Glenn Maxwell of Punjab Kings (Photo by Pankaj Nangia/Getty Images)
IPL 2025 will resume from Saturday, the 17th of May after a 10-day hiatus due to political tensions between India and Pakistan. 57 matches have already been completed in the 18th edition of the marquee league and while we have seen some remarkable performances, a few big names have failed to deliver.
RG identifies 5 such famous players who have massively under-performed this season.
1. Glenn Maxwell (Punjab Kings)
Glenn Maxwell had a shocking season for Punjab Kings mustering just 48 runs in six innings at an average of 8 and strike rate of 97.95 before a finger injury ruled him out of the tournament. With the exception of his 30 off 21 deliveries against Rajasthan Royals, Maxwell had five outright failures with the bat, registering single-digit scores in what was a nightmare of a tournament for the Australian all-rounder. Maxwell was purchased for INR 4.2 crore by PBKS in the auction in Jeddah last year. He had a shocking season with the bat for Royal Challengers Bengaluru as well last year when he scored a paltry 52 runs in nine innings at an average of 5.77!
2. Jake Fraser-McGurk (Delhi Capitals)
Jake Fraser-McGurk was one of the poster boys of the revolutionary IPL season last year when he smashed 330 runs in just nine innings at a stunning strike rate of 234.04 – it was the highest scoring rate in the tournament amongst all batters who scored a minimum of 100 runs! But life came a full circle for the Australian sensation as he could hardly lay bat to ball in this edition. Fraser-McGurk scored just 55 runs in six innings for the Delhi Capitals before being dropped from the playing XI. His average of 9.16 and strike rate of 105.76 cut a sorry figure in the competition. Fraser-McGurk struggled big-time against pace this season managing just 28 runs off 39 deliveries against them at a strike rate of 71.8. Five of his six dismissals came against the fast bowlers against whom he averaged a shocking 5.6 in the competition.
3. Rachin Ravindra (Chennai Super Kings)
Many experts predicted IPL 2025 to be the breakthrough season for Rachin Ravindra in the league but the stylish New Zealand top-order batter massively underachieved in the competition. Ravindra had an aggregate of just 191 runs in 8 innings with just one fifty-plus score to his credit. With the exception of his unbeaten 65 off 45 deliveries in CSK’s opening encounter against Mumbai Indians at Chepauk, the left-hander had nothing much to write home about. Ravindra had outright failures in four innings while failing to convert his starts (30s and 40s) into significant scores in three others. Interestingly, Ravindra had his troubles against pace this season scoring 107 runs off 87 balls at an average of 21.4 and strike rate of 123.
4. Sam Curran (Chennai Super Kings)
Sam Curran had a shocking season with the ball for Chennai Super Kings picking just one solitary wicket in five outings. Not only did he not manage to get the breakthroughs, but also was very expensive conceding at a rate of just 11 an over. Curran had an economy rate of over 11 in four of the five innings he bowled this season. He produced one outstanding performance with the bat, smashing 88 off just 47 deliveries, albeit in a losing cause against Punjab Kings. The all-rounder registered single-digit scores in his other four appearances.
5. Mohammed Shami (Sunrisers Hyderabad)
Mohammed Shami is amongst the best wicket-takers in IPL history and had a stupendous record in the tournament between 2019 and 2023. Shami was actually the leading wicket-taker in the IPL in these five seasons with a tally of 106 wickets in 75 innings at an average of 22 and strike rate of 16.2. Contrast this period to his form this season and Shami was a patch of the bowler he was in that time-frame. The Sunrisers’ pacer has returned with just 6 wickets in 9 matches at an average of 56.17 and strike rate of 30 in the tournament. He has also been tonked around and gone at a rate of 11.23 runs per over. Shami was purchased for INR 10 crore by SRH in the mega auction last year.
Nikhil Narain is a die-hard cricket romantic, published author, and has worked for some of the leading digital websites and broadcasters in India and overseas. An alumnus of the London School of Economics, Nikhil's forte is using data and numbers creatively to weave interesting stories and revolutionize the way cricket statistics are generated and analyzed.
