LISTICLE
Follow UsThe Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mega auction could spell the doom of the T20 careers of many established names in the game. Here are the top five players who have become household names in India thanks to their IPL heroics. However, in their current form, they are unlikely to fetch even their base price this year.
With 6565 runs in 184 matches, Warner is one of the legends of the IPL, having made his debut in 2009. But with a career average of more than 40, the left-handed batter looked a pale shadow of his best self during the last season as he averaged only 21 and reached the fifty-plus run mark only once.
With his last T20 World Cup appearance in 2024, Warner had a chance to leave a lasting impression. Still, he failed to do so, scoring 172 runs in seven matches, but 109 of them came against Oman and Bangladesh while he failed to reach double digits against India and Afghanistan.
Thus, it is unlikely that Warner, who represented franchises of Delhi and Hyderabad in his career, will get even a single bid.
The Afghan superstar is also in the twilight of his career. Though his brilliant 82 in an ODI against Bangladesh impressed everyone, it remains one of the few innings that people can remember from last year.
He can contribute in all three departments of batting, bowling and fielding, but he does not have either form or age by his side.
Teams would look to make long-term investments in players with the next mega auction at least four seasons away, and Nabi, unfortunately, will not fit into their scheme of things.
The 39-year-old has only two fifties in 51 matches since November 2023 and averages a lowly 17 with the bat. With the ball too, he is no better, picking 29 wickets in 45 innings with more than one wicket coming in only seven innings.
Like Nabi, Bangladesh’s biggest player, Shakib, is also on the wrong side of the thirties as far as the primal age in cricket is concerned. The left-handed all-rounder has had quite a tough year personally, being unable to play his farewell Test at home and not landing in Bangladesh since May this year.
However, the off-field activities seem to have rubbed off on this on-field work, as well, as he has been unable to get going. The 37-year-old has played 29 T20s since November 2023 and taken 27 wickets.
With the bat, though, the struggle has been real. The Bangladesh player has only three fifties, two of them coming in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) and one against the Netherlands in the T20 World Cup 2024. He averages 19.36.
Shakib, who last played an IPL game in 2021, has 793 runs and 63 wickets in 71 matches, having made his league debut in 2011.
The Kiwi captain has been traumatised by injuries since winning the World Test Championship in 2021. Since November 2023, he has played only eight matches and scored 138 runs at a strike rate of 119.
In fact, since 2021, Williamson has featured in only 48 T20s, making it just 12 games per year, which is too few for a franchise to bet on.
The Tauranga-born, who has featured in every season of the IPL since making his debut in 2015, has not had only two proper seasons where he played nearly all the matches for his franchise.
Though still only 34, the youngest of all the players in the Fab Four, Williamson’s IPL journey seems to be over as teams would not look to bet on someone striking at 110 in the last four years and being prone to injury more than even the pacemakers of the game.
Holder, who always fetched decent deals in the IPL auction since debuting in the league in 2013, went unsold in the last auction after setting his base price at INR 1.5 cr. This year too, the West Indian has thrown his hat in the ring, but the chances of him getting any kind of success seem remote.
Having played 46 matches and fetched prices as high as INR 8.75 and 5.75 cr in consecutive seasons in 2022 and 2023, Holder has not been in the kind of form that would attract franchises towards him at least in this mega auction.
The 33-year-old all-rounder has not had a single fifty-plus score with the bat in 22 innings since November 2023. His highest score was 41 and during this period, he crossed the 30-run mark only twice despite batting at numbers seven and eight in all innings.
The tall pacer has not been at his best with the ball, either. He picked up only 29 wickets in 31 matches at 35.2 runs a piece, striking at 21.8 and giving runs at an economy rate of more than 9.7.
The Bajan bowler does not have a single four-wicket haul to his name and has taken three or more wickets in an innings only once in the last 12 months.
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