The Indian T20 League is right around the corner and that could mean only one thing – players going under the hammer and franchises going on a spending spree. Auction 2021 wasn’t any different. It was an action-packed five hours where some cricketers became multi-millionaires in the span of some hours while others took to Twitter to show their displeasure regarding the snub.
Auction 2021 was a mini one and that meant that the prices of most of the costliest players were inflated. The franchises had plenty to spend and not many options to choose from. A total of 57 players, including 22 overseas players were sold at the auction.
But how do the teams look post the auction 2021? Let’s find out.
TEAM MUMBAI
The champions came into yet another auction with the core of the team intact. They didn’t have the biggest purse in the auction and were solely looking to strengthen their fast bowling department as they had let go of a few players before the auction. The biggest pick for Mumbai was buying back Nathan Coulter-Nile at 5 crore. They further added to the department by picking up New Zealand’s quick bowler Adam Milne and the young South African pacer, Marco Jansen. James Neesham was a late buy at his base price who will add cover for the all-rounder spot in the team.
Amongst the uncapped players, the famous Tendulkar name will don the blue and gold of Mumbai yet again as Arjun Tendulkar was picked by the management along with Jammu’s Yudhvir Charak.
TEAM DELHI
Last season’s finalists Delhi had a relatively quiet auction as most of the team looks well settled. The biggest buy for the franchise was the English bowling all-rounder Tom Curran at 5.25 crore. But the headline buy has got to be Steve Smith for just 2.2 crore.
Along with this, they had some smart picks in Umesh Yadav and Sam Billings at their base prices. The team also went on to pick four uncapped players in Ripal Patel, Vishnu Vinod, Lukman Meriwala and M Siddharth.
TEAM HYDERABAD
The team seemed more interested in tea and coffee at the auction rather than looking for bidding wars. Team Hyderabad came into the auction as the most settled unit even more than the champions. They did go on to get some shrewd picks at the latter end of the auction and overall would be delighted with how the squad has shaped up.
Kedar Jadhav at 2 crore was the biggest buy for them in the auction. They’d be delighted to welcome yet another player from Afghanistan as mystery spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman was picked at his base price. All-rounder from Karnataka, Jagadeesha Suchith was their only uncapped pick from the auction.
TEAM BANGALORE
As always, Bangalore had plenty of things to get right in the auction. They went big for two headline signings in Glenn Maxwell and Kyle Jamieson at 14.25 crore and 15 crore, respectively. The experience of Daniel Christian came expensive as well at 4.8 crore.
They did pack their team up with plenty of uncapped Indian players. Sachin Baby, Mohammed Azharuddeen, Rajat Patidar, KS Bharat and Suyash Prabhudesai would get a chance to pick the brains of someone like Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers on the training ground.
TEAM KOLKATA
Kolkata didn’t release a lot of players ahead of the auction and that meant not many big-money buys came from their table either. It became obvious that they were looking to pack their team with genuine all-rounders and players with plenty of T20 experience.
Shakib Al Hasan was their biggest buy at 3.20 crore. They managed to pick players with international experiences like Harbhajan Singh, Ben Cutting and Karun Nair at their base prices. Sheldon Jackson, Vaibhav Arora, Venkatesh Iyer and Pawan Negi were their uncapped picks from the Auction 2021.
TEAM PUNJAB
The team with a new identity and plenty of money had a decent auction day. They went big on two Australian quicks – Jhye Richardson at 14 crore and Riley Meredith at 8 crore. They added international experience to their squad by picking Dawid Malan, Moises Henriques and Fabien Allen at 1.5 crore, 4.2 crore and 75 lakhs, respectively.
The batting all-rounder from Tamil Nadu, Shahrukh Khan became the highest paid uncapped player in the squad with 5.25 crore, while Jalaj Saxena, Utkarsh Singh and Saurabh Kumar were their other uncapped picks.
TEAM CHENNAI
After a disappointing season, Team Chennai are looking to bounce back like the champion team that they have been in the previous seasons. They had only one overseas spot available in their squad and that went to Moeen Ali at 7 crore.
Krishnappa Gowtham at 9.25 crore raised a few eyebrows though, but Cheteshwar Pujara getting a contract was a heartwarming sight for any cricket fan to witness. Harishankar Reddy, Bhagath Varma and Hari Nishanth were the other low key picks for Chennai this term.
TEAM RAJASTHAN
The team which finished last in the 2020 season are looking for a turnaround in the upcoming one. They have already changed the captaincy by appointing Sanju Samson and adding Kumar Sangakkara as the Director of Cricket.
They had a busy auction as well as they managed to break an all-time auction record by purchasing Chris Morris for 16.25 crore. Shivam Dube at 4.4 crore, Mustafizur Rahman at 1 crore and Liam Livingstone at 75 lakhs were the other smart buys for the team. Chetan Sakariya, KC Kariappa, Kuldip Yadav and Aakash Singh rounded up the squad as their domestic uncapped players.
