Amid celebration, IPL’s cruel side too stood out
It looks weird, but in IPL ₹20 lakh is better than many crores. Venkatesh Iyer, KKR’s sensational discovery, was bought in the auction for ₹20 lakh. Harshal Patel transferred to RCB at ₹20 lakh, his price at DC. Ruturaj Gaikwad, the owner of huge talent/ amazing class/orange cap played 16 matches to score 635 runs. His CTC at CSK: ₹20 lakh.
Also look at Gaikwad’s teammate Krishnappa Gowtham, the uncapped spin-bowling allrounder. His CTC was a record breaking ₹9.25 crore, but he didn’t play a game. Same story with their colleague, leg-spinner Karn Sharma—price tag ₹5 crore but no game time.
IPL is cricket’s big annual celebration, the marriage of talent and opportunity. But this union also has a cruel side—of failure, defeat and disappointment. If some careers zoom, others slump into a black hole. In IPL, it doesn’t take long for superstars to become fringe players; the heartless league, and its unforgiving format, shatters reputations.
This IPL wasn’t about Ruturaj or Venkatesh alone— what stood out was the brilliance of young Indian players. Shubman Gill, Devdutt Padikkal, Ishan Kishan, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan and Umran Malik drew attention to their talent, and also collectively demonstrated that Indian cricket doesn’t have a supply constraint of quality players.
This is heartening but a disappointing thread runs through IPL—the sharp decline of ‘senior’ Indian players. Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik, Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav, Amit Mishra and Piyush Chawla are on a depressing list of players who have seen better years. All are clearly past their best and face a terrifying future in IPL’s next mega auction.
Of them, Raina’s story is the most poignant. The “junior thala” is an IPL superstar, but after his mysterious withdrawal from the tournament last season, and almost no first class domestic cricket, it’s been a rapid downhill for him. Dropped from CSK after some failures this year, will he attract interest for the next IPL? Only MS Dhoni can answer that.
Equally sad is the plight of Harbhajan, an all-time India great with 400 Test wickets now the fourth spin option at KKR. Or Ishant Sharma, who is a fringe player at DC, pushed aside by Avesh Khan who only yesterday was a net bowler with India. Ishant is a veteran of more than 100 Tests.
Ajinkya Rahane’s plight is similar as he wasn’t in the mix. Most disturbing is the case of Cheteshwar Pujara, bought by CSK for ₹50 lakh, probably on compassionate grounds. Sadly, right through this IPL, he was on the bench.
IPL was particularly harsh on foreign stars. Glenn Maxwell (₹14.5 cr) and Faf du Plessis (₹ 1.6 cr) made an impact, but others had a rough ride. Chris Gayle, when benched, left midway, blaming the bubble.
David Warner was benched and watched matches from his hotel room. ABD was far below his 360 degree level, which confirms the point that nobody can sit at home for 10 months giving cricket a miss and land up in IPL hoping to boss the game.
The list of foreign players that failed is long. Kieron Pollard was Hercules cut to size; Andre Russell became irrelevant due to a hamstring pull. Steve Smith’s horrible IPL record didn’t change and KKR captain Eoin Morgan finished with fewer runs than Sunil Narine.
Prominent in the list of nonperformers are those who went for serious money in the last auction.
Teams will look hard at the numbers to assess whether Chris Morris (₹16.25 cr), Kyle Jamieson (₹15 cr), Jhye Richardson (₹14 cr) and Riley Meredith (₹ 8 cr) were worth it.
Among the top Indian players, the senior superstars had a modest IPL.
Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Ravinder Jadeja and Hardik Pandya did little to enhance their reputation. KL Rahul was outstanding; Jasprit Bumrah, Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw had their moments and Sanju Samson looked great but left you with the impression, yet again, that something is missing.
MSD’s bat was on mute but MSD the captain made a loud statement. He turned CSK around, and in the process, brand MSD multiplied many times.
The value of players goes up and down, but if IPL went through an annual health check, test results would confirm it’s in great shape. From a commercial standpoint, it’s a blockbuster. Seen from a cricketing lens, it’s a wonderful finishing school. Anyone graduating from here is guaranteed a great placement. Judged on the entertainment scale, nothing matches its chamak dhamak.