Former India captain Kapil Dev talked about the expectations and responsibilities that come when a player is bought by a franchise in the Indian Premier League and sometimes, the player buckles under the pressure to perform and said that the same thing happened to Ishan Kishan in IPL 2022.
Kishan was bought back by the Mumbai Indians (MI) in IPL 2022 auction for INR 15.25 crores, but after a few decent innings at the start of the tournament, failed to perform as expected for the price tag he was bought by the MI franchise.
The young left-handed opener scored 418 runs at an average of 32.15, with three half-centuries – which is better than his last season numbers - many felt he underperformed.
Kapil Dev said that somewhere, the youngsters are feeling the heat of a big price tag, which could be seen in his performances too.
"With Ishan Kishan is feeling the pressure of ₹15 crore tag. Sometimes we don’t agree but the fact is that when you hit the jackpot, this can happen. It is good that he got so much money at the IPL auction. No franchise is not stupid enough to shell out such a huge sum. They know that this player is talented and hence, have expectations. But sometimes a player feels that pressure," Kapil said on YouTube show Uncut.
He further used the examples of players like Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Karthik, and the Pathan brothers to highlight how they were bought by a hefty price tag in IPL and then couldn’t keep up with the pressure.
In 2014, Yuvraj Singh was bought for ₹14 crores by the Delhi Capitals (then Delhi Daredevils), after which he scored a decent 376 runs from 14 games with three fifties at an average of just above 34.
"We saw Yuvraj buckle under the pressure of big bucks too. Even he felt it. The same with Dinesh Karthik, and Pathan brothers… they all got big money. So sometimes getting a lot of money puts pressure on the player’s performance. And at the same time, there are youngsters who are under no pressure and play fearlessly," Kapil pointed out.
