5 most expensive players of IPL 2020 and their performance post the auction

A total of 332 cricketers went under the hammer in the auction ahead of the upcoming season or the thirteenth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), conducted on the 19th of December. However, only 62 of them found bids across eight franchises and the rest of them received a pass. This particular trend follows almost every year where certain marquee names go unsold, leaving only a handful of them to secure the bids.

There existed a lot of buzz around several overseas stars, a few domestic stars, and the new and upcoming talents, who received the backing to cause bidding wars in the auction. Some local players drew bids; however, it was the international stars who ruled the proceedings, mainly athletes from Australia.

The franchises have shelled out enormous bucks on players, primarily due to their ingenious performances for their national teams as well as the domestic leagues they have been part of. The owners would not only be hoping that they keep performing the way they have over the past few years, but also uphold the reason why millions have been splurged by producing excellent displays in the forthcoming season.

Here we take a look at top five costly recruits and their performances post the auction:

1. Nathan Coulter-Nile

Defending champions Mumbai Indians arrived in the auction having almost all their bases covered. Yet, they engaged in a fierce battle with their rival franchise Chennai Super Kings over the Australian quick Nathan Coulter-Nile. As a result of intense bidding wars, his price skyrocketed to a staggering INR 8 crores from a base price of INR 1 crore.

It is where Chennai Super Kings decided to back down and Coulter-Nile went to the reigning champions. It caused a lot of stir since the 32-year old last played in IPL in 2017. Even for the national team, he has been inconsistent and injury-prone as well.

Currently, Coulter-Nile is featuring for the Melbourne Stars in the Big Bash League edition of 2019-20. He has six wickets from six games at an average of 25.83. Mumbai Indians have already got a wealth of pacers in their squad that Coulter-Nile may not get too many games. However, in case of any injury, the camp would be hoping he justifies his price tag.