IPL Auction 2021 LIVE: the game starts at the table…
Live Updates: Analysis of the eight franchises auction performance
Indian Premier league, usually starts around April, of course pandemics can delay even this commercial juggernaut. But for franchises, it starts much before that. Even before the training camps, what comes every years, is the “auction” — the annual fest of deals, steals and doldrums. The way teams strategise for a games, in the same way the owners and analysts, captains and coaches analyse for the auctions.
This year, however, it is a mini auction with 292 players going under the hammer — fighting it out to grab the vacant 61 slots, of which 22 were available for foreigners. The task is cutout for a few franchises — Royal Challengers Bangalore and the newly renamed, “Punjab Kings”. While Sunrisers have the luxury to spectate for most part of the auction, Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knightriders with their limited purse of 15cr and 10cr would to be more selective.
Most franchises, however don’t really use their available 25 slots. One or two of those does go vacant a lot of times.
Coming into the auction, most teams would be looking for allrounders, lower order hitters, who could finish matches, or end the first innings with a flourish. Some teams like KKR, SRH have been in dire need for those. It also seems that there would be a liking for Indian wicketkeepers and the likes of Barots, Devdhars, Azharuddins will benefit from that. Teams like KKR, RCB and DC have been in lookout for backup keepers.
The approach of CSK will be intriguing, as to what approach they take, and what kind of players they buy. They haven’t gone for the overhaul and will do that next time in the mega auctions. Then there is always the question of Dhoni’s swan song. Delhi Capitals will have nervous jitters surrounding the South African tour. Their two main bowlers — Nortje and Rabada, will be unavailable for a huge part if that happens. So will they target the likes of Jhye Richardson, is something to be seen. Mumbai Indians have always played two foreign seamers along with Bumrah, so they will be on the lookout for Boult’s partner.
Wagner, Southee, Morris, Jamieson and Fizz would be expecting bid from the DC and MI. Or they could go for the lesser preferred options of Milne, Matt Henry, Sean Abbott, Beherendorff, who were able to find buyers in some previous edition, but didn’t get a lot of games to prove themselves.
One of the fascinating aspects of IPL auctions are, how they turn tables for some of the lesser known domestic players. Players like Natarajan, Varun CV, Shivam Dube, Paddikkal, Garg become overnight stars, having got lucrative deals. Some live up to that when the don the franchise colors, well some, succumb to the price tag pressure. Syed Mustaq Ali Trophy has got a lot of context now, they are more like an audition for the IPL and good performers in this domestic contest do get rewarded. This year as well, Shahrukh khan, Mohammad Azharuddin, Avi Barot, Kedar Devdhar, Vishnu Solanki, Sheldon Jackson, Lukman Meriwala, M Siddharth, Chetan Shakriya — will be attracting some bidders.
Then there is also the interesting question of fitting in players like Alex Hales, Jason Roy, Steve Smith, Dawid Malan and Sam Billings. These are very accomplished players especially in the T20 diaspora and very tough names to not pick. But most IPL franchises have a settled top order. RCB are of course on a course to rebuild again, but for all others franchises, the respective franchise will have to make space rather than getting a seamless fit.
So there are plenty of things to look forward to from these auctions as well. Who would be a part of rags to riches club? Who will be the buy of the season? Can RCB find what they are looking for, apart from the elusive IPL trophy? Do Punjab Kings truly turn their fortunes?
The stage is set. The teams are ready. Hugh Edmeades has the hammer in hand. Time for the auctions to start, and here we go.
“IPL remains a platform where talent meets opportunity”, with that first up is
Karun Nair: goes unsold
Alex Hales: At 1.5cr, unsold
Jason Roy: unsold
Steve Smith: RCB bids. Could they fancy him as the opener and DC pip in. Not really sure, why DC’s interest lie him. And sold to Delhi Capitals at 2.2cr
Evin Lewis: unsold
Aaron Finch: No takers for the dashing opener. Unsold
Hanuma Vihari: Goes unsold the hero of Sydney test.
Glenn Maxwell: KKR have shown interest in him and understandably so. RR are also fancing the bloke. Going above 3cr might not be reasonable for Maxi here. RR believes that as well. But RCB and KKR differ on that opinion. Still going Maxi at 4.40 and here comes CSK. This is insane. So stats and analysis don’t really matter here at the auction. RCB jumps back in. CSK and RCB really want this. Mike Hesson has tremendous belief in this bloke. You got to be kidding me. After the season like last year, getting 10cr. So Chennai has their 11 figured out. And they are ready to pay for the lower order flourish and hence the bidding. At 12cr Chennai are pressing real hard here. RCB is not letting him go. However good a player is, a price tag of 14cr is always difficult to justify, and finally CSK pull out. At 14.25cr Maxi goes to RCB
Kedar Jadhav: goes unsold.
