Australian cricketers rang in massive bids at the Indian Premier League players’ auction with pacer Pat Cummins becoming the most expensive foreign buy ever in the league by fetching a whopping Rs 15.50 crore bid from two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders on Thursday.
While Indian youngsters, especially those in the Under-19 World Cup, got good deals, the day belonged to overseas stars with teams opting for experience over talent. Given that a major IPL auction is due after next season, franchises opted to splash the cash on proven names more than punts.
All-rounder Glenn Maxwell, who was not considered for the upcoming ODI series against India in January, returned to Kings XI Punjab with a price tag of Rs 10.75 crore after an intense bidding war with Delhi Capitals. KXIP went into the auction with the biggest available purse of Rs 42.70 crore.
Maxwell’s compatriot Nathan Coulter-Nile also enjoyed a million-dollar payday at the auction as Mumbai Indians shelled out Rs 8 crore for the pacer.
Australia’s limited-overs captain Aaron Finch went for Rs 4.40 crore to Royal Challengers Bangalore. Finch, who had opted out of the 2019 IPL, also attracted a bid from KKR.
West Indies players also generated interest albeit not on a scale expected, with Sheldon Cottrell and Shimron Hetmyer going to KXIP and DC respectively.
There was a cheer in the auction room late on Thursday as well with Praveen Tambe, 48 years old now, moving to KKR at his base price.
Here’s a look at the breakdown of the eight squads with players bought at the auction highlighted in bold:
Kolkata Knight Riders
| Batsman | Bowlers | All-rounders | Wicketkeepers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nitish Rana | Harry Gurney | Andre Russell | Dinesh Karthik |
| Rinku Singh | Prasidh Krishna | Sunil Narine | Nikhil Shankar Naik |
| Shubman Gill | Sandeep Warrier | Pat Cummins | |
| Siddhesh Lad | Shivam Mavi | Varun CV | |
| Eoin Morgan | Kamlesh Nagarkoti | Chris Green | |
| Rahul Tripathi | Lockie Ferguson | ||
| Tom Banton | Kuldeep Yadav | ||
| Pravin Tambe | M Siddharth |
Rajasthan Royals
| Batsmen | Bowlers | All-Rounders | Wicketkeepers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mahipal Lomror | Ankit Rajpoot | Ben Stokes | Jos Buttler |
| Manan Vohra | Mayank Markande | Rahul Tewatia | Sanju Samson |
| Riyan Parag | Jofra Archer | Shashank Singh | Anuj Rawat |
| Steve Smith | Shreyas Gopal | Yashasvi Jaiswal | |
| Robin Uthappa | Varun Aaron | Tom Curran | |
| David Miller | Jayadev Unadkat | Anirudha Ashok Joshi | |
| Akash Singh | |||
| Kartik Tyagi | |||
| Andrew Tye | |||
| Oshane Thomas |
Delhi Capitals
| Batsmen | Bowlers | All-rounders | Wicketkeepers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shreyas Iyer | Ishant Sharma | Axar Patel | Rishabh Pant |
| Prithvi Shaw | Amit Mishra | Harshal Patel | Alex Carey |
| Shikhar Dhawan | Avesh Khan | R Ashwin | |
| Ajinkya Rahane | Sandeep Lamichhane | Chris Woakes | |
| Shimron Hetmyer | Kagiso Rabada | Marcus Stoinis | |
| Jason Roy | Keemo Paul | Lalit Yadav | |
| Mohit Sharma | |||
| Tushar Deshpande |
Chennai Super Kings
| Batsmen | Bowlers | Allrounders | Wicketkeepers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Suresh Raina | Lungi Ngidi | Dwayne Bravo | MS Dhoni |
| Faf du Plessis | Harbhajan Singh | Ravindra Jadeja | N Jagadeesan |
| Shane Watson | Karn Sharma | Mitchell Santner | |
| Ambati Rayudu | Imran Tahir | Sam Curran | |
| M Vijay | Deepak Chahar | ||
| Ruturaj Gaikwad | Shardul Thakur | ||
| Kedar Jadhav | Monu Kumar | ||
| KM Asif | |||
| Piyush Chawla | |||
| Josh Hazlewood | |||
| R. Sai Kishore |
Kings XI Punjab
| Batsmen | Bowlers | Allrounders | Wicketkeeper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Gayle | Mohammed Shami | K Gowtham | KL Rahul |
| Mayank Agarwal | Mujeeb ur Rahman | Glenn Maxwell | Nicholas Pooran |
| Karun Nair | Arshdeep Singh | Deepak Hooda | Prabhsimran Singh |
| Sarfaraz Khan | Hardus Viljoen | James Neesham | |
| Mandeep Singh | M Ashwin | Chris Jordan | |
| J Suchith | Tajinder Dhillon | ||
| Harpreet Brar | |||
| Darshan Nalkande | |||
| Sheldon Cottrell | |||
| Ravi Bishnoi | |||
| Ishan Porel |
Sunrisers Hyderabad
| Batsmen | Bowlers | All-rounders | Wicket-keepers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kane Williamson | Rashid Khan | Vijay Shankar | Jonny Bairstow |
| David Warner | Bhuvneshwar Kumar | Mohammad Nabi | Wriddhiman Saha |
| Manish Pandey | Khaleel Ahmed | Shahbaz Nadeem | Shreevats Goswami |
| Priyam Garg | Sandeep Sharma | Mitchell Marsh | |
| Virat Singh | Siddharth Kaul | Fabian Allen | |
| Billy Stanlake | Sandeep Bavanaka | ||
| T Natarajan | Sanjay Yadav | ||
| Abhishek Sharma | Abdul Samad |
Mumbai Indians
| Batsmen | Bowlers | Allrounders | Wicketkeepers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rohit Sharma | Dhawal Kulkarni | Hardik Pandya | Ishan Kishan |
| Sherfane Rutherford | Jasprit Bumrah | Jayant Yadav | Quinton de Kock |
| Suryakumar Yadav | Lasith Malinga | Kieron Pollard | Aditya Tare |
| Anmolpreet Singh | Mitchell McClenaghan | Krunal Pandya | |
| Chris Lynn | Rahul Chahar | Anukul Roy | |
| Saurabh Tiwary | Trent Boult | Digvijay Deshmukh | |
| Nathan Coulter-Nile | Prince Balwant Rai Singh | ||
| Mohsin Khan |
Royal Challengers Bangalore
| Batsmen | Bowlers | Allrounders | Wicketkeeper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virat Kohli | Yuzvendra Chahal | Moeen Ali | Parthiv Patel |
| AB de Villiers | Mohammed Siraj | Pawan Negi | Shahbaz Ahamad |
| Gurkeerat Mann | Umesh Yadav | Shivam Dube | Joshua Philippe |
| Devdutt Padikkal | Navdeep Saini | Washington Sundar | |
| Aaron Finch | Kane Richardson | Christopher Morris | |
| Dale Steyn | Isuru Udana | ||
| Pavan Deshpande |