IPL 2023: 3 Players who justified their price tags

At the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 auction, England players Sam Curran and Ben Stokes went to Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) respectively for a hefty amount. After receiving lucrative contracts, both players had the responsibility to be extraordinary in the competition but neither of them lived up to the expectations.

However, unlike these two huge names, there have been few players that have done a tremendous job for their teams after getting sold at jaw-dropping prices at the mini-auction held in Kerala in December 2022. Let's go through three players who lived up to their expectations and put forward excellent performances to help their teams perform well.

Here are three players who justified their price tags:

3. Heinrich Klaasen

For Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), the 2023 season was a hard pill to swallow as they ended their campaign at the bottom of the points table with four wins and 10 defeats in 14 matches. Their key players Harry Brook, Mayank Agarwal, Aiden Markram, and Umran Malik didn’t play quality cricket throughout the season which cost them badly.

However, one SRH player who played valiantly in the competition was their wicketkeeper batter, Heinrich Klaasen. In the majority of SRH matches, Klaasen was the only player who displayed spunk in the squad. Against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, he also hit his maiden IPL century in a losing cause.

The Proteas middle-order batter concluded his IPL 2023 season, with 448 runs in 12 matches, at a remarkable strike rate of 177.07. These batting figures also made him the highest run-scorer for Sunrisers in the season.