5 Overpaid players of all-time in IPL history

The Indian Premier League (IPL) has given an opportunity to many players to get proper value for their skills. The system of the auction allows players to set their base price, and then depending on the demands of their skills and resources, they get an adequate amount of money from the franchises. 

But, at times, the teams become quite desperate to have a player on their side, so much so that the players end up getting way more money than anyone’s expectations. Over the years, there have been many players who have gone to the franchises for huge sums of money but failed to deliver what was expected out of them. 

This is a common occurrence in the IPL, where two teams enter a bidding war for one player, and before we know, the price of that player has gone to the upper limit, which no one had imagined.

Ahead of the 2021 edition, let us look back at the 5 overpaid players of all-time in IPL history:

1. Glenn Maxwell

Glenn Maxwell is one of the most destructive players in T20 cricket. But, his IPL records don’t have a good reading. And if you remove the stats from the 2014 season, then the numbers become a little less convincing as an example for Maxwell’s ability to play in T20 cricket. However, his numbers have not stopped him from fetching huge sums of money at the IPL auction. 

Maxwell was with the Kings XI Punjab for four seasons between 2014 and 2017. However, in 2018, he was let go of by the Punjab franchise. In an auction, Delhi picked him up for INR 9 crores. In that season, he scored only 169 runs at an average of 14.08. He was released by the franchise, but he skipped the next due to his World Cup 2019 preparations. 

He returned in the 2020 season, when Kings XI Punjab once again bought him, this time for INR 10.75 crores. He had another underwhelming season, scoring only 108 runs at an average of 15.42 from 13 innings. His strike-rate was 101.88. Interestingly, he managed to fetch INR 14.25 crore for the IPL 2021 season, when Royal Challengers Bangalore bought him.