3 Delhi Capitals stars who didn't justify their expensive price tags
Delhi Daredevils (DD), recently rechristened as Delhi Capitals, is the only remaining franchise which hasn’t reached a final in the Indian Premier League (IPL). In the past, Delhi have had star-studded line-ups filled with exceptional cricketers like Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, AB de Villiers, Daniel Vettori, David Warner, Glenn McGrath and Tillakaratne Dilshan. However, they have not been able to perform to their potential.
Delhi have usually found themselves paying huge amounts for their targets in the IPL Auction. While they have executed a few intelligent buys, they have also splashed enormous amounts to capture their targets. Sometimes, these highly expensive players were not utilized rightly by the team management and dropped after one or two years for various reasons. Let us take a look at three Delhi players who didn't justify their expensive price tags.
#3 Angelo Mathews
As if purchasing Yuvraj Singh for a whopping INR 16 crores was not sufficient, Delhi purchased Sri Lankan all-rounder Angelo Mathews for a huge amount of INR 7.5 crores in the same IPL auction in 2015.
When Delhi purchased him, Mathews was injury prone and hence his price tag was questioned. In the 2014 IPL season, he played 12 matches and scored only 145 runs at an average of 12.08. It didn’t help that the right-hander played at different batting positions in different matches. He also grabbed eight wickets at an economy-rate of 9.51.
In 2015, Mathews scored 144 runs from 11 matches at an average of 20.57 and picked seven wickets at an economy-rate of 8.20. He was released by the franchise after that one season. In the 2017 IPL auction, he was picked up by Delhi once again.