Sunrisers Hyderabad made the first big price buy at the IPL 2023 auction on Friday as they bought England batter Harry Brook for a handsome price of INR 13.25 crore. He is now the most expensive specialist batter ever sold at a mini-auction (according to ESPNcricinfo’s logs).
Present at the IPL 2023 auction table, SRH owner Kaviya Maran made aggressive bids for England batter Harry Brook and finally, after staving off competition from Rajasthan Royals, who eventually ran out of purse to contend, SRH acquired the services of Brook for a whopping INR 13.25 crore!
RCB and RR started the bidding for Brook before SRH entered at about the 5 crore mark and RCB pulled out. RR and SRH went all the way till 13 crore, when RR couldn’t raise another paddle even if they wanted to because they have a budget of only 13.2 crore, making it possible for SRH to buy Brook at 13.25 crore.
SRH had started off the IPL 2023 auction with the budget of INR 42.25 crore – the largest among all franchises – and so they had little qualms in splurging a major chunk of it on Harry Brook, the 23-year-old talented England batter who has made big waves in international cricket this year.
Was it a good decision by SRH to buy Harry Brook in IPL 2023 auction?
It seems a smart move by SRH to rope in young Harry Brook who is touted for great things in the future. SRH had released Kane Williamson and Nicholas Pooran after both of them had underwhelming seasons with the bat in IPL 2022.
So, now not only SRH have got a gun, in-form batsman in Harry Brook but they also have, in the 23-year-old, secured their future in the middle-order.
While Brook may not have experience in Indian conditions, he’d generally like to play on good batting pitches, which can be expected in the IPL, more so the Hyderabad surface has historically been tailor-made for stroke makers like Brook.
Brook, who was part of England’s T20 World Cup winning side, has already featured in 99 T20 matches, wherein he averages 33 and scored at a strike rate of 148, having slammed 8 fifties and a century.
SRH Current squad: Fazalhaq Farooqi, Marco Jansen, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik, Aiden Markram, T Natarajan, Glenn Phillips, Abdul Samad, Abhishek Sharma, Washington Sundar, Rahul Tripathi, Kartik Tyagi, Harry Brook (13.25 cr), Mayank Agarwal (8.25 cr)
SRH Players released – Kane Williamson, Nicholas Pooran, Romario Shepherd, Sean Abbott, Priyam Garg, Shreyas Gopal, Jagadeesha Suchith, Ravikumar Samarth, Saurabh Dubey, Shashank Singh, Sushant Mishra, Vishnu Vinod
After Brook, SRH have also roped in senior opener Mayank Agarwal at 8.25 crore in the IPL 2023 auction. So it can be said that SRH have already filled the spaces left by Williamson and Pooran with Agarwal and Brook.
