Bengaluru, Feb 12: Ishan Kishan and Deepak Chahar clinched the most eye-popping deals as India’s battle-hardened T20 exponents laughed their way to the bank on the opening day of IPL mega-auction where the franchises saved their highest bids for home-grown talent.
Kishan’s Rs 15.25 crore winning bid from Mumbai Indians pipped the Rs 14 crore figure that CSK offered to retain Deepak Chahar on Saturday. Franchises showed prudence in overall spending but didn’t hesitate to loosen the purse strings for proven performers.
In terms of US Dollars, there were 20 million-plus buys, the biggest by far at any IPL auction with most of the beneficiaries being Indian T20 specialists.
It was a satisfying ‘Pay Day’ for all current India internationals with Shreyas Iyer getting a staggering Rs 12.25 crore deal from Kolkata Knight Riders and Shardul Thakur making Delhi Capitals break the bank with Rs 10.75 crore.
These two, along with Kishan and Chahar, were the top four buys of the day.
The big-hitting Kishan made his India debut last year and has been a Mumbai Indians player all along, performing consistently well for the side.
Young pacer Prasidh Krishna (Rs 10 crore) was paid big by Rajasthan Royals for his timely Man of the Series performance against the West Indies while Washington Sundar got richer by Rs 8.75 crore.
One of the expected big buys was pacer Avesh Khan, who was bought by Lucknow Super Giants for Rs 10 crore, the highest in the history of IPL for uncapped players.
Yuzvendra Chahal came late in the day and could only get Rs 6.5 crore from Rajasthan Royals.
Even Nitish Rana, not an Indian regular but an IPL performer, was retained for Rs 8 crore by KKR while the uncapped Rahul Tripathi, who has been consistent in the league, very deservingly crossed the million dollar mark at Rs 8.50 crore.
Shahrukh Khan, another formidable domestic T20 finisher but with a base price of a mere Rs 20 lakh, was taken for a ‘mic-drop’ deal of Rs 9 crore by Punjab Kings.
Rajasthan’s Rahul Tewatia was lapped up by Gujarat Titans for a mind-boggling Rs 9 crore.
It wasn’t an auction to remember for the old guard and only two 35 plus players – Shikhar Dhawan (Rs 8.25 crore, Punjab Kings) and Ravichandran Ashwin (Rs 5 crore, Rajasthan Royals) – got good deals.
Among other seniors Mohammed Shami was taken by Gujarat Titans for Rs 6.25 crore. His new ball partner Bhuvneshwar Kumar got Rs 4.6 crore from Sunrisers.
While this was the last mega auction, what was impressive was the discretion that franchises used while buying players as the focus was on top Indian players available in the market.
For Chennai Super Kings, the aim was to follow Mahendra Sigh Dhoni’s template and retain their core base of players as much as possible as they waited to buy back Deepak, another multi-skilled cricketer on ascendancy for India.
KKR retained eight out of their top first 11 players from last season but are still looking short in the fast bowling department.
KKR didn’t do too badly as they picked up Australian Test captain Pat Cummins at Rs 7.25 crore, which is less than half of what he was paid at last auction.
Trent Boult came in the marquee set and still fetched a million dollars (Rs 8 crore) for his good show in previous years for Mumbai Indians as Rajasthan Royals aggressively bid for him.
But when his New Zealand teammate and slightly pacier Lockie Ferguson arrived in fast bowler’s set, he got the paddles raised at frequent intervals and Gujarat Titans, who didn’t have a great first day, suddenly got activated and bought him for Rs 10 crore.
For CSK, Josh Hazlewood’s exit will be a big deal as the Australian pacer will now play for RCB with a deal of Rs 7.75 crore.
Another speed demon, Mark Wood of England got Rs 7.5 crore from Lucknow Supergiants
While RCB got their opening issues and captaincy sorted with a Rs 7 crore bid for Faf Du Plessis, Lucknow Supergiants claimed Quinton de Kock for Rs 6.75 crore.
Three prominent Test specialists Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ishant Sharma didn’t come under the hammer on the day and it is understood that franchises didn’t want to spend on players who don’t bring value to the table with their T20 game. (PTI)