This year’s IPL auction will feature 578 players in all with 361 of them being Indians. There are 16 top players awarded marquee status and a base price of Rs 2 crore with notable among them being Stokes, Ashwin, Shikhar Dhawan, Mitchell Starc, Chris Gayle, and Dwayne Bravo to name a few.
Hope and despair will walk hand in hand when some of the world cricket’s biggest names go under the hammer during the two-day IPL players’ auctions starting on Saturday with the likes of Ben Stokes and R Ashwin expected to be among the most sought after.
HIGHLIGHTS:
1. India opener K L Rahul and middle-order batsman Manish Pandey bagged bumper deals at the IPL Player Auction.
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2. Kings XI Punjab acquire K L Rahul at Rs 10.5 crore and exact same price was paid by SunRisers Hyderabad for Manish Pandey.
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3. West Indian Chris Gayle surprisingly went unsold despite his well-established T20 batting credentials. England Test captain Joe Root also went unsold.
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4. Batsman Karun Nair fetched a bid of Rs 5.60 crore from KXIP.
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5. The other big buy among the 16 marquee players was Glenn Maxwell, who was acquired for a record Rs 9.40 crore after intense bidding.
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6. Chennai Super Kings bought Harbhajan Singh at his base price of Rs 2 crore.
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7. Dwayne Bravo was taken for Rs 6.40 crore by CSK using the RTM card.
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8. Kieron Pollard was predictably bought by Mumbai Indians using their Right To Match (RTM) card for Rs 5.40 crore while Sunrisers Hyderabad bought back Shikhar Dhawan for Rs 5.2 crore.
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9. Faf du Plessis was retained by CSK for only Rs 1.60 crore, while Kane Williamson was back at SRH for Rs 3 crore.
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10. Surprising strategy from Chennai Super Kings as they have opted for rather ‘old’ players in the auction so far. CSK retained Dhoni, Raina and Jadeja and now they have bought Harbhajan and Watson, while they opted to use the RTM card for Du Plessis.
