Pay Day For All Rounders: IPL Auction

Pandemic? Recession? Economy in turmoil? So what? If you are a fast medium bowler who can bowl fast and accurate Inswinging Yorkers at the death, also swing the bowl conventionally during the powerplay, have a bullet arm from the deep, have bucket hands to catch the ball, and can tonk sixes at will, yes they are the All-Rounders who had an absolute Pay day in recent IPL auction 2021. IPL auction was held on 18^th February 2021 in Chennai where all the eight teams purchased according to their strategies and filled the gaps which the teams where lacking in. This year’s 14^th edition of the IPL is going to be held tentatively by first week of April 2021 in India. Last year’s IPL was held in Dubai due to pandemic which involved no crowds. This year it is expected to see Fans cheering on the ground to their respective teams.

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is one of the best professional twenty20 cricket league around the globe held in India every year by eight teams of different cities or states in India. The league was founded by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2007. IPL’s first edition was played in 2008.

This year’s auction saw big money for the All-Rounders. This auction also saw the highest bid for an IPL player barring Chris Morris for 16.25 Crore till date is the highest paid player in the auction. Previous best bid was Yuvraj Singh 16 Crore which was bought by Delhi Daredevils in the year 2016. Talking about the teams every team tried to utilize their money in an effective way even though paying higher bids than expected for a particular player.

Starting with Chennai Super Kings who are one of the top teams in the IPL history got the players exactly which they were looking for. They got two All-rounders, one among them was K Gowtham who was purchased on a staggering amount of Rs 9.25 crore which was the highest uncapped purchase in the history of the IPL auction. They also smartly picked Moeen Ali, Cheteshwar Pujara and few other uncapped players just to strengthen their squad. It was also confirmed by Chennai’s head coach that Pujara was picked as a cover for Suresh Raina.

Kings XI Punjab who have recently renamed themselves as Punjab Kings spend this year around whopping Rs 34.4 crore which included some high bids on Jhye Richardson (14 crore), Riley Meredith (8 crore) & M Shahrukh Khan (5.25 crore) who will be likely to make debuts in the upcoming IPL edition and also bought a smart purchase of David Malan who is the world’s current no.1 T20 batsman and included some of the Uncapped players to boost their squad. Indeed Royal Challengers Bangalore spent yet heavily again but still maybe lack proven match-winners with the ball. They bought an experienced Australian All-rounder Glenn Maxwell for a premium price of Rs 14.25 crore and also included New Zealand pacer Kyle Jamieson for a whopping 15 crore rupees, Australian experienced Dan Christian who recently won Australian big bash and also included some uncapped Indian players to provide some backup for their experienced players.

Whereas two time champions Kolkata Knight riders will be slightly disappointed as they couldn’t get a more able back-up for Andre Russell, who has struggled with fitness issues of late during 2020 Dream 11 IPL. They smartly purchased Bangladeshi most experienced All-rounder Shakib Al Hasan for Rs 3.2 crore and picked some other experienced in the name of Harbhajan Singh and Australian tall Ben Cutting. Rajasthan Royals have managed this year to get support in the bowling unit for Jofra Archer with the acquisition of South African all-rounder Morris. It turned out to be the highest bid in the history of the IPL in the name of Chris Morris. Also included few Inexperienced uncapped players to strengthen their team. Last year’s runner-up of Dream11 IPL 2020 Delhi Capitals bought Steve Smith maybe just because he came cheaply and also included the likes of Tom Curran, Sam Billings and experienced Indian pacer Umesh Yadav just to bring in some variety to their squad.

Sunrisers Hyderabad did not spend much as the squad has most of its bases covered but still lack in a quality finisher. Indeed they added Kedar Jadhav just to add boost to their middle order. Whereas the most successful team of the IPL, five time champions and also the defending champions Mumbai Indians is the squad with almost no weaknesses. Indeed the added a couple of overseas fast bowlers to provide cover for Trent Boult. Also they surprisingly included Arjun Tendulkar in their squad as they clearly looked Arjun’s skill sets.

This year’s 14^th Edition of the IPL will be really promising to watch out for cricket fans. As it will be really very interesting to see the glimpse of Big Price-tag players how well they make use of their opportunity they’ll given in this year’s edition of the IPL.