innings of Test matches. Hopefully, KXIP knew that there's no second innings in an IPL match.

Mohammad Shami has a below-par IPL record in which he has played 35 IPL games picking up only 21 wickets at an unreasonably high economy of 9.14. This economy is the worst among all the bowlers who have bowled more than 100 overs in the IPL. Moreover, Mohammad Shami has played a serious amount of Test cricket over the course of the last 12 months and would not be fresh enough to give his best in the IPL.

Looking at the above factors a price tag of around 3 crores would have done more justice to Shami's caliber.

#3 Carlos Braithwaite- KKR- 5cr

Carlos Braithwaite

The hard-hitting Windes all-rounder made a buzz on the international scene by hitting four consecutive sixes against England in the final over of the 2016 World T20 final. Braithwaite has not been able to keep up with the expectations of being the next big thing in West Indies cricket as his form has dipped ever since his famous 10-ball 34 in the World T20 final.

The Current T20I captain of the West Indies, Carlos Braithwaite has struggled with the bat in the T20 format as he carries an average of 19 and a strike rate of 122 in his 20 T20I innings. In 2018 Carlos has a batting average of 17 and strike rate of 128. With the ball, Carlos has picked 38 wickets from 33 games at an economy of 8.5.

From the above-mentioned stats, it is quite evident that Carlos Braithwaite has turned into a bits and pieces cricketer and surely did not deserve a salary of 5cr.

#2 Varun Chakravarthy- KXIP- 8.4cr

Varun Chakravarthy is a mystery spinner from Tamil Nadu whose rise has been abrupt in the Domestic circuit. Varun, an architect turned cricketer started his cricketing career as a fast bowler but due to a knee injury turned himself into a spinner.

He made a name for himself in the Tamil Nadu Premier league 2018 where he bowled in all 240 balls out of which 125 were dots. In his victorious campaign for Madurai, he bowled at an unbelievable economy of 4.7 in 10 matches in the TNPL. The mystery spinner continued with his great spin bowling displays as he took 22 wickets from just nine matches in Tamil Nadu's campaign in the Vijay Hazare trophy.

Varun claims to have seven different variations: Off break, Leg break, Googly, Caroom ball, flipper, top-spinner, a sliding yorker.

Varun is very new to the professional cricketing scene and has never played in the IPL before. Furthermore the fact that KXIP already had a mystery spinner in Mujeeb and an Indian spinner in Ashwin makes us wonder why did they go so aggressive for Varun. A price tag of around 3 to 4.5 Cr would have done more justice.

#1 Prabhsimran Singh-KXIP- 4.8cr

The hard-hitting wicketkeeper-batsman was bought by KXIP for 4.8cr

Prabhsimran Singh is wicketkeeper-batsman from Punjab who idolizes Virendra Sehwag and Adam Gilchrist. His interest in the sport rose when he watched his elder brother Anmolpreet Singh (he was bought by Mumbai Indians for 80 Lakhs) bat in the nets.

He was recently selected for training at the National Cricket Academy under the guidance for former Indian wicketkeeper and selector Kiran More. He made a name for himself by smashing 298 of just 302 balls in an under-23 district-level match against Amritsar. He also had previously scored 557 runs in the Cooch Behar Trophy for Punjab.

Despite all this, the fact that Prabhsimran Singh has never played in the mainstream Indian domestic circuit makes one doubt his capabilities in competitive cricket. He is an absolutely unknown property and would be interesting to see how he fares in the IPL.