Auction records went through the roof as Mumbai Indians splurged out 15.25 crore for Ishan Kishan, the player they were rendered unable to retain as they opted to secure the services of Suryakumar Yadav first along with Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Kieron Pollard.
Sitting at the auction table the Ambanis hadn’t shown interest in many players as their first priority was to get back Kishan who was with them from IPL 2018 to 2021, and helped them win two titles in the previous cycle and also went on to become part of India’s T20I team.
As soon as Kishan’s name was announced by the auctioneer, Akash Ambani had his paddle up at the base price of 2 crore. He didn’t keep his paddle down until he roped in the left-hander for 15.25 crore, making the 23-year-old the second-most expensive Indian buy ever in the IPL auction; this amount is also the most Mumbai Indians have ever spent in any IPL auction.
The price tag then – and even now – made total sense: not only Kishan was part of MI’s core team, which was the strongest ever T20 side assembled, but the youngster offers the second skillset of wicket-keeping, is versatile to bat in the middle-order and open; further, Kishan also offers a potential future captaincy option for MI as he had led the under-19 team in the 2016 under-19 World Cup.
Now, however, his form has made people question and troll the five-time champions for burning a 15.25 crore hole from their auction purse.
Kishan had started his season in blazing fashion, smashing 81* and 53 in the first two innings. However, that form has now tapered off. Since the third game, the southpaw has managed scores: 14, 26, 3, 13, 0, 8, 26.
What’s been more shocking, and concerning has been his strike rate of 81 in these games! That’s very low from a batter who’s known for his attacking instincts and aggressive style of play; that’s certainly low from what MI would have expected from him. Even head coach Mahela Jayawardene said he’d have a talk with the youngster about his batting in recent games.
So how much does each run of Ishan Kishan cost MI?
Well, so far in 9 matches, he has aggregated 225 runs. With his price of 15.25 crore, until now in the season, each of his runs is worth 6.77 lakhs!!
