The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a cruel place to be for players with huge price tags if they fail to perform. While the Indian Premier League (IPL) gives a huge platform for players to knock on the doors for Indian senior cricket team selection, it can also shut the doors for players having a poor IPL season.

Like in all IPL seasons, big-name players were bought at mindboggling sums, especially in the IPL 2025 Mega auction.

Except for a few retained players, most big names were available for selection in the Mega auction. This article will discuss the worst auction buys of the 2025 season. The list has been created considering the IPL 2025 flops, the price tag vs impact, or the lack of it, they brought for their respective franchises.

With franchises buying players from 27 crores to taking gambles on 14-year-olds, the 2025 saw franchises taking bold calls. The pressure of big price tags in IPL 2025 can affect the player’s performance as he is now expected to deliver every time he puts his foot on the cricket ground.

Several players bought in the auction failed to justify their IPL 2025 player value. Here’s a look at the biggest disappointments of IPL 2025:

Rishabh Pant

Price Tag: ₹27 Crore
Category: IPL 2025 worst performers / overpaid IPL players

Rishabh Pant made history at the IPL 2025 Mega auction, becoming the costliest player in IPL history. While it was satisfying to see an Indian player becoming the costliest player in the Indian Premier League (IPL), questions should be asked on some of the franchises for the lack of homework they did before the auction. Did they make the right call for a player’s worth?

With the huge price tag, Rishabh was expected to be the best captain, wicketkeeper, and batsman for the team.The price tag pressure clearly showed on the otherwise happy-go-lucky player, who was clearly not enjoying the price tag pressure.

As expected, disaster struck with Rishabh scoring only 135 runs in 12 innings at an average of 12.27. and a strike rate of 100, highlights one of the most disappointing players of IPL 2025. This is a Rs 27 crore investment that has yielded negative returns. Rishabh’s body language reflected a man unsure of his game, his role, and perhaps even his place.

Apart from poor batting, his captaincy was also unimpressive. Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) ended 7th on the IPL 2025 points table, missing out on IPL 2025 playoff qualification.

Venkatesh Iyer

Price Tag: ₹27 Crore
Category: IPL 2025 worst performers / overpaid IPL players

When Venkatesh Iyer was bought for a staggering 23.75 crore, many cricket pundits including our channel Supersports360 had questioned the rational for such a huge price tag. Venkatesh Iyer’s inclusion raised eyebrows across the IPL 2025 auction analysis. Venkatesh has not cemented his place in the national team.  Did he deserve such an amount?

For the huge price tag , Venkatesh Iyer scored just 142 runs  at an average of 20.29 and a strike rate of 139.22 in  11 innings. The decision of buying Venkatesh was a huge emotional call which backfired for the franchise. His underperformance in IPL 2025 marks one of the most expensive mistakes.

This buy was a blunder by the franchise who also had made multiple mistakes at the 2025 auction table. They ended up picking up Ajinkya Rahane at the fag end of the auction who had gone unsold till then. Imagine from being unsold to becoming  the captain of the side.

KKR’s IPL 2025 league standings have taken a hit, proving this was a gamble gone wrong.

Heinrich Klaasen

Price Tag: ₹23 Crore
Category: IPL 2025 underperformers / team strategy mistakes

Being at the top of the ICC T20 ranking for a long time and a proven match winner, the price tag for Klaasen of 23 crore was justified.

Klaasen was retained by the SRH franchise making him one the highest retained foreign players for the 2025 season.

Klaasen, however, could not match his last year’s performance and SRH’s auction strategy – especially buying both Klaasen and Ishan Kishan – raised serious questions.

In 12 outings for the 2025 season , Klaasen scored 358 runs at an average of 35 with a strike rate of 155.65.

If Klaasen was the team’s wicket keeper batsman, then the decision to go for Ishan Kishan in the auction, made very little sense. This was a strategic blunder made by the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) franchise in the auction.

