Five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI) broke their bank for Cameron Green at the IPL 2023 auction, on Friday in Kochi, by buying the Australian all-rounder for a massive amount of INR 17.5 crore!
Green is now the second-most expensive player at any IPL auction, right after Sam Curran who was sold just before Green for a whopping 18.5 crore to Punjab Kings.
MI had tried hard for Curran too, but fizzled out at 18.25 crore. The MI camp, headed by Akash Ambani, was all elated after they acquired the services of Cameron Green for 17.5 crore at the IPL 2023 auction.
MI were all in for Green from the start with their first paddle for the young Aussie raised at 2.2 crore. They staved off competition from RCB and DC; DC too were strong in their bids as the price went over 17 crores, but DC pulled out after MI’s bid of 17.5 crore.
Was it worth spending 17.5 crore on Cameron Green at the IPL 2023 auction by MI?
17.5 crore seems too much for a player who has had little experience in Indian conditions and isn’t yet tested properly in white-ball cricket. Green has played just 8 T20Is so far, and played two good knocks vs India – 61 off 30 balls in Mohali and 52 off 21 in Hyderabad – and that seems to be the driving factor in this big splashing of money by MI.
To be honest, it just doesn’t sit right at the moment that MI spend 17.5 crore of their budget of INR 20.55 crore they had entered the auction with.
To start off, will Green even make the first XI: there is Jofra Archer, Dewald Brevis, Tristan Stubbs, Jason Behrendorff, Tim David, and now even Jhye Richardson – all of whom are good enough to start in the XI. Tim David is already the Kieron Pollard replacement that MI already had.
Secondly, and importantly, Cameron Green is an Australia all-rounder who plays all three formats for Australia and therefore is unlikely to feature throughout the tournament in all seasons because of his national commitment. It has been learned that Cricket Australia and their management has already advised Green to not bowl in the initial few matches of the IPL 2023 because of his bowling workload management as he will be coming off a Test series vs India.
And those two impressive knocks vs India in T20Is came as an opener; he hasn’t batted lower down the order in T20 cricket at all. There’s plenty of ifs and red flags around Cam Green and the IPL 2023. At the moment, it feels MI overdid with their aim of getting an overseas all-rounder. (Ben Stokes went for 16.25 crore to CSK).
MI current squad in IPL 2023 auction: Rohit Sharma (c), Jofra Archer, Jason Behrendorff, Dewald Brevis, Jasprit Bumrah, Tim David, Kumar Kartikeya, Arshad Khan, Ishan Kishan, Akash Madhwal, Hrithik Shokeen, Ramandeep Singh, Tristan Stubbs, Tilak Varma, Arjun Tendulkar, Suryakumar Yadav, Cameron Green, Jhye Richardson