As expected, pacers ruled the roost as the eight franchisees splurged a combined sum of ₹140.30 crore on 62 players who were sold during the 13th Player auction of the Indian Premier League on Thursday.
Bucking the trend of the big-hitters stealing the show at previous auctions, four of the five most expensive signing were pace bowlers.
While Australia’s Pat Cummins attracted a historic bid of ₹15.50 crore from Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in a five-way battle — the highest amount ever paid for an overseas cricketer and the second-highest across IPL auctions — Chris Morris, the South African pace-bowling all-rounder, joined him in the three-member league of players with nine-digit pay packets after a successful bid of ₹10 crore by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
Separating the duo in the list of the highest expensive signings for the day was Cummins’ compatriot Glenn Maxwell, the first big major signing of the day, with Kings XI Punjab bagging him for ₹10.75 crore.
Pacers Sheldon Cottrell (KXIP, ₹8.50 crore) and Nathan Coulter-Nile (MI, ₹8 crore) from West Indies and Australia respectively rounded up the top-five.
Unadkat stays with RR
Besides these big signings, more than a dozen other pacers joined the roster of teams. Rajasthan Royals retained Jaydev Unadkat with an effective price correction — ₹3 crore as compared to ₹8.5 crore last time — while Kane Richardson (₹4 crore) and Dale Steyn (₹2 crore) joined Royal Challengers Bangalore, with the South African legend being picked up for his base price towards the fag end of the auction that lasted well over five hours.
Chennai Super Kings added England’s seam-bowling all-rounder Sam Curran (₹5.50 core) and Australian wizard Josh Hazlewood (₹2 crore) to its squad. England’s Chris Jordan (₹3 crore) joined the RCB ranks.
Anil Kumble, the newly-appointed Kings XI Punjab head coach, said the onus on pacers was expected. ”It’s pretty obvious that bowlers are critical in T20s. Our gaps were evident. We had to fill fast bowler slots. The choice and money we had to spend we focussed on pacemen and middle-order folks,” Kumble said.
Tambe’s feat
Besides the pacers and some promising young Indian batsmen, including five India Under-19 squad members, the spin duo of Piyush Chawla and Varun Chakravarthy also surprised many on the day, as did leggie Pravin Tambe, who at 48 became the oldest signing for IPL, beating Australia’s Brad Hogg, who was 44 when he was in the KKR ranks in 2015.
Busy day: The team owners and coaches met the media during breaks to explain their strategy.
At the end of the auction, Delhi Capitals owner Parth Jindal announced that the team has retained Shreyas Iyer as its captain for the forthcoming season.
