Veteran Sri Lanka seamer Lasith Malinga who holds the most number of wickets in IPL (Indian Premier League) Cricket will not feature in this year’s edition after he went unsold during the 2018 mega-auction which concluded on Sunday (January 28).
Two Sri Lankan bowlers, off-spinner Akila Dananjaya and fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera were bought by Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals respectively for their base price of INR 50 Lakhs (1.2 Crore SL rupees).
Incidentally Mumbai Indians is coached by former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene who first brought Dananjaya to the limelight during the 2012 World T20.
The original eight franchises of the IPL left no stone unturned in building teams almost from scratch, the octet completed by the return from two-year suspensions of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals. A hectic weekend in Bangalore entertained those pining to catch a first glimpse of eight freshly sculpted franchises ahead of the April 7-May 27 event.
18 Sri Lankans set to go under the IPL hammer
18 Sri Lankan players will go under the hammer in the upcoming IPL (Indian Premier League) auctions scheduled to be held in Bengaluru on January …
While teams spent most of the opening day bidding for the big guns, predominantly batsmen and those with enough experience to forge a core, Sunday (January 28) was mostly about the pacemen and the relatively anonymous uncapped lot.
This year threw up its fair share of surprises, including Kings XI Punjab’s acquisition of Chris Gayle for his base price of Rs 2 crore in the last round of the accelerated process. With IPL auctions, drama is never far away.
Ben Stokes’s buyout for Rs 12.5 crore by Rajasthan Royals remained the most expensive purchase of the auction, while Jaydev Unadkat’s purchase by the same side for Rs 11.5 crore on Sunday made the paceman the highest paid Indian at this season’s auction
Having spent a large chunk of their Rs 80 crore purse on high-profile purchases on the opening day, teams weren’t exactly ready to shell out beyond their means, unless they were desperate to fill vacant spots in the side.
Pacemen were the theme, especially for Punjab and Chennai, early in the day. They fought tooth and nail to acquire Unadkat but lost out to Rajasthan, who swooped in for the win on the final sprint.
With Rajasthan pulling Unadkat for that hefty sum, KL Rahul and Manish Pandey, who bagged Rs 11 crore each on Saturday, were relegated to joint second place on the price list for Indians.
Rajasthan didn’t stop with Unadkat. They were on the lookout for an off-spinning allrounder, and with Harbhajan Singh off to Chennai, they went all out to pick up K Gowtham, the Karnataka spinner, for Rs 6.2 crore.
None of Royal Challengers Bangalore’s strategies seemed to bear fruit for the better part of the first hour but they did bag Washington Sundar for Rs 3.2 crore. The off-spinning allrounder, a star with Pune last season, has been touted as the next big thing in T20 cricket, so his modest price tag was a bit of a surprise. Bangalore also managed to get good deals on Mohammed Siraj (Rs 2.6 crore) and Nathan Coulter-Nile (Rs 2.2 crore). They even used their ‘Right to Match’ card to acquire Pawan Negi for Rs 1 crore. Parthiv Patel too was bought for Rs 1.7 crore.
Chennai were the most reserved franchise as their hands seemed tied despite a healthy purse of Rs 17 crore. Stephen Fleming and Co. pushed for a few pacemen but were only able to come away with Shardul Thakur at Rs 2.6 crore. They were far more forthcoming with the paddle during the accelerated process and picked up a number of young players, but it was all too evident that Fleming, the head coach, wasn’t impressed with the takeaways. They brimmed their squad with 25 members but were still left with Rs 6.5 crore at the end of the auctions. This despite spending Rs 2 crore early in the day for M Vijay.
Mumbai too picked up a few quality players on the day with Evin Lewis (Rs 3.8 crore) the highlight, but their strategy hinged on hiking the price of a number of players before pulling out at the last moment, leaving the opposite bidder with a smaller purse in the end. They did buy a whole host of young Indians in the accelerated process to bring the squad number up to 25.
Punjab’s game plan was much the same, staying on with the bid with proper intent only during the acquisitions of Andrew Tye, the Australian paceman, for Rs 7.20 crore and Mujeeb Zardan (Rs 4 crore), the Afghanistan spinner. Sunrisers Hyderabad too added a couple of quality names to their roster with the inclusion of Sandeep Sharma for Rs 3 crore and Chris Jordan and Mohammed Nabi for Rs 1 crore each.
Kolkata Knight Riders were far more concerned with building a young squad as they bought Shivam Mavi, the India Under-19 paceman, for Rs 3 crore and a number of young uncapped players to go with R Vinay Kumar, their second-biggest purchase of the day. Kolkata did come up with one surprise as they re-called Javon Searles, the Windies allrounder, and bagged the last name at the auction for the base price of Rs 30 lakh.
While the news was good for the domestic lot, franchises were very specific in their bidding for foreign players. A select few added to their coffers, but a whole bunch, including the likes of Alex Hales, Eoin Morgan, Joe Root, Nathan Lyon and Corey Anderson, failed to attract bids. Sandeep Lamichhane did, however, become the first Nepalese player to win a bid in the auction as the legspinner was bought by Delhi Daredevils for his base price of Rs 20 lakh.
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