Shakib Al Hasan: KKR might get a steal here. Punjab Kings start the bidding war. Good for Shakib. After a lot of thought, Punjab go for the bid. Shakib below 5cr is a very good deal. Sold to 3.2 cr to KKR.
Moen Ali: Will Mo find a bidder. After the last test’s performance. Punjab go for him. Pretty understandable that they couldn’t get Shakib. CSK are not going to hand them easy. So fancying a Maxwell kinda player here. Finger spinner-big hitter. Now in cricket books, Moen Ali getting a bigger bid then Shakib will always be bewildering and that is what is unique about the IPL Auctions. At 4.6cr with CSK. Punjab bid again. CSK know what kinda player they need for Chepauk. At 7cr they are still holding him tight. The 18 ball 43 did have an impact. Well played Mo.
Shivam Dube: SRH start the bidding, fighting it against RR here. Relentless bidding here. Already 3cr+. And SRH pull out at 3.6cr. Delhi Capitals find an interest here. But Royals take him for 4.4cr.
Chris Morris: No hesitation here, RCB jump in. they wanted their gun back. MI showing a lot of interest. The bids keep coming. At 9.25 with RCB. I wonder what they wanted to save by releasing him in the auction pool. MI have bid without hesitation here, matching RCB each time. At 10.25cr Royals join in. MI have already imagined him in Blue I guess. At 12cr already. Bidding is still on and Punjab Kings jump in at 13.50cr. At 14.50cr, Cummins would be watching this war now. Morris would be going gaga. Now at 15.25cr and Punjab comes back with 15.50cr. Mr Cummins is beaten!! 15.75cr with the Royals. Punjab ready to shell out 16cr and 16.25cr, what on earth are Royals doing here. Morris becomes the highest paid player in IPL Auctions
Dawid Malan: And that’s a steal at 1.5cr for Punjab.
IPL auctions have a mind of their own. MI were ready to pay 10cr from their 15cr to Morris. Certainly Morris has done something right. What was more perplexing was the Maxwell bid. He comes each year, a bigger disappointment then the previous year, but then in the auction he just wins. So now Morris, Dube sure will be drafting in the 11 for the Royals. But how are Punjab going to fit in Malan, in Rahul, Gayle, Mayank and Pooran. Is he just going to be backup for Gayle? Will he play at no 5? Now that has to be seen in April next year.
First one out the hat after the break
Glenn Phillips: Goes unsold
Alex Carrey: Goes unsold.
Sam Billings: Goes unsold.
Kusal Parera: Goes unsold.
No takers for the above set of keepers there.
Adam Milne: MI do show the interest. RR might just be bloating up his price. SRH jump in at 2.8cr. MI is ready to shell some money here. 3.2 cr and MI have Milne
Mustafizur Rahman: Royals get a steal at 1cr.
Jhye Richardson: RCB goes in for Jhye and Punjab are equally interested. The bidding war is getting intense here. At 3cr Delhi wants them. RCB knows they need a death bowler, so at 5.25cr with RCB. DC are stalking in for the Protean duo, if the tour of South Africa does come up. They need a backup, and at 7cr DC backout. Punjab jumps back in at 7.5cr. After some to and fro, the bid has already crossed 10cr and the bid is with Punjab. RCB still doesn’t give in. A bit of thought there at 11.25cr, but Punjab shell out more, and the bidding continues. Moving on to 13.25cr, the bid is with RCB. The struggle in the death overs has been talked a lot about, and has been very evident with RCB, but 14cr was just too much. Punjab wins Jhye at 14cr.
Nathan Coulter-Nile: Mi start the bid for the former MI player, who was bought at a much higher price last time. DC and MI engage in the war again. Having lost Jhye, Delhi is still looking for their back up. DC back out at 5cr, and MI has him.
Sheldon Cottrell: goes unsold
Umesh Yadav: Umesh returns to Delhi at 1cr.
Adil Rashid: Goes unsold
Rahul Sharma: Goes unsold
Mujeeb ur rahman: Shockingly goes unsold.
Harbhajan Singh: Goes unsold
Ish Sodhi: Goes unsold
Piyush Chawla: And MI and DC are in the bidding war for the leggie. The bid is upto 2cr. But MI have bought Piyush at 2.40cr.
Qais Ahmad: Goes unsold.
A set that showed interest in foreign quicks but now so much in keepers and spinners. Jhye Richardson remains the pick of this session, with getting a bid of 14 cr.
Back from the break. A set of uncapped players now.
Himanshu Rana: Goes unsold.
Chaari Nishaanth: Goes unsold.
