Most expensive buys of IPL 10 and their contribution to the teams so far

#3 Trent Boult

The Kiwi pacer was with the Sunrisers Hyderabad for the past couple of seasons. He had kept Dale Steyn out of the side in the 2015 edition with his wonderful bowling but last year, he played just one game for the franchise. The rise of Mustafizur Rehman in the last edition did not let him sneak into the XI and as a result, he was let go by SRH. Kolkata Knight Riders were looking for a replacement for Morne Morkel and they decided to spend INR 5 crores on Boult.

Performance so far

In his first appearance for KKR, he picked up a wicket against Gujarat Lions but at the cost of 40 runs. The opposition put up a score of 183 on the board and he received a beating at the hands of the GL batsmen. KKR did manage to win that game courtesy a hammering knock from Chris Lynn but it wasn’t the ideal start for the New Zealander.

In the next game against Mumbai Indians, he was taken for 47 runs in 3.5 overs and failed to pick up any wicket. In the next two outings, he gave away 69 runs in 8 overs with a solitary wicket. His economy rate so far is a costly 9.85 which is way above the ideal. He was removed from the XI from the fifth game and to make the matters worse, his replacement Nathan Coulter-Nile pulled off a Man of the Match performance.

The fact that he bowled on surfaces that were batsmen friendly didn’t help his cause. The first two games were played in Rajkot and Mumbai which produced high-scoring encounters. The next two were played in Kolkata and the pitch at Eden Gardens is a relaid one which is assisting the batsmen more than the bowlers. Additionally, some of the dropped catches off his bowling also hasn’t helped his numbers. Despite that, an economy of close to 10 is beyond acceptable and nowhere close to the best of Boult.

Price: INR5 crores

Bowling Stats

Player Rating: 3.5/10