Dhruv Jurel

Price Tag: ₹14 Crore
Category: IPL 2025 failed investments / unproven talents overpaid

Dhruv Jurel had an impressive 2024 season, which made him a must-buy on every franchise’s wish list. The decision of the Rajasthan Royals (RR) to go for this youngster was the right one, but Dhruv was to play in the lower middle order in the batting lineup. This would mean that the youngster would be facing not more than 2 to 3 overs. Was a price tag of 14 crore worth it?

Dhruv was to take over the place of Jos Butler as the team’s finisher. The RR franchise did not retain Jos Butler during the auction. This turned out to be disastrous for the franchise.

While Dhruv Jurel’s numbers in the 2025 are not too bad, his runs did not come in the more crucial fixtures.  Dhruv’s failure in big matches directly cost RR a few important games this season.

The franchise’s call to not retain the dual skilled Jos Butler (Wicket keeper – Batsman) was a monumental error as the Englishman went to Gujarat Titans (GT) at Rs 15.75 crore a contrast to Dhruv Jurel’s returns to a similar price tag.

Rajathan Royals (RR) has been eliminated from IPL 2025 and are in the 9th place. RR’s elimination and 9th place finish confirmed this was one of the IPL 2025 franchise misreads.

Ishan Kishan

Price Tag: ₹11.40 Crore
Category: IPL 2025 inconsistent performers / overpriced IPL buys

As mentioned earlier in the article, the call to buy Ishan Kishan made no sense with Heinrich Klaasen already in the squad retained. Now, did the franchise pick Ishan as a pure batter?

Ishaan was bought by the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) Franchise for a staggering Rs 11.40 crore beating Mumbai Indian’s bid. But was the buy worth it for last year’s finalist?

For the Mumbai Indians (MI), the buy would have made sense as Ishan would have played in the MI playing eleven as a wicket keeper batsman.

Ishan started with his new franchise with a well-made century against the Rajasthan Royals (RR). Ishan was suddenly looked upon as SRH’s opening batsman and hopefully a sound investment.

Unfortunately, that was the only meaningful innings played by the southpaw in the entire season. His batting form nose-dived.

Ishan scored a total runs of only 231 in 12 innings with an average of 25.67 and strike rate of 136.26.

Ishan’s poor form has spoiled his chance for an early comeback into the Indian side with KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson waiting in the wings. Ishan Kishan’s poor form in IPL 2025 pushed him down the India selection radar.

With Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) eliminated from the 2025 season, there is a lot to think about SRH’s Indian buys. This expensive IPL signing that failed reflects yet another auction misfire.

Mohammed Shami

Price Tag: ₹10 Crore
Category: senior IPL players flopping / poor injury return

Another player from the SRH squad who did not live up to his reputation and price tag is India’s premier bowler, Mohammed Shami.

Coming from a long layoff due to injury, Shami was unable to get back his old form. The Indian international would require more bowling in the middle to regain his lost form. His place in the Indian team will also be at risk after this IPL season, as he has not displayed full fitness.

Shami, in his 9 games has taken only 6 wickets, his poor fitness and low returns made him a failed IPL 2025 veteran pick, despite being one of India’s premier pacers.

Ravichandran Ashwin

Price Tag: ₹9.75 Crore
Category: worst veteran picks in IPL 2025 / overpriced spin options

After retiring from International cricket, it was a pleasant homecoming for Tamil Nadu’s son Ravichandran Ashwin back in the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) camp. While a price tag of 9.75 crore did not raise any alarm bells at the auction, Ashwin’s performance in this year’s IPL has been very poor.

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) wanted to strengthen their spin bowling attack, and Ashwin was paid the big bucks to lead the same.

In 9 matches, the veteran off-spinner picked up just 7 wickets at a shocking average of 40.43, with an economy of 9.13.

On the spin-friendly Chennai pitches, Ashwin was ineffective and went wicketless in crucial games for CSK.

With CSK eliminated from IPL 2025, this season would go down as the worst year for the 5 time champion CSK and for the legend spin bowler.

CSK’s elimination marked this as one of the worst returns for a top IPL spinner in 2025.

The IPL 2025 season taught us that big money doesn’t always equal big performances. These cases underscore how IPL franchises misjudged player value. It’s a brutal reminder that performance under pressure is priceless – and that IPL auction regrets can haunt teams all season.