Who were the winners and losers of the IPL Auction?
The IPL season has kicked off with the auction and there is not a bigger display of the money in the league. The auction has changed people's lives and it kickstarts many young Indian careers. Some of the best examples of this are Natarajan, Siraj, Kuldeep, and Chahal. Even Virat Kohli played in the IPL before his international debut. The auction gives each team a chance to restart and forget any bad performances from the previous year. Before the auction, each team retained all the players they wanted to keep. In the auction, the teams then look to fill the missing spots. Each team had £8,564,400 to spend (minus current contacts), 25 players maximum, and 8 overseas players maximum.
Chennai Super Kings
After an unusually difficult year for CSK, this auction was an opportunity to start up again. But, they messed it up. They messed up the auction before it began, as their retentions were questionable. Keeping Bravo was not a great decision and keeping the aging Tahir set them up for a restrained auction. Then, they traded for Robin Uthappa. This wasn’t that bad but once again CSK went for an older player, coming towards the end of their career. Leading up to the auction, CSK had one overseas spot (after Shane Watson retired). CSK fans, along with all IPL fans, were drooling at the availability of Malan, Smith, Maxwell, Roy, Banton, Hales, and Morris. CSK filled this gap with Moeen Ali. Not an awful decision but over the highest scorer in the BBL (Hales), number 3 T20I all-rounder (Maxwell), and the number one T20I batsman (Malan). Moeen will most likely have to open to replace the outgoing Watson. CSK then bought Khrisnappa Gowtham. Not too bad of a pick as he will be able to fill in a spot if needed. Then, CSK chose possibly the most confusing pick of the auction. They picked Cheteshwar Pujara, the man nicknamed ‘The Wall’ because of his slow batting style. Some suggested that it was because of the slow Chennai pitches and others believed it was Stephen Fleming blocking Pujara from playing County Championship cricket if India plays New Zealand in the World Test Championship Final. CSK’s final picks were Indian roster fillers.
Overall score: 6.5/10
Delhi Capitals
One of Delhi’s biggest problems has been a lack of experience. They certainly fixed that during this year's offseason. They released some great players, knowing that it would pay off. some of the big names that they released were Jason Roy, Alex Carey, Keemo Paul, and Sandeep Lamichhane. They knew that they had to go big in the auction to replace these players and they did just that. They brought in Steve Smith, who scored 311 runs last year. Umesh Yadav, who has taken 119 IPL wickets, and Tom Curran, one of the best death bowlers in the world. Sam Billings and Umesh Yadav were two of the biggest steals of the auction, going for around £200,000 and £100,000 respectively. They also replaced Carey with Billings. The Capitals also traded Daniel Sams and Harshal Patel to the Royal Challengers Bangalore. They did very well at clearing out the clutter in the team and replaced most players like-for-like.
Overall score: 8/10
Kolkata Knight Riders
Kolkata had problems last year, as they were seeing their usually good performers (Russell and Narine) failing. This meant that they had to think about whether they would a) release them both, or b) replace them but keep them on the roster. KKR decided against giving any other team a shot at two of the greatest T20 players of all time and decided to get backups for them. They had to free some overseas spots up and they decided to release Chris Green and Tom Banton, two very underrated players who ended up unsold. When it came to the auction, KKR needed more spin, a good all-rounder, and some new young Indian players. They got Shakib Al Hasan, on his return to the IPL for around a huge £310,000. This is their ‘replacement’ for Narine and also brings another spinner to the team. They also got Harbhajan Singh and Pawan Negi to strengthen the spin attack and add some more experience to the team. They picked up triple-centurion, Karun Nair, and got Ben Cutting as a backup for Russell. Cutting is one of the most underrated picks of the auction as he can provide a few useful overs and can get some handy runs. Kolkata has set themselves up for a great season.
Overall score: 8.5/10
Mumbai Indians
Mumbai blew open their overseas bowling lineup by releasing Pattinson, McClenaghan, Malinga, Coulter-Nile, and Rutherford. This allowed them to be flexible going into the auction. The Mumbai Indians had the strongest team in the league before the auction, so they didn't have to change a lot. Their most expensive player was Nathan Coulter-Nile for around a humongous £490,000. They further strengthened their bowling lineup with the rapid Adam Milne and Piyush Chawla. They then continued the smart picks with Neesham who backup Pollard. Mumbai then started choosing the final players to fill their roster and ended their auction with Sachin Tendulkar’s son, Arjun. There was some backlash to this online but I think he could turn into an asset for them in the future.
