IPL statistics testify that players who take very high salaries usually remain flops. If you remember the 2024 season, Delhi Capitals had bought Mitchell Starc for Rs 24.75 crore. Starc took 17 wickets in the season, but he also had an amazing thrashing. Rishabh Pant, who took Rs. 27 crores, and Cameron Green, who took Rs. 25 crores, also come in the list of flop players. But at present, the biggest losses are being made by Heinrich Klaasen and Nicholas Pooran for their respective IPL teams.
Nicholas Puran is defeating Lucknow
First of all, if we talk about Nicholas Puran, before the 2025 mega auction, Lucknow Super Giants had retained him by paying a huge amount of Rs 21 crore. Last season, Puran performed strongly and scored 524 runs. Shortly after the end of IPL 2025, he said goodbye to international cricket in the month of June.
Now Puran does not play international cricket, so it has proved very difficult for him to maintain game fitness. After international retirement, he performed well in MLC and CPL, but in SA20 he could score 152 runs at a poor average of 16.88. Whereas in 4 innings of IPL 2026, he has been able to score only 41 runs. This is definitely not a Rs 21 crore performance. His entire season continued like this, so the time is not far when LSG will start considering releasing Puran.
Same condition of Heinrich Klaasen
Before the mega auction, Sunrisers Hyderabad had retained Heinrich Klaasen for Rs 23 crore. After being retained, he also scored 487 runs at a good average of 44.27 in the 2025 season. Klaasen’s performance in IPL 2026 has also not been very impressive. He has definitely scored 181 runs, but his earlier impact has not been visible in his innings.
In the SA20 2026 league that ended some time ago, Klaasen could score only 138 runs in the entire season. His condition was even worse in Major League Cricket, where he scored only 81 runs in 6 matches. Klaasen had also said goodbye to international cricket in June 2025, but after retirement, there has been an obvious decline in his performance.
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