Runs, strike rates, wickets, economy — after every IPL, we judge players on these metrics. But shouldn’t there be a ‘return on investment’ category too, given how much money the franchises spend on some of these players?
Officially, that’s perhaps too much to expect. It’s against the spirit of the game, not the MCC-formulated set of rules and values, but just generally. It’s a sport after all, ups and downs are a part of its fabric. It’s true that it is this uncertainty which perhaps makes sport beautiful.
But when Lucknow Super Giants spent a record-shattering ₹27 crore to recruit Rishabh Pant, didn’t they do so with the expectations of high returns from the 27-year-old keeper-batter? If they did, is it wrong to do so?
So, from a franchise perspective, at least, it is an interesting study to analyse how much a team profited from their investment in a certain player. We can discount the lesser mortals from such a list and look at only those who set the bidding tables
on fire at the mega auction last year.
The top five of such a list would comprise Pant (₹27 crore), Shreyas Iyer (₹26.75 crore), Venkatesh Iyer (₹23.75 crore), Arshdeep Singh (₹18 crore) and Yuzvendra Chahal (₹18 crore).
Shreyas is the hands-down winner on that list, with Arshdeep a distant second. Chahal would be third, but he would not get any points for that because he was quite ordinary this season. Venkatesh and Pant would be fighting for the worst performer’s award, with the former likely to take the unwanted crown for his disastrous outings for the Kolkata Knight Riders.
For the similarities in their roles for their respective teams, Shreyas and Pant call for a closer look. One soared, almost touching the stars, before falling at the last hurdle, while the other went from bad to worse as the season progressed before finally rediscovering his true potential in his team’s last match of the season.
Punjab and Lucknow put in a lot of hope and faith into the recruiting of Shreyas and Pant. They fought off competition and dared to breach the boundaries as they picked them.
Punjab had a forgettable IPL 2024. With just five wins from the season, they had finished second from the bottom. Lucknow did not fare much better with seven wins and a seventh-place finish. Both teams needed a new beginning, under new captains and in came Shreyas and Pant.
But while Shreyas sparkled in his role as the captain and the batting mainstay, taking Punjab all the way to the final before the heartbreaking loss to Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Pant seemed like a lost child, unaware of the challenges around, falling almost at every step.
Some believe that while Pant, the batter, flopped big time this season, skipper Pant did a decent job, marshalling a side that lost quite a few of their first-choice bowlers to injuries. But that’s debatable. It’s difficult to recollect any brilliant move from the two-month-long tournament that could support that theory.
Shreyas and Pant’s overall success and failure depend heavily on their batting performance. So Shreyas, who averaged 50.33 with the bat this season, perhaps found it easier to lead his team. Pant, on the other hand, scored at 24.45 per match.
It is also possible that Pant struggled as he had to perform three roles — captain, keeper, batter — for Lucknow. Not everyone is a MS Dhoni.
However, it is perhaps all in the mind. When it is about two talented cricketers, and one finds success while the other stumbles, it is more likely the clarity of mind,
the determination to overcome flaws, that makes all the difference.