Delhi Daredevils official T.A. Sekar declared that at Rs. 7 crore, South African player Chris Morris was a valuable buy.
“We feel that he is a very good bowler who can bat a bit. He is been in good form. I think if you have a good bowling side we can restrict the opposition to under 150 and then the batsmen can win the game going forward. He is a match winner and he can bowl upfront and at the death,” Mr. Sekar told the media during the course of the IPL auction here on Saturday.
Asked about jumping into the bidding race well after Mumbai Indians almost secured Morris at Rs. 6.50 crore, Sekar explained: “Having been in this (auctions) during the last eight years, we have realised that franchisees have become very smart. They know when to enter and when to get out. You can enter late and then you should see who can hold on. Morris was very much in our plans. It’s going according to our plan.”
Meanwhile Keshav Bansal, owner of The Gujarat Lions said that the emphasis is on building a strong team. “We want to make sure we have a strong core team. They are the players (the retained players) who are going to play most of the game. Most of them are allrounders. We are quite sorted that way,” Mr. Bansal said.
Probed about perhaps overlooking local flavour by sidestepping Cheteshwar Pujara, the Rajkot-based outfit’s supremo countered: “We do have Ravindra Jadeja who is a local guy. We have been tracking some recent performances. The auction is not done yet so you never know.”
Mr. Bansal said that he had discussed selections with team captain Suresh Raina. “I had a discussion with him, since he is the captain he is extremely important. Every decision is a collective team decision. Suresh suggested some names and we have Brad (Hodge) coming in from Australia so it’s all a team call," Mr. Bansal said.