Sachin Baby: Rcb make the opening bid and get Sachin Baby for 20 lac
Rahul Gehlaut: Goes unsold.
Rajat Patidar: RCB gets another one for 20 lac.
Himmat Singh: Goes unsold.
Vishnu Solanki: Goes unsold.
Atit Seth: Goes unsold.
Ripal Patel: DC start the bid and aquire the service of Ripal at 20 lac
Shahrukh Khan: DC start the bid again. The bid is getting some momentum here as RCB shows more interest. The bid crosses 2cr, and the bid is with DC. The bid has gone pretty high with Punjab stepping in. RCB are probably looking for that finisher role. RCB has backed out at 5cr and Punjab has him for 5.25cr.
Ayush Badoni: Goes unsold.
K Gowtham: KKR open the bid. SRH finally show interest in the spin department. The bidding has crossed at 1cr. The bidding gets intense. It has crossed 5cr. Surprisingly no franchise has jumped in. Now CSK are showing interest. The bid has crossed 8cr. SRH is still holding on. They are looking for a finger spinner who can tonk in the lower order. CSK too need that for home conditions and they get him at 9.25cr.
Vivek Singh: Goes unsold.
Vishnu Vinod: Delhi gets the wk at 20 lac, which would be a good buy as a backup for Pant.
Sheldon Jackson: This wk from Puducherry had very good year. KKR take his services for 20 lac.
Kedar Devdhar: Goes unsold.
Mohammad Azharuddin: RCB start the bid for the Kerala player and get him for the base price 20 lac.
Avi Barot: Goes unsold.
Mujtaba Yousuf: Goes unsold.
Ankit Rajpoot: No bidders for Ankit Rajpoot this time
Lukman Meriwala: Delhi stocking up their Indian reserves this time. Gets him for 20 lacs.
Chetan Shakriya: RCB and Royals engage in the tussle for Shakriya. The bid reaches 1 cr. But Royals get him for 1.2cr.
Kuldeep Sen: Goes unsold.
Riley Meredith: DC open the bid for 40 lac. Punjab starts the contest. The bid crosses 1cr. The bid is at 1.5cr with Punjab. Delhi bids again. The to and fro continues. The bid crosses 2cr. None of the two are backing out yet. The bid crosses 5cr. Riley wouldn’t have expected this. The bid at 7cr, with Punjab. DC bids again. They have had to let go some foreign quicks. So they are investing a lot here in Riley. But Punjab kings prevail with 8 cr.
Tushar Deshpande: Goes unsold.
M Siddharth: Goes to DC at 20 lac.
Karanveer Singh: Goes unsold.
J Suchith: Sold to SRH for 30 lacs
KC Cariappa: Royals bid for the spinner and get him for 20 lacs
Sandeep Lamichhane: Goes unsold
M Sudhesan: Goes unsold.
Tejas Baroka: Goes unsold.
With the end of that session, there have been some really good buys, like M siddharth. But DC already have Axar, Ashwin and Amit Mishra. So a lot to learn for the youngster but he might not get game time. Punjab last time were out of options in the pace department. So they have gone all guns blazing, on Riley, and earlier for Jhye. So they have their plan in place. Royals get two exiting young talents in Sakariya and Cariappa.
The final 22 players before the break for high tea.
Rovman Powell: Goes unsold
Shaun Marsh: Goes unsold
Corey Anderson: Goes unsold
Devon Conway: Goes unsold
Darren Bravo: Goes unsold
Cheteshwar Pujara: CSK buy Pujara at 50 lac. This came as a surprise.
Martin Guptill: Goes unsold.
Pawan Negi: Goes unsold
Kylie Jamieson: RCB and Delhi get into the war. This was on the expected lines. He had been making the right noises for a while now. The bid is now at 5cr. RCB and DC both want him. Both have been bidding for a lot of pace bowlers. But haven’t been able to get the services yet. RCB at 7.5cr. Punjab is back in the foray. They have developed a strange liking for all quick bowlers. RCB at 10 cr and Punjab haven’t backed out yet. RCB increase the bid to 12 cr. Punjab have already secured the services of Jhye Richardson and Riley Meredith, yet they keep up with the bid. RCB goes further to 14 cr now. Well, there will be price tag pressure for the IPL debutant. 15 cr bid with RCB now. Punjab kings have backed out. RCB gets Jamieson at 15 cr.
Ben Cutting: Goes unsold
Tom Curran: DC were expected to bid for the big Englishman. In their quest for securing the backups, here is another try. SRH is now bidding for Curran. They would be fancying a foreign pacer as well, since they had released Stanlake. The bid has crossed 5 cr. Finally DC gets him with 5.25 cr.
