Worst IPL auction buy of all time

Naming the worst IPL auction buy requires separating the player's quality from the price-performance mismatch. Pat Cummins is a world-class bowler — his Test record is impeccable. But the 2020 IPL auction created a historic overpayment.

KKR paid 15.5 crore for Cummins in the 2020 auction — the highest price ever paid for an overseas pace bowler at that time. The expectation was a death-over specialist who could take wickets and control games. The reality was 12 wickets at an economy of 8.2 across 14 matches. His cost-per-wicket of 1.29 crore is the worst ratio in IPL history for any player bought above 10 crore.

Context matters: Cummins was adapting to Indian conditions after a gruelling Australian summer, and the 2020 IPL's UAE pitches didn't suit his back-of-a-length approach. But that's precisely why the buy was flawed — KKR's auction strategy failed to account for the venue shift that was known months before the auction.

Other contenders for this unwanted title include Yuvraj Singh (16 crore to Delhi in 2015 — scored 122 runs in 9 matches), Jaydev Unadkat (11.5 crore to RR in 2018 — took 11 wickets at economy 9.6), and Ben Stokes (14.5 crore to RPS in 2017 — though Stokes eventually justified his price in that season's latter half). Cummins' combination of record price and underwhelming output makes the 2020 buy the definitive worst.