There were a number of players who will sleep tonight with another million or more dollars in their account as Day 1 of the IPL 2022 mega-auction came to an end with more than half of the total players yet to go under the hammer on Day 2, Sunday.
On expected lines, Ishan Kishan emerged as the most expensive pick on Saturday as Mumbai Indians broke the bank spending INR 15.25 crore to get back the 23-year-old wicket-keeper batsman. Kolkata Knight Riders splurged INR 12.25 crore for Shreyas Iyer, who is likely to be KKR’s next captain.
KKR also bought back Pat Cummins for 7.25 crore and Nitish Rana for an unexpectedly high 8 crore.
However, the bigger surprises in the payscale were yet to come – once again reflecting the dynamics of the auction, with prices heavily affected by the order of the players. CSK wanted to get back as many of their previous players so went hard after Deepak Chahar and shelled out 14 crore, making CHahar the highest-paid Indian bowler at an IPL auction.
Prasidh Krishna and Lockie Ferguson were bought for INR 10 crore each by Rajasthan Royals and Gujarat Titans respectively while Lucknow Super Giants roped in the fiery Avesh Khan at the 10 crore price.
RCB wanted back the services of Harshal Patel, last season’s Purple Cap holder, and splashed 10.75 crore at him; the same amount of 10.75 crore was spent on Hasaranga by RCB. Another seamer-bowling all-rounder, Shardul Thakur, got a contract worth 10.75 crore from Delhi Capitals while West Indian Nicholas Pooran got the same money from SRH.
Punjab added fire in their pace department with Kagiso Rabada for 9.25 crore while in their batting department by rebuying Shahrukh Khan for 9 crore. All-rounders Rahul Tewatia, Jason Holder, Washington Sundar, Krunal Pandya all went for over 8 crore each.
Overseas pacers Pat Cummins, Trent Boult, and Josh Hazlewood were bought for more than 7 crore each.
Shimron Hetmyer, David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan, Faf du Plessis, Rahul Tripathi, Devdutt Padikkal, Quinton de Kock, Jonny Bairstow enjoyed a hefty payday. Young and impressive South African batter Dewald Brevis was snapped up by Mumbai for INR 3 crore.
A couple of talked-about picks were that of R Ashwin who was picked by RR and will play alongside Jos Buttler, and Lucknow buying both Deepak Hooda and Krunal Pandya, the duo that had had a fallout last year while in the Baroda squad.
A few big names went unsold: Steve Smith, Amit Mishra, Suresh Raina, Umesh Yadav, Sam Billings, Adam Zampa, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Shakib Al Hasan, David Miller, Mohammad Nabi are the high-profile international players who didn’t find buyers on Day 1 of the mega-auction.
Here’s how all 10 teams stand at the end of Day 1 of IPL 2022 mega-auctions:
Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ambati Rayudu, Moeen Ali, MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, Dwayne Bravo, Robin Uthappa, KM Asif, Tushar Deshpande [Players bought: 10. Budget remaining: 20.45 crore. Overseas players: 2]
Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Shahbaz Ahmed, Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Josh Hazlewood, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep [Players bought: 11. Budget remaining: 9.25 crore. Overseas players: 4]
