One of the biggest events in the cricketing world – the Indian Premier League mega auction – certainly lived up to the hype. All ten teams grinded it out as they aimed to construct not only a title-winning team, but also one that is sustainable for years to come.

As always there was a combination of frenzied bidding, calm pickups and absolute steals.

Here’s a look at some of the auction highlights:

Warner returns to Delhi

Despite some patchy recent form, David Warner selling for just Rs 6.25 crore to Delhi Capitals early in the auction was excellent value for money. Unlike at Sunrisers Hyderabad where he was often the lone warrior, he will have Prithvi Shaw to support him with fast starts and Mitchell Marsh at one down. Warner and Marsh formed a formidable combo for Australia at the T20 World Cup with Warner taking on spin and Marsh blasting pace. With those pickups, DC put themselves as strong contenders for the best top order.

RCB empty their purse on overseas stars

Royal Challengers Bangalore’s strategy seemed fraught with risk with them drafting Faf du Plessis, Wanindu Hasaranga and Josh Hazlewood for a combined total of more than Rs 25 crore. They locked their overseas players early in the auction and banked on getting the support Indian talent to foil them. Du Plessis covers the base of a solid pace hitter at the top but needed high intent spin hitters as complement. Hasaranga needed a containing spin partner and Hazlewood required a death bowler to complement his powerplay prowess.

RR surprise the auction room

After retaining a strong top order core, Rajasthan Royals added Shimron Hetmyer to solidify their batting order. The need of the hour was another middle order batter to support Hetmyer. However, RR broke the bank on Devdutt Padikkal. This means one of Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal or Padikkal will have to drop down the order. This not only created a lower-middle order crisis for RR but disrupted other teams’ plans.

MI throw down the gauntlet for Kishan

Mumnbai Indians are known to show loyalty towards their past players and that was the case with Ishan Kishan as well. Kishan is a potential superstar who could open or bat in the middle order and keep. With the Kishan buy at Rs 15.25 crore, MI probably got the hottest pick in the auction, but it also meant they were outbid for some of their other Indian targets. It led them to remaining quiet for a large part of the auction.

Chahar returns to CSK

In a shocking fast bowlers set, Deepak Chahar returned to Chennai Super Kings for a whopping Rs 14 crore. The likes of Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna fetched massive buys too in frenzied bidding wars, but Chahar trumped them all with his improved batting ability as well. The bid may well have been overpriced because CSK, like MI, had to remain silent for a huge chunk of the bidding. They missed out on targets like Liam Livingstone, Thakur and Rahul Tripathi for example.

Lucknow invest big on all-rounders

After retaining Marcus Stoinis, Lucknow Super Giants went big on Jason Holder and Krunal Pandya as two additional allrounders. While they had to pay a premium price for both, it offered tremendous flexibility in getting the specialists they were targeting. A bowling attack of Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan and Mark Wood is mouth-watering and can be effectively supported by the allrounders for depth.

Pooran gets the rub of the orange

The Nicholas Pooran pickup was one for the fans of auction dynamics. In a 10-team auction, the supply of keepers was low and Pooran was the last name to be drawn in the wicketkeepers set. With Jonny Bairstow and Quinton de Kock already sold, the desperation for a quality keeper was high, leading to an intense bidding war between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad. Pooran eventually went to SRH for Rs 10.75 crore and ended up as the biggest ever West Indian buy at any auction.

Punjab’s fine start on Day 2

Breaking the bank for Liam Livingstone and Odean Smith, Punjab Kings assembled one of the most exciting batting lineups in IPL history. After the Shikhar Dhawan and Bairstow buys on the first day, the additions of Livingstone and Smith as in-form six hitters rounded out a batting lineup filled with explosiveness and quality. They needed a left handed all-rounder to fill up a middle order role, and they picked up Under-19 star Raj Angad Bawa who will float alongside the big hitting Shah Rukh Khan.

CSK salvage the auction with smart picks

Chennai Super Kings ended their drought by snapping up Devon Conway at base price who will perform the anchoring role that Faf du Plessis has played for them in the past. They added Adam Milne to the pace artillery to support Deepak Chahar with the new ball and Dwayne Bravo at the death. Surprisingly, they also invested in youth with big-hitting U19 bowling allrounder Rajvardhan Hangargekar and the talented wristspinner Prashant Solanki.

MI set up the Archer-Bumrah show

The most exciting buy in the auction was for a player who will not even feature this year. The injured Jofra Archer came up in the accelerated process and fetched a bidding war from MI, SRH and RR. With MI saving up their budget for this very moment, the final bidding had an air of inevitability to it. MI had set their eyes on Archer, and they were going to get him at all costs. That sets up a fearsome Archer-Bumrah linkup in 2023.

RCB fill in role-players

With the picks of Anuj Rawat, Mahipal Lomror and Dinesh Karthik, RCB covered almost every base. They finished with local spin hitters to float around and support Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli. The addition of Karthik offers them pace hitting range down the order with Hasaranga, Harshal Patel and Shahbaz Ahmed below him for batting depth.

Auction dynamics ft. Romario Shepherd

As discussed earlier, RR left a No 7 vacancy in their starting XI with some strange early buys. That meant they had to go for Romario Shepherd at all costs to cover the hitting role as well as death bowling. However, with a much bigger budget remaining, SRH outbid RR and lapped up Shepherd for a massive Rs 7.75 crore. This meant RR were stifled and had to pick up budget overseas picks like Nathan Coulter-Nile and Jimmy Neesham in the final auction round.

Auction dynamics ft. Mumbai Indians

By employing the backloading strategy, MI bought the big fish lower down in the list – Tim David. With KKR also intent on getting David, but without the necessary budget, they ended up with serious construction issues. On the other hand, MI quietly shored up their middle order with overseas players given the lack of Indian players for those roles. The likes of Daniel Sams and Fabian Allen also add tremendous value with their lower order hitting for the price they were bought for. Similarly, Tymal Mills and Riley Meredith for a combined total of Rs 2.5 crore is an excellent reward for staying away from the early auction frenzy.

Also read:

IPL Auction 2022: From Kishan and Iyer to Chahar and Archer – full list of players signed by teams

IPL Auction 2022: From Ishan Kishan to Prasidh Krishna & Avesh Khan, all Rs 10 crore-plus bids

IPL Auction 2022, Royal Challengers Bangalore review: Possible best XI, strengths and weaknesses

Watch: Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Chahar and more react to mega bids at IPL 2022 auction