Mumbai Indians have made Ishan Kishan the most expensive player of the 2022 IPL auction.
At Rs 15.25 crore, Mumbai fought off some heavy competition from Gujarat and Hyderabad to bring the 23-year-old back into their fold.
It was evident he was their number one target as Mumbai stayed out of the auction buying process for the first three rounds and Ishan is their first buy of the day.
Starting at his base price of Rs 2 crore, Mumbai Indians started the bidding and then Punjab Kings entered the bidding war.
Gujarat Titans entered at Rs 8 crore but Mumbai kept returning with a rebuttal even as Punjab fell out of the bidding.
The Rs 10.50 crore mark was hit by Gujarat Titans and Mumbai moved it to 10.75 after a brief discussion.
At Rs 13 crore, Sunrisers Hyderabad entered the bidding, even as Gujarat bowed out and it was just Mumbai left once again. But having not made any purchases this morning, Mumbai managed to bag the services of the young wicket-keeper for Rs 15.25 crore.
Ishan Kishan was one of the biggest topics of discussion in all pre-action conversations as the 23-year-old had chosen to return to the auction pool despite being offered a place in both the new IPL franchises - Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants.
After he was released by Mumbai Indians, who elected to retain Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav and Kieron Pollard, Ishan received offers from both new teams but is believed to have expected a higher salary by being part of the auction instead.
And how right he was.
Lucknow are paying KL Rahul a record sum of Rs 17 crore a season which means Marcus Stoinis will make Rs 9.2 crore and Ravi Bishnoi Rs 4 crore. At Gujarat, Hardik Pandya and Rashid Khan are both being paid Rs 15 crore a season and Shubman Gill will be getting Rs 8 crore. With Ishan unlikely to have been the highest-paid player in both new franchises, he was likely to fetch more in the auction than in a retention.
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