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Mumbai, The Indian Premier League auctions being held in Bengaluru today saw fierce action as teams bid for Indian and foreign players.
In an action replay of last year’s bidding war, Yuvraj Singh was the costliest player, bagging Rs 16 crore from Delhi Daredevils. This is the highest any team has ever shelled out for a player in the IPL, beating the Rs 14 crore that Royal Challengers Bangalore doled out for Singh last year.
The Delhi Daredevils, who came into the auction with just 11 players and a hefty wallet of Rs 39.75 crore, bid for the two of costliest players so far including Sri Lankan all-rounder Angelo Mathews (Rs 7.5 crore) apart from Singh.
Also like last year, Indian wicket keeper Dinesh Karthik was the second highest bid player of the auction, bagging Rs 10.5 crore from the Royal Challengers Bangalore. He, like Yuvraj, was available at a base price of Rs 2 crore.
Amit Mishra, who played for Sunrisers Hyderabad, was picked up for Rs 3.5 crore by the Dareveils as well.
The Sunrisers went for the two Englishmen – Eoin Morgan and Kevin Pietersen at base prices of Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 2 crore respectively. The Mumbai Indians picked up one player – Aaron Finch for Rs 3.2 crore after a bidding war with the Delhi Daredevils (base price Rs 1 crore).
Kings XI Punjab, who did bid for Yuvraj Singh, but backed out after the bid amount crossed Rs 5 crore, picked up Murali Vijay for Rs 3 crore (base price Rs 50 lakh).
While the teams were bidding furiously for these players, there were players in the marquee player pool, who went unsold in the first round of bidding. IPL 2014’s star player, Sri Lanka’s Kumara Sangakara went unsold (base price Rs 2 crore) along with his team mate Mahela Jayawardane and South African batsman Hashim Amla.
In the second session, all the six wicket-keepers remained unsold while only two of the eight batsmen were sold. These two included Subramaniam Badrinath and Kevin Hussey, both at their respective base prices of Rs 30 lakh and Rs 1.5 crore.
Bidding for all-rounders saw little more action with James Neesham fetching Rs 50 lakh (base price Rs 30 lakh), while the Sunrisers Hyderabad picked up Ravi Bopara at base price of Rs 1 crore.
He may have gone unsold in the first session of the bidding during the 2015 Indian Premier League (IPL), but in the post lunch session, fast bowler Zaheer Khan fetched a handsome sum of Rs 4 crore. This makes him one of the highest bid players this year, having been bid and bought for a price four times the base price of Rs 1 crore.
Darren Sammy (base price Rs 1 crore) and Chris Morris (base price Rs 50 lakh) saw some aggressive bidding from the teams as they went under the hammer for Rs 2.8 crore and Rs 1.4 crore respectively. While Irfan Pathan, Marlon Samuels and Tilakratane Dilshan remained unsold, Ravi Bopara (base price Rs 1 crore) and Laxmi Ratan Shukla (base price Rs 30 lakh) were picked up by Sunrisers Hyderabad at the base price.
Fast bowlers also saw some fast action as the teams fought hard to get Praveen Kumar and Trent Boult. Kumar ultimately went to the Sunrisers Hyderbad for Rs 2.2 crore after a bidding war with the Chennai Super Kings. Mumbai Indians and the Royal Challengers Bangalore fought hard fro Boult initially, and when the Mumbai indians backed out of the bidding, Sunrises Hyderabad joined in. Ultimately, the Hyderabad team bagged the fast bowler for Rs 3.8 crore.
Jaydev Unadkat was snapped up by the Daredevils for Rs 1.1 crore, after a closely fought battle with the CSK. Royal Challengers picked up two fast bowlers – Shaun Abbott and Adam Milne for Rs 1 crore and Rs 70 lakh respectively.
In case of the spinners, Pragyan Ojha (base price Rs 50 lakh), Rahul Sharma (base price Rs 30 lakh) and Brad Hogg (base price Rs 50 lakh) were picked up by the Mumbai Indians, CSK and Kolkata Knight Riders respectively.
