Sunday 28 / April / 2024
Bengaluru: England all-rounder Ben Stokes was the costliest buy at the Indian Premier League (IPL) players’ auction on Monday, going to Rising Pune Supergiants for a whopping 145 million Indian rupees (Rs 14.50 crore) even as some unheralded Indian domestic players also enjoyed a hefty pay day.
The other big buy at the auction was also an England player, left-arm fast bowler Tymal Mills, who was taken by Royal Challengers Bangalore for a mind-boggling 120 million rupees (Rs 12 crore).
Also making a splash were young Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan Arman, who stunned one and all by getting a 40 million rupees (Rs 4 crore, $600,000) bid from Sunrisers Hyderabad, and spin-bowling all-rounder Mohammed Nabi, also going to SRH.
The uncapped Indian players had a field day too with little-known Tamil Nadu left-arm seamer T. Natarajan going for 30 million rupees (Rs 3 crore, $448,000) to Kings XI Punjab, 30-fold hike over his base price of 1,000,000 rupees (Rs 10 lakh).
Rajasthan’s left-arm pacer Aniket Chaudhary, who has been a net bowler with the Indian Test squad for some time, also bagged a cool 20 millions rupees (Rs 2 crore, $298,000) deal from RCB.
Karnataka’s young off-spinner Krishnappa Gowtham got a 20 millions rupees (Rs 2 crore, $298,000) winning bid from Mumbai Indians.
India discards Varun Aaron fetched 28 million rupees (Rs 2.8 crore, $418,000) from Kings XI Punjab while leg-spinner Karn Sharma was bought for 32 million rupees (Rs 3.2 crore, $477,000) from Mumbai Indians.
For left-arm spinner Pawan Negi, it was another hefty pay day as he bagged a 10 million (Rs 1 crore) deal from RCB starting at a base price of three million (Rs 30 lakh).
For senior Test players like Cheteshwar Pujara and Ishant Sharma, it turned out to be an embarrassment as both went unsold at their base prices of Rs 50 lakh and Rs 2 crore respectively.
Big day
The day certainly turned out to be a good one for the England players with Stokes hogging the limelight but speedster Tymal Mills wasn’t far behind. Both Stokes and Mills ended up entering the million-dollar bracket with the former fetching $2.16 million and the latter going for $1.8 million. Even Chris Woakes, with Rs 4.2 crore ($627,000) deal from KKR, had a good day.
Pune owner Sanjeev Goenka made it clear that they knew Stokes would go for a big price and they are prepared for the fact that he will not be available to play the full tournament.
“We knew he was going to be expensive. We do believe he is going to be there for the first 14 games and right now we are focussing on first 14, and we are very happy with this. We pretty much knew, we are not going to get him below this price,” Goenka told reporters here.
Goenka’s Pune Supergiants, who yesterday removed Mahendra Singh Dhoni from captaincy, entered late into the bidding at Rs 13 crore and clinched the deal at Rs 14.50 crore defeating bids from Mumbai Indians, Delhi Daredevils, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Interestingly, Stokes’ limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan was taken at a base price of Rs 2 crore ($298,000) by Kings XI Punjab.
With capable seam bowling all-rounders at a premium, Stokes was in the wish-list of five franchises, who engaged in tough bidding for the player, who is now revered as the world’s top all-rounder.
The 25-year-old, who hasn’t played franchise cricket till date, has a career strike rate of 134 plus while batting and a bowling economy rate of 8.60 in 77 matches.
Mills, on the other hand, has played 55 Twenty20 matches, fetching 63 wickets with a reasonably good economy rate of 7.47.
Asked whether Pune skipper Steven Smith was consulted in bidding for Stokes, Goenka said everyone including Stephen Fleming have been a part of the decision.
“Steven Smith and Stephen Fleming, everyone has been a part of this decision. This is a very collective and collaborative decision. We actually didn’t go for individuals. We looked at the spots and gaps to fill and we did exactly that. We needed this kind of an all-rounder in our team. We are reinforcing our core, our playing XI and you would see the rest of the strategy as the day unfolds,” Goenka explained.
The first round of bidding for Stokes saw Mumbai, Delhi and RCB match each other till it reached Rs 10.50 crore after which the Reliance-owned franchise pulled out.
Delhi and Bangalore continued before Sunrisers entered the fray. But just when it looked that Stokes would go for around Rs 12.5 crore, Pune entered the fray and clinched the deal.
For left-armer Mills, who bowls at 90 mph, what got RCB going was a replacement for Mitchell Starc, who pulled out of the IPL yesterday.
“Bangalore has a very small ground. It favours batsmen -- the average first innings score was 199, and second innings was 190 and therefore, we really needed bowlers, especially with Mitchell Starc’s unavailability this edition, and therefore Tymal Mills was a great buy. He suits the playing conditions in Bangalore,” RCB chairman Amrit Thomas told reporters.
Among other notable international players, New Zealand all-rounder Corey Anderson and Sri Lankan Test captain Angelo Mathews were picked up by Delhi Daredevils at their base price of Rs 1 crore ($150,000)and Rs 2 crore ($300,000) respectively.
Daredevils also bought South African paceman Kagiso Rabada for Rs 5 crore ($750,000) after some bidding. New Zealand fast bowler Trent Boult was picked by KKR at Rs 5 crore ($750,000).
