‘Big Ben’ stands tallest at IPL auctions; Indian newbies shine
England all-rounder Ben Stokes became the most expensive overseas buy ever, going to Rising Pune Supergiants for a whopping Rs 14.50 crore, even as some unheralded Indian domestic players trumped seasoned names to land lucrative deals at the IPL players’ auction, here on Monday.
The second biggest buy at the auction on Monday was also an England player, left-arm fast bowler Tymal Mills, who was taken by Royal Challengers Bangalore for a mind-boggling Rs 12 crore. Eight franchises collectively spent Rs 91.15 crore to buy 66 players from a pool of 350 plus that went under the hammer.
The accent was clearly on Indian players with as many as 39 of them bagging contracts while 27 overseas players came into the franchises’ roster.
The uncapped Indian players had a field day too with little-known Tamil Nadu left-arm seamer T Natarajan going for Rs 3 crore (USD 448,000) to Kings XI Punjab, a 30-fold hike over his base price of Rs 10 lakh.
Hyderabad pacer Mohammed Siraj got a deal of Rs 2.6 crore from his local franchise -- the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Rajasthan’s left-arm pacer Aniket Chaudhary, who has been a net bowler with the Indian Test squad for some time, also bagged a cool Rs 2 crore (USD 298,000) deal from RCB.
Karnataka’s young off-spinner Krishnappa Gowtham got a Rs 2 crore (USD 298,000) winning bid from Mumbai Indians. India discards Varun Aaron fetched INR 2.8 crore (USD 418,000) from Kings XI Punjab while leg-spinner Karn Sharma was bought for Rs 3.2 crore (USD 477,000) from Mumbai Indians.
For left-arm spinner Pawan Negi, it was another hefty pay day as he bagged a Rs one crore deal from RCB starting at a base price of Rs 30 lakh.
The prominent international players, who failed to find takers, was South African spinner Imran Tahir, currently ranked No.1 in the ICC list for ODI and T20 bowlers.
The day certainly turned out to be a good one for the England players with Stokes hogging the limelight but Mills wasn’t far behind either.
Both Stokes and Mills entered the million-dollar bracket with the former fetching USD 2.16 million and the latter going for USD 1.8 million.
Even Chris Woakes, with Rs 4.2 crore (USD 627,000) deal from KKR, had a good day.
Pune owner Sanjeev Goenka made it clear that they knew Stokes would go for a big price and they are also prepared for the fact that he will not be available to play the full tournament.
“We knew he was going to be expensive. We do believe he is going to be there for the first 14 games and right now we are focussing on first 14, and we are very happy with this. We pretty much knew, we are not going to get him below this price,” Goenka told reporters here.
Goenka’s Pune Supergiants, which on Sunday removed Mahendra Singh Dhoni from captaincy, entered late into the bidding at Rs 13 crore and clinched the deal at Rs 14.50 crore defeating bids from Mumbai Indians, Delhi Daredevils, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad.
With capable seam bowling all- rounders coming at a premium, Stokes was in the wish-list of five franchises, who engaged in tough bidding for the player, who is now revered as the world’s top all-rounder.
The 25-year-old, who hasn’t played franchise cricket till date, has a career strike rate of 134 plus while batting and a moderate bowling economy rate of 8.60 in 77 matches. Mills, on the other hand, has played 55 Twenty20 matches, fetching 63 wickets with a reasonably good economy rate of 7.47.
Among notable international players, New Zealand all-rounder Corey Anderson and Sri Lankan Test captain Angelo Mathews were picked up by Delhi Daredevils at their base price of Rs 1 Crore (USD 150,000)and Rs 2 crore (USD 300,000) respectively. Daredevils also bought South African paceman Kagiso Rabada for Rs 5 crore after some bidding. New Zealand fast bowler Trent Boult was picked by KKR at (USD 750,000).
NEW DELHI: Ben Stokes may have fetched a record price at the IPL auctions on Monday but the clamour to sign uncapped Indian talent showed that the franchises and their scouts have been diligent with their homework.
If one tries to decode how the mindset of a franchise owner work, it needs to be understood that some of the perceptions about tried and tested players work either ways – at times to a player's advantage and at other times to their disadvantage.
Ishant Sharma suffered for a huge base price of Rs 2 crore as he went unsold during both the rounds.
"Ishant Sharma shouldn't have kept his base price at Rs 2 crore. Firstly, he doesn't play for India in T20s and not considered a white ball bowler. He is only playing Test cricket. Ideally, he should have shed his ego and kept his base price in the range of Rs 30 lakh. Varun Aaron gained just because of that even though Ishant probably has more quality," an IPL team top boss, who was at the auction table said.
Left-arm seamer Thangarasu Natarajan or off-spinner Krishnappa Gowtham gained with their performances in Tamil Nadu Premier League and Karnataka Premier League respectively. Natarajan got Rs 3 Crore from KXIP while Gowtham Rs 2 Crore from Mumbai Indians.
"Natarajan's ability to bowl slowers and block-hole deliv- eries at the death clinched it for him. He was consistent in TNPL. IPL is a different ball game but with someone like Virender Sehwag guiding him and Murali Vijay for company, Natarajan can only improve. And don't forget, he is a regular in Tamil Nadu's Ranji team too," an IPL talent scout said.
Cheteshwar Pujara had reasonably nominal base price of Rs 50 lakh but being dubbed as 'Test specialist' became his undoing with a career strike rate of 105 plus in 55 T20 games that he has played. "I hope the perceptions changes," Pujara had recently said in Hyderabad but at times heady comparisons with Rahul 'The Wall' Dravid can have its own pitfalls. Result no IPL contract for second successive year.
Irfan Pathan got a reality check of a different kind. What was spoken about in hushed tones in Indian cricketing circles hit him smack on the face.
The running joke about Pathan Junior is that he is a "January to June" player, who performs just before auctions only to fizzle out when domestic season starts in October.
Irfan may feel hard done by but a drop in pace, not being the biggest of hitters didn't help his cause either even though there were a couple of good performances in the Mushtaq Ali T20 that became a talking point in social media. What was Irfan's bane turned out to be a boon for a certain Basil Thampi from Kerala who got a Rs 85 lakh deal from Gujarat Lions. The live matches at Mushtaq Ali Trophy showed Thampi hitting 140 clicks regularly and being able to deliver yorkers during death overs regularly. He can get hit but will only get better with time.
If perception works negatively for Pujara, it worked posi- tively for Rajasthan's left-arm pacer Aniket Chaudhary, who got a Rs 2 crore deal from Royal Challengers. Aniket has been regular at Test team nets and skipper Kohli has regularly faced him. Kohli has an idea of what Aniket can bring to the table and no wonder RCB went whole hog for him at the auction.
Mohammed Siraj, who landed a Rs 2.6 crore deal from Sunrisers Hyderabad, has picked 40 plus wickets in the Ranji Trophy, has been on national selector's fringe radar playing in Irani Trophy as well as warm-up game against Australia A.
Pawan Negi and Karn Sharma not even close to selection in Indian team got the deals purely being specialists in the shortest format.
Negi being a left-arm spinner can be used a restrictive option and Karn with his googly as an attacking option. That both can use long handle was an added benefit.
For Priyank Panchal his 1400 plus runs in Ranji Trophy clubbed him as a red ball cricket expert and hence no deals.