Rashid overshadows Ashwin in auction
NEWDELHI: Afghanistan leg spinner Rashid Khan took the Indian Premier League 2018 player auction by storm after Sunrisers Hyderabad exercised t heir Right-to-match by shelling out a whopping ~9 crore.
The purse eclipsed the trading of India off-spinner R Ashwin, who was bought for ~7.6 crore by Kings XI Punjab from the first lot of marquee players on Saturday.
SRH, the IPL 2016 champions, were forced to fork out big money after a bidding war between Kings XI Punjab and Royal Challengers Bangalore saw price soar for the 19-year-old Afghan, who has taken Twenty20 leagues by storm in the last two years.
The meteoric rise of Rashid Khan, the face of Afghanistan cricket, from playing tennis-ball cricket has been a key factor in the team being accorded Test status last year, giving fans from the war-torn nation a lot to cheer.
BIG BASH STAR
ICC Associate Cricketer of the Year Rashid Khan took 17 wickets from 11 matches to help Sunrisers Hyderabad reach the playoff in IPL 2017. He is currently playing for Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash League. Last season, SRH’S bowling was led by Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rashid Khan.
It was certain that SRH would use the Right-to-match card, but the frenzy to acquire his services also pointed to the value attached to wrist spinners as attacking options in limitedovers cricket these days.
BIG DAY FOR LEG-SPINNERS
Rashid’s ~9 crore was the secondhighest paid for a bowler, after Kolkata Knight Riders paid up ~9.4 crore for Aussie pace spearhead Mitchell Starc.
India leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, a potent weapon in the limited-overs side, also stayed with Royal Challengers Bangalore after the Virat Kohli-led team retained him for ~6 crore, the highest bid put in by Delhi Daredevils. NEWDELHI: Multi-tasking is the name of the T20 game and batsmenwicketkeepers cashed in on Saturday in the auction. India stumper, Parthiv Patel, who played for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2017 went unsold, but that wasn’t a portent of things to come. Sanju Samson and Dinesh Karthik won the big bucks after hot bids.
KXIP splurged ~11 crore for opening bat KL Rahul, who could yet be the most expensive wicketkeeper if he is asked to double up. Wriddhiman Saha was purchased for ~5 crore by 2016 IPL champions Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Karthik fetched ~7.4 crore as KKR looked to make amends for their early waiting game, winning a bidding war with Mumbai Indians. Sanju Samson was bought by Rajasthan Royals for a whopping ~8 crore. It again highlighted the demand for Indian keeper-batsmen.
Chinaman bowler, Kuldeep Yadav, too was retained by Kolkata Knight Riders using the Right-to-match card, after RCB had looked to pull off a coup by bidding ~5.8 crore for the rising spinner in the India ranks and pair him with Yuzvendra Chahal.