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5 expensive players who did not get to play a single game in IPL 2023

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Mohammad Bilal
Mohammad BilalMay 27, 2023 | 08:00

5 expensive players who did not get to play a single game in IPL 2023

From left: Dewald Brevis, Shivam Mavi, Joe Root. Photo: PTI

Every year in the Indian Premier League (IPL), there are players who end up warming the benches for the whole season. In the tournament, every team has 25 players, which includes 8 overseas cricketers.

Though the franchises at the auctions buy all the players in the hope that they all will play for the team, sometimes the team combinations and certain restrictions do not allow that to happen.

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It certainly might be annoying and embarrassing for the players who couldn't get a spot in the playing XI, but it is just part and parcel of the game.

While it is quite common for junior players to be bought at their base prices and not get a spot in the team, its surprising when expensive players do not get to play a single game in the tournament.

The franchises anyway have to pay them at the end of the day. Plus, it also gets difficult to justify their positions in the team for the next season as they do not have their performances backing them.

Here are 5 players who were roped in at big amounts but they did not get to play a single game:

1. Shivam Mavi (GT): The allrounder was roped in by Gujarat Titans at a whopping Rs 6 crore, but, quite surprisingly, he did not get to play a single match. The team already had Hardik Pandya, Vijay Shankar and Rashid Khan as the allrounders, and while Mavi is recognized more as a right-arm medium pacer, the presence of Mohammad Shami, Joshua Little and Mohit Sharma couldn’t allow Pandya to include him in Playing XI. Moreover, GT was already doing well throughout the season and Pandya would have thought there wasn’t any necessity to make drastic changes in the playing XI.

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2. Mathew Wade (GT): Another good buy of GT at Rs 2.40 crore, Wade couldn’t find a spot in the playing XI of the team. The Australian right-handed batter had a decent last season where he played 10 games.

GT retained him in 2023, but Wade remained on the bench for the whole season. The team already had David Miller as a powerful hitter, so Pandya focussed more on getting foreign bowlers like Joshua Little and Alzarri Joseph into the team to strengthen the bowling. 

3. Sai Kishore (GT): Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore is another expensive player from GT who was purchased at Rs 3 crore but remained out of the playing XI the whole time. The left arm orthodox spinner played five games last year in which he took six wickets. But this year, as the team already had good spinners like Noor Ahmed and Rashid Khan, Kishore could not be accommodated in the playing XI.

4. Dewald Brevis (MI): The South-African batter was purchased by Mumbai Indians (MI) last year at Rs 3 crore, and he played seven games. He had a below average season as he could make only 161 runs in 7 matches at a strike-rate of 142.48. Nevertheless, he was retained by MI as he is a powerful hitter of the ball and on any given day he could turn the around in MI's favour.

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However, this year, as the team already had in-form overseas batters like Tim David and Cameron Green, the requirement of Brevis was hardly felt. And he didn’t feature in any of the MI games.

5. Joe Root (RR): The England right-handed batter was roped in at Rs 1 crore and was widely expected to open the innings with his England teammate Jos Buttler. But Yashasvi Jaiswal played so well this year, that Root couldn’t get a chance to feature in the playing XI for Rajasthan Royals.

Last updated: May 27, 2023 | 08:00
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