6 times Kings XI Punjab overspent on their players in the IPL auction
Despite having a team full of talent, the Kings XI Punjab continue to fail and have reached the playoffs only twice in as many as eleven seasons. They always get the kind of start they would want to the tournament, but lose their way towards the end of the season.
In the 2014 edition of IPL, they made it to the final after finishing at the top of the points table. They were consistent throughout the tournament and the players they bought during the auction all delivered.
However, there were times when they just spent too much on players and they failed miserably. Let us take a look at six times when Kings XI Punjab overspent on their players in the IPL auction.
#6 Martin Guptill - IPL 2017 Auction
After finishing at the bottom of the table in IPL 2016, the Kings XI Punjab franchise entered the IPL 2017 auction with the highest amount in the purse. They went at a lot of bowlers (expensive) and bought them. Even though the bowlers performed, the two specialist batsmen they bought that night (Eoin Morgan and Martin Guptill) did not live up to the expectations.
In particular, Guptill was very disappointing in the IPL 2017 and scored just 132 runs in 7 innings at an average of 22.00. Although Guptill is a very talented and reliable batsmen when it comes to one-day cricket, the same cannot be said about his T20 performances. He only had one half-century in IPL 2017 and was replaced by Hashim Amla in the middle of the tournament, thanks to his continuous failures.
Amla was terrific and grabbed the opportunity with both hands and made it count. Even though Kings XI Punjab's fans were very excited when they got Guptill, they were very heart-broken with the way he performed. Even though he was bought for only 50 lacs, this proved a blunder as they fell short of the playoffs by just one win. Instead, they could have used the same money on getting an uncapped player.