IPL 2018: Three IPL stars who utterly flopped representing their home franchises
The VIVO IPL season 11 has now finished with the round-robin contests with CSK beating KXIP last night to stand second in the points tally. The league stage has seen many breathtaking matches with thrilling finishes. When it comes to the individual brilliance, the level has been quite high as not only some bigwigs performed to their reputation but some new faces also have made quite an impact with their exceptional cricketing skills.
While the likes of KL Rahul, Ambati Rayudu, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni etc have set the stage on fire with their commendable performances representing franchises that are not from their hometown, there have been a few top cricketers who utterly failed to perform this season despite representing their home franchises.
Let us take a look at three such stars who have failed to live up to the expectations of their home crowds:
#3 Gautam Gambhir
The former Kolkata Knight Riders skipper was bought by his home franchise, Delhi Daredevils, for Rs 2.8 crore in the auctions of IPL 2018.
After his successful seven-year tenure with the KKR franchise where he won them two IPL titles with his impeccable captaincy skills, it was expected that Gautam Gambhir would change the fortunes of Delhi Daredevils, a team which have never made it to the summit clash even once despite being a part of the tournament since its inception.
But the homecoming of Gambhir did not quite go as he would have liked it to be. Despite starting the season on a high with a 42-ball-55 against Kings XI Punjab, the southpaw couldn't quite continue his form as he could only manage to score 30 runs in his next four innings to aggregate a mere 85 runs from five innings.
With his form going down the slope at one end and his team keep on finding a familiar position on the points table on the other end, Gambhir decided to step down as the skipper of Delhi Daredevils. He even decided to forego his entire salary of Rs. 2.8 Crore owing to his poor performances.