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With Rs 230.45 crore being spent on 72 cricketers, a couple of whom earned unprecedented contracts, the ten Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises showcased their team-building prowess, to the best of their abilities, during 19 December’s auction.
Except, the ‘best’ of some teams were discernibly better than those of others. So in this article, we will take a look at the winners and losers of the IPL 2024 auction.
Auction Purchases: Gerald Coetzee (Rs 5 crore), Nuwan Thushara (Rs 4.80 crore), Dilshan Madushanka (Rs 4.60 crore), Mohammad Nabi (Rs 1.50 crore), Shreyas Gopal (Rs 20 lakh), Shivalik Sharma (Rs 20 lakh), Anshul Kamboj (Rs 20 lakh), Naman Dhir (Rs 20 lakh).
Albeit a section of their fanbase announced mutiny following Rohit Sharma’s eviction from captaincy responsibilities, if we are to quarantine that melee, Mumbai Indians will emerge as the team to perform the best at the auction table.
Having released Jofra Archer, Jhye Richardson and Riley Meredith, they needed three overseas pacers, which they surprisingly acquired for only Rs 14.40 crores.
Gerald Coetzee – South Africa’s leading wicket-taker at the 2023 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, who scalped more wickets than Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc – was signed for only Rs 5 crore, while Dilshan Madushanka – the competition’s third-highest wicket-taker – cost Mumbai only Rs 4.6 crore.
Lastly, with their pace department looking more formidable than any other team’s, Mumbai needed to find an inexpensive overseas spin-bowling all-rounder to aide Piyush Chawla, which they did in the form of Mohammad Nabi. Despite being at the dusk of his career, Nabi is still proving to be handy in franchise cricket, and was recently seen picking up eight wickets at the Abu Dhabi T10 League.
Auction Purchases: Daryl Mitchell (Rs 14 crore), Sameer Rizvi (Rs 8.60 crore), Shardul Thakur (Rs 4 crore), Mustafizur Rahman (Rs 2 crore), Rachin Ravindra (Rs 1.80 crore), Avanish Rao Aravelly (Rs 20 lakh).
Being the defending champions, Chennai arrived at the auction with a squad already good enough to win titles. With Rs 31.40 crore to spend, they have managed to further strengthen certain positions, which perhaps needed strengthening.
Considering Mukesh Choudhary is returning from a prolonged injury layoff, and Tushar Deshpande is often on the expensive side, Chennai also needed a reliable Indian seamer, which they now have in Shardul Thakur.
Lastly, with MS Dhoni’s time with the bat being limited, Chennai needed an Indian power-hitter to play the finisher’s part. They did have to shell out Rs 8.60 crore from their coffers, but by doing so, they signed a brilliant talent in Sameer Rizvi. At the recently concluded 2023 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT), Rizvi was Uttar Pradesh’s leading run-scorer, accumulating 277 runs at an average of 69.25 and a strike rate of 139.89.
Auction Purchases: Alzarri Joseph (Rs 11.50 crore), Yash Dayal (Rs 5 crore), Lockie Ferguson (Rs 2 crore), Tom Curran (Rs 1.50 crore), Saurav Chauhan (Rs 20 lakh), Swapnil Singh (Rs 20 lakh)
In hindsight, Royal Challengers Bangalore fans will be happy with the trade of Cameron Green, for their auction purchases do not inspire much confidence. With a purse of Rs 23.25 crore, they have not been able to strengthen their squad in any department.
Initially eager to spend nearly their entire purse on Pat Cummins, Bangalore eventually found an alternative in Alzarri Joseph, for whom they spent more than Mumbai did on Coetzee and Madushanka combined.
In Lockie Ferguson and Tom Curran, the Challengers have acquired two pacers who also have often been generous in conceding runs at the IPL. The Kiwi pacer’s economy rate was season was 12.52 runs per over, while the Englishman conceded 10.84 runs per over in the 13 matches he has played in this competition.
To add to the pace woes, Bangalore also could not find a frontline spinner, and will subsequently have to rely heavily on Karn Sharma and Mayank Dagar.
Auction Purchases: Harshal Patel (Rs 11.75 crore), Rilee Rossouw (Rs 8 crore), Chris Woakes (Rs 4.20 crore), Tanay Thyagarajann (Rs 20 lakh), Vishwanath Pratap Singh (Rs 20 lakh), Ashutosh Sharma (Rs 20 lakh), Shashank Singh (Rs 20 lakh), Prince Choudhary (Rs 20 lakh).
Even if we are to keep the Shashank Singh confusion aside – whom Punjab Kings have confirmed to be an intentional signing, and not a mistaken one – not much that the Shikhar Dhawan-led team did at the auction table made sense.
Similarly, with Sam Curran, Kagiso Rabada and Nathan Ellis already available as overseas pacers, Punjab could easily have opted against paying Rs 4.20 crore to Chris Woakes.
The decision to sign Harshal Patel for Rs 11.75 crore can be questioned as well, considering he had an underwhelming IPL 2023 season, which was followed by a subpar SMAT 2023 outing, where he picked up only seven wickets in as many matches, at an economy rate of 8.62 runs per over.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)