IPL 2019: 3 Players who may not be able to justify their price tag
The Indian Premier League has been a life-changer for many players right since its inception. Over the years, the cash-rich league has made several players overnight millionaires.
Some of these players justified their price tag by performing well but some did not, as they could not live up to the expectations.
We saw many players becoming millionaires at the IPL 2019 auctions as well. While it was expected for some players to get a huge amount, there were some who surprised everyone by bagging a hefty sum.
Here, we take a look at three players who may not be able to justify their price tag in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League.
#3 Sam Curran
The talented left-arm seamer Sam Curran made headlines with his all-round performance during the India vs England Test series last year. His performance in the series made him an overnight star. And because of that, he bagged a huge amount of INR 7.2 crore at the IPL auctions 2019.
Curran will be seen playing for Kings XI Punjab in the 12th edition of IPL. One of the reasons why he went for such a huge amount is that he will be available for the whole tournament, unlike other English players.
But is Curran worth INR 7.2 crore as a T20 player? There is no doubt that he is an excellent Test player, but his bowling doesn't look particularly equipped to do well in the shorter formats. The 20-year-old is often seen as a Test specialist, and not as a T20 specialist.
So far, the all-rounder has played a total of 47 T20s and has picked up 42 wickets at an average of 28.47 and economy rate of 8.24. He has also scored 478 runs at an average of 15.93 and strike rate of 118.90 from 46 innings while batting.
Curran is a decent bowler and a handy batsman who'll make useful contributions in wins, but he is unlikely to win you matches single-handedly.
There is also a question if Curran will be able to play all the matches for KXIP as an overseas all-rounder. They already have some big foreign names like Chris Gayle, David Miller, Andrew Tye, Moises Henriques and Mujeeb ur Rahman, so it might be very difficult for Curran to break into the XI.
Looking at Curran's T20 record and his playing chances at KXIP, it can be said that anything above INR 5 crore for the all-rounder doesn't make a lot of sense.