Rayudu pips Dhoni in IPL’s ROI analysis
IPL this time was full of close games with the picture of playoffs becoming clear only after the final league game was completed as fortunes fluctuated all through the tournament.
The 11th edition of the T20 league produced many exciting moments, but for every player who stood out, there were many who did not click. With the eight teams have splurged big sums in the big player auction that preceded the tournament, it is time to take stock and assess who provided bang for the buck and who proved poor investment.
A study Player Return of Investment, done by the Hansa Research Group, takes various performance parameters of players into account assigns them points. It then compares the performances with the money shelled out by franchises.
That throws up interesting numbers. Top performances by a player do not automatically make him the best buy, unless he was a cheap buy for the team.
For instance, India skipper Virat Kohli didn’t fare poorly though his Royal Challengers Bangalore ended sixth in the points table to be eliminated from playoffs.
Kohli hit 530 runs at 48.18 with a strike rate of 139.10 with four half-centuries. But RCB splurged ~17 crore to retained him, which meant Kohli logged 2,225 points but cost ~76,404 per point for his team.
DHONI LEADERSHIP
MS Dhoni was the inspirational skipper in Chennai Super Kings’ third IPL triumph. Dhoni’s finishing with the bat, captaincy and keeping all stood out and a grateful CSK will be loathe to put a number on him.
But the study puts opener Ambati Rayudu (2734 points) way ahead of Dhoni in the list in terms of value as the opener was acquired for ~2.2 crore while the former India skipper (2450 points) cost the franchise ~15 crore.
Thus Rayudu is 16th in the overall list, Dhoni is 113 but Kohli is only 121st among the 136 players who played at least one game.
As per the calculations, CSK’s Shane Watson, who hit a match-winning century in the final, logged 3330 points at ~12,012/point and Chris Gayle, a last-gasp buy for Kings XI Punjab who delivered a few splendid knocks to log 1706 points, cost only ~9,211.20/point.
Thus Delhi Daredevils pacer Harshal Patel, who played just five games for the bottom team, heads the chart for the best return on investment of just over ~860 per point (~2 crore – 830 points).
Rajasthan Royals’ Karnataka leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal, who bowled some interesting spells and took 11 wickets in his 11 games is the next best as he had also been purchased for ~2 crore.
However, RR left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat, bought for a whopping ~11.5 crore but failed to deliver, cost ~1.05 lakh for each of his 1088 points, the study shows.
NEWDELHI:The