IPL: Top guns, big money

Like in the previous seasons, IPL 10, too, had its fair share of expensive buys. A few overseas specialists like Ben Stokes and Rashid Khan went for a premium, as teams splurged big money to have match-winners in their books.

Ben Stokes has been one of the major performers for Rising Pune Supergiant

Like in the previous seasons, IPL 10, too, had its fair share of expensive buys. A few overseas specialists like Ben Stokes and Rashid Khan went for a premium, as teams splurged big money to have match-winners in their books. Let’s take a quick look at whether these players were worth the money spent on them.

Ben Stokes (Rs. 14.5 crore): The England international attracted the highest bid in this year’s auction. RPS, which lost to Mumbai Indians in the final, surely missed the services of the English all-rounder in the most important match of the season. Proving valuable with both the bat and the ball, Stokes scored 312 runs (including a century), and picked up 12 wickets.

Tymal Mills (Rs. 12 crore): Playing in his maiden IPL, Mills performed just decently for Royal Challengers Bangalore, which finished at the bottom of the points table. Mills, who played only five matches, picked up five wickets at an average of 30.60, providing early breakthroughs for the team.

Kagiso Rabada (Rs. 5 crore): It was an intense battle between Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab in the auction. Both the sides wanted South African fast bowler Kagiso Rabada. In the end, Delhi got him for Rs. 5 crore. But he couldn’t live up to the expectations, picking up six wickets in equal games.

Trent Boult (Rs. 5 crore): New Zealand left-arm pacer Boult secured a place in the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) squad with his fast pace and deadly

yorkers. Having had to compete with experienced seamers like Nathan Coulter-Nile and Chris Woakes, Boult played six matches, picking up only five wickets.

Pat Cummins (Rs. 4.5 crore): Australian seamer Cummins played a major role in most of DD’s outings this season. He was bought by the team for a decent 4.5 crore, and he came out all guns blazing. Playing 12 matches, he managed to pick up 15 wickets and quickly became an indispensible part of the team.

Chris Woakes (Rs 4.2 crore): All-rounder Woakes played his maiden IPL season for KKR this year. Bought for Rs. 4.2 crore, he picked up 17 wickets in 13 matches. The England bowler was Gautam Ghambir’s go-to man in struggling times.

Rashid Khan (Rs. 4 crore): Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) surprised almost everyone with their choice to buy both Afghanistan players, Rashid Khan and Mohammed Nabi. What was even surmising was the fact that 18-year-old Khan became a permanent fixture in the SRH team, after bowling good spells and picking up 17 wickets in 14 matches.