IPL 2025: 3 Expensive GT players who gave low returns

In IPL's high-ticket marketplace, each rupee is under the microscope. For a franchise founded on prudential expenditure and shrewd retention, IPL 2025 illustrated how even the most prominent names are unable to vindicate their price tags—and the reason why form, first and foremost, continues to be the ultimate currency in T20 cricket. Splurging heavily in the auction or through retention is not always a guarantee of returns, and for a side like Gujarat Titans—accustomed to balance—some of their most expensive names disappointed in IPL 2025. These are three marquee Titans whose price tags significantly outpaced their impact on the field.

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1. Rashid Khan (Retained for ₹ 18 crore)

Perhaps the globe's best T20 spinner, Rashid Khan, was retained by the franchise with the largest retention purse of ₹ 18 crore before IPL 2025. This season, however, he could grab just nine wickets in 15 games, at an uncharacteristically high economy of 9.34 runs per over. His clever googlies and carrom balls, which used to strangle batting line-ups, tended to leak runs on flatter surfaces—and his occasional bursts of lower-order scoring couldn't entirely conceal the disparity between price and returns.

2. Kagiso Rabada (Purchased for ₹ 10.75 crore)

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South Africa's pace express came with a ₹ 10.75 crore tag but only featured in four games, taking a paltry two wickets at a pricey 11.57 rpo. Rabada's initial suspension—and subsequent lack of ability to regain his customary yorker precision—left GT's pace unit short on punch, and his sporadic appearances in the playing XI more like the luxury of his name than the force of his bowling.

3. Gerald Coetzee (Purchased for ₹ 2.40 crore)

Hyped as South Africa's seam-bowling next big thing, Coetzee was bought for ₹ 2.40 crore at auction. In four games, though, he picked just two wickets and was also culpable of a decisive dropped catch in the Eliminator that turned the momentum against the Titans. What was supposed to be a seam-spearhead performance then proved to be an indication that raw pace is not enough if it isn't backed by persistent execution.

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