Gurkeerat Singh Maan: Goes unsold
Marnus Labuschagne: Goes unsold
Moises Henriques: RCB goes for the opening bid. Punjab jump in again. The bid goes past 2cr. RCB has the current bid at 2.4cr. Punjab after a discussion have decided to continue bidding, and Punjab almost gets Henriques at 3.8cr. Oh wait, not yet. Back comes RCB at 4cr. But in the end it is Punjab at 4.2cr.
Varun Aaron: Goes unsold
Oshane Thomas: Goes unsold
Mohit Sharma: Goes unsold
Billy Stanlake: Goes unsold
Mitchel McClenaghan: Once a favourite of Mumbai camp. The burly Kiwi goes unsold
Jason Behrendorff: Goes unsold
Naveen ul Haq: Goes unsold
That’s the end of that session. Clearly the highlight bid of the session was Kyle Jamieson. RCB has trusted a lot in the youngster. They were also gunning for Moises Henriques. But in the it was Punjab who have muscled their way in the bids. They haven’t backed down and have taken the players they have wanted. Pujara’s bid by CSK is actually a surprise, as they already have Uthhappa, Faf, Raina, Rayudu and the big man himself in the top 5. So clearly he won’t be getting a game.
Here we are in the accelerator session.
Karan Sharma: Goes unsold
Jalaj Saxena: Sold to Punjab kings
Utkarsh Singh: Sold to Punjab Kings at 20 lac
KL Srijith: Goes unsold
Vaibhav Arora: KKR get him for 20 lac
Ben Dwarshuis: Goes unsold
G Periyasamy: Goes unsold.
Fabian Allen: Punjab Kings get him for 75 lacs
Danielle Christian: KKR bids for him. RCB also shows interest. The bid goes past 1cr. Seems like Christian had done alright this Sunday in the church. The bid goes past 3 cr. RCB and KKR both still going strong. The interesting thing has been that there hasn’t been any discussions yet. So, the teams do want him. The bid has crossed 4 cr. KKR backs out at 4.8 cr and RCB has him finally.
Liam Livingstone: Royals get him at 75 lac.
Thisara Parera: Goes unsold
Ben McDermott: Goes unsold
Matt Wade: Goes unsold.
Sean Abott: Goes unsold
Siddhesh Lad: Goes unsold
Tajinder Dhillon: Goes unsold
Prerak Mankad: Goes unsold
Suyash Prabhudessai: Sold to RCB at 20 lac
KS Bharat: Sold to RCB at 20 lac
Josh Inglis: Goes unsold
M Harisankar Reddy: Goes unsold
Simarjeet Singh: Goes unsold
Kuldip Yadav: Royals get him at 20 lac
Scott Kuggelejein: Goes unsold
Jimmy Neesham: MI secure the services of Neesham at 50 lacs
Wayne Parnell: Goes unsold
Rece Topley: Goes unsold
Chris Green: Goes unsold
Isuru Udana: Goes unsold
George Linde: Goes unsold
Chaitanya Bishnoi: Goes unsold
Yudhvir Charak: Sold to Mumbai Indians for 20 lac
K Bhagath Varma: CSK get him at 20 lacs
Harsh Tyagi: Goes unsold
Gerald Coetzee: Goes unsold
Marco Jansen: Sold to MI for 20 lac
Pratyush Singh: Goes unsold
Saurabh Kumar: Punjab Kings buy him at 20 lacs
Karun Nair: KKR open the bid for Nair finally. Sold to KKR at 50 lac
Kedar Jadhav: Sunrisers have opened the bid for Kedar and get him at 2cr
Sam Billings: DC opens the bid for DC and gets him for 2 cr.
Mujeeb ur Rahman: SRH get Mujeeb at 1.5cr and they are done with Auctions
Harbhajan Singh: sold to KKR at 2 cr
C Hari Nishaanth: Sold to CSK for 20 lac
Vishnu Solanki: Goes unsold again,. Heartbreak here for the SMAT star
Venkatesh Iyer: Goes unsold
Corey Anderson: remains unsold
Rassie van der Dussen: Goes unsold
Ben Cutting: Getting recalled in the auction and sold to KKR at 75 lac
Pawan Negi: Can negi get a bidder this time? Remains unsold
Gurkeerat Singh Man: Goes unsold
With this comes the last session of auctions
Hanuma Vihari: Goes unsold again
Venkatesh Iyer: KKR finally get him after recalling him 20 lac
Pawan Negi: KKR take him as well for 50 lac
Akash Singh: Royals take him for 20 lac
Arjun Tendulkar: MI takes the final player at 20 lac
And with that we come to the end of another auctions, some bids going absolute bonkers, some really smart buys. Most teams would think they have what they need, but is that really the case. We will have to wait and watch.
