6 times Delhi Daredevils overspent on their players in the IPL auction
It is not strange in an IPL auction that more than one team fight to buy a player. Because of this, a few players are sold overpriced and there were instances when unknown players went on to become the most expensive players in the auction.
In the IPL auction, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Daredevils are two teams that often find themselves spending a lot of money for their targets. While they have also made some shrewd buys, they have also splashed a lot of money to get their targets. Not always such players end up doing well for the team. Sometimes, they are not used properly by the side and get released after just one or two seasons for different reasons.
Yesterday, we saw six instances RCB committed blunders by overspending on their players. Now, let us take a look at six instances when Delhi Daredevils committed blunders by spending more money on their players.
Also read: 6 times RCB overspent on their players in the IPL auction
Irfan Pathan (1,900,000 USD in 2011)
Almost a decade back, Irfan Pathan was one of the most sought-after cricketers in the Indian circuit as he was always touted as the replacement for Kapil Dev. Irfan burst on to the scene as a fast bowler and soon became a reliable batsman. Ever since the inception of T20 format, Irfan was always seen as a luxury in the teams, thanks to his two-dimensional behaviour as a player.
He was bought by Kings XI Punjab for a good sum of money in the 2008 auction and was released ahead of the 2011 auction. Unfortunately, Irfan did not play a single game since the completion of the 2010 IPL going into the 2011 auction and still, he managed to attract as many as five teams bidding for him with Delhi Daredevils eventually taking the gamble to sign a player who did not play a single match for the last 10 months for a whopping 1.9 million USD, which was the fifth most expensive signing in that auction.
He stayed with the franchise till the end of 2014 season and played as many as 46 matches in the three seasons in which he scored 468 runs and managed to pick just 29 wickets before he was eventually released. Though he did play all the matches, Delhi did not get what they would have expected from him and their decision to sign an all-rounder who did not play a single match for 10 months before the auction was not justified. Sadly, Irfan was never the same old all-rounder as he was before suffering the injury.