Overall score: 8/10
Punjab Kings
Punjab cleared out and got rid of one of the big problems last year: Glenn Maxwell. They also released Karun Nair, Khrisnappa Gowtham, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Sheldon Cottrell, and Jimmy Neesham. Punjab arrived at the auction with a new look, hoping to refresh the team and have a better campaign this time around (possibly inspired by Delhi’s turnaround in form after their name change). Punjab yo-yoed in and out of the top 4 last year, eventually finishing 6th. Punjab needed some better pace bowlers and a stronger top-middle order, as after Rahul, Agarwal, and Gayle got out, their batting performances were awful. Punjab had the most amount of money to spend and they splashed the cash on Jhye Richardson and Riley Meredith who went for around £1,372,000 and £784,000 respectively. These 2 patched up their pace department. They then bought the young Shahrukh Khan (not the actor!) who will provide some more big-hitting in the death alongside Pooran. Then they got the biggest bargain of the auction. The number one rated T201 batsman in the world, Dawid Malan for around £147,000. They also acquired Moises Henriques to replace Neesham and Fabian Allen to bring more depth to the squad. Punjab is set for a big season after their complete change of roster personnel.
Overall score: 9/10
Rajasthan Royals
The Royals were another team that cleared out big players to be extremely flexible for the draft. They got rid of their captain, Steve Smith, who had an underwhelming season. They also got rid of Ankit Rajpoot, Oshane Thomas, Tom Curran, and Varun Aaron. They needed a new pace bowler to pair with Archer, a finisher in case Tewatia fails, and some younger players. The Royals went on to break records with their £1.6 million signing of Chris Morris. This killed 2 birds with one stone as Morris can now bowl at the top and death with Archer but can also be the finisher that they need. They also picked up Dube to bowl a few overs and to hit some big shots in the final overs. They signed Mustafizur Rahman and Liam Livingstone to deepen their bowling attack and brought in a few young players. The Royals answered all the questions asked of them and filled the gaping holes that left them in last place last year.
Overall score 10/10
Royal Challengers Bangalore
RCB released a load of quality players. This is the full list: Chris Morris, Aaron Finch, Moeen Ali, Isuru Udana, Dale Steyn, Shivam Dube, Umesh Yadav, Pawan Negi, Gurkeerat Mann, and Parthiv Patel. They lost many great pace bowlers in Morris, Steyn, Udana, Yadav, and Dube. The trade for Daniel Sams and Harshal Patel helps but they simply can't replace the quality of the bowlers they lost. They needed to get new pace bowlers in, an all-rounder (preferably a spinner), and cheap, younger Indian players, as they have a lot of quality overseas players. However, RCB completely fluffed the auction. They holed out around £1.39 million for Maxwell, who had an awful 2020 season. They then pulled out on Jhye Richardson way too early and settled on Kyle Jamieson for a HUGE £1.47 million. Jamieson has been promising but hasn't played on the type of wickets that he will experience in India and is suited to the quicker New Zealand wickets. They then brought in some much-needed winning DNA in veteran, Dan Christian. RCB were left with no choice but to go cheap with their last picks. They chose Sachin Baby, Mohammed Azharudeen, and 3 more. They left their death bowling issues and will still be mainly relying on AB De Villiers and Virat Kohli for the majority of their runs.
Overall score: 3/10
Sunrisers Hyderabad
The Sunrisers 2 main releases were Billy Stanlake and Fabian Allen. They only needed 3 players going into this auction. They mainly needed a middle-order big hitter and an overseas pace bowler. They waited too long to spend their money and ended up with Kedar Jadhav, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, and J Suchith. all 3 of these picks were quite frankly, useless. They didn't need Mujeeb, as he is a new ball spinner, which is what his Afghanistani teammate, Mohhamed Nabi does. replacing Nabi with Mujeeb wouldn’t make much sense because they would lose experience and batting depth. Jadhav should have been unsold after his performances last year and he won’t help Hyderabad as they simply don't need him. Suchith is similar to Mujeeb and using him won’t benefit the team as they already have much better players doing the same role as him. Sunrisers had a great team going in and somehow they weakened it.
Overall score: 2/10
By Joshan Basi
