IPL Auction 2017: Which Team Did The Best Business?

Feb 21, 2017 at 7:54 PM

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IPL Auction 2017: Which Team Did The Best Business?

The IPL 2017 Auction reached its conclusion yesterday with ‘hammerman’ Richard Madley selling a total of a total of 66 players including 27 overseas players in a highly interesting round of bidding among the eight franchises.

The franchises had their mind clear about one fact, that was to go after the players who promised to add more value to the existing line-up. Quite evidently they went after the players who brought more stability to their line-up and made their squad look stronger rather than appearing perfect on paper.

They also made sure that upcoming talents also made it to their team. The price tags against the names of the uncapped names like Rashid Khan, Mohammad Siraj, and Krishnappa Gowtham speaks for that case quite clearly.

It is quite tough to conclude which franchise did the best business at auctions. But, that being said, it would really wonderful to figure out which team actually made great deals and emerged as the smartest investor out of the rest of the pack.

Delhi Daredevils:

Delhi Daredevils made a great move by acquiring South African Kagiso Rabada in their bowling attack which comprises of Mohammad Shami, CV Milind, Khaleel Ahmed. Patrick Cummins and Angelo Mathews will join Carlos Brathwaite in the all-rounder’s department. This gives them a lot of option to choose in the middle order and lower middle order. Murugan Ashwin si also a great inclusion and is expected to do much better after an average start to his IPL career last season.

Players Bought in the auctions: Kagiso Rabada, Patrick Cummins, Angelo Mathews, Corey Anderson, M. Ashwin, Aditya Tare, Ankit Bawne, Navdeep Saini, Shashank Singh.

Mumbai Indians:

Mumbai Indians was one of those teams that had a pretty well-balanced side with them ahead of the auction. They made a really good investment by snapping Asela Gunarate and Nicholas Pooran. Both the batsmen carry the X- factor with them. The former, fresh from playing winning knocks for Sri Lanka, while the latter is a proven batting talent from the Caribbean’s, were bought for smart 30 Lakhs each. While these were some really good buys from the auction, there made a couple of mistakes too. Mitchell Johnson, at a price of 2 Crores, seemed unnecessary in the squad which has enough fast bowling names. The same feeling for leg-spinner Karn Sharma who got lucky by becoming their costliest buys yesterday at 3.2 crores. Off-spinner K Gowtam also can put himself in the same category.

Players Bought in the auctions: Karn Sharma, K Gowtham, Mitchell Johnson, Asela Gunaratne, Saurabh Tiwary, Nicholas Pooran, Kulwant Khehoria.

Rising Pune Supergiants:

Rising Pune Supergiants weren’t impressive in the auctions. The owners showed no common sense at all. Their first move in the auction speaks for it. A player of Ben Stokes obviously is a wonderful addition to a team. But spending over 80 per cent of the purse on him alone seems obnoxious (but not as obnoxious as removing MS Dhoni as the skipper and not buying back players like Irfan Pathan and Murugan Ashwin). They later added Dan Christian for 1 Crores. The Australian seam bowling all-rounder had not seen light during the auctions in the past couple of season. It was quite understood that he wasn’t the type of player who would succeed in India.  These two alone wiped off the budget they had to spend at the auctions. Left with no opportunity, they eventually added up unknown names like Rahul Chahar, Saurabh Tandon, Milind Tandon and Rahul Ajay Tripathi to balance things out and return home with a feeling of having made some good forward-looking decisions at the event. Lockie Ferguson and Jaydev Unadkat were the only players they bought who could be put in the ‘reasonable’ category.

Players Bought in the auctions: Benjamin Stokes, Dan Christian, Manoj Tiwary, Lockie Ferguson, Jaydev Unadkat, Rahul Chahar, Saurabh Tandon, Milind Tandon, Rahul Ajay Tripathi.

Kolkata Knight Riders:

Kolkata knight Rider played it smart in the auctions. Their core concern was finding a replacement for Andre Russell and did that by snapping up all-rounders Chris Woakes, Rovman Powell, Rishi Dhawan and Nathan Coulter-Nile. Trent Boult was also a wonderful addition to the line-up. These players certainly add more firepower to the squad. Darren Bravo wasn’t required though but he may end up playing the games given the stability he provides in any batting line-up he plays. Overall they made a great deal at the auctions.

Players Bought in the auctions: Trent Boult, Chris Woakes, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rishi Dhawan, Darren Bravo, Rovman Powell, Sayan Ghosh, Sanjay Yadav, Ishank Jaggi.

Sunrisers Hyderabad:

Sunrisers Hyderabad, the defending champions, also made sure they roped in the players they needed in the squad. With no requirement in the batting department, they concentrated mostly on getting good promising spinners and all-rounders. SRH won the title last season mainly due to their utterly economical fast bowling unit who leaked very few runs in the death overs. Their smartest move was to make sure that they grabbed Afghan sensation Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi. Both of them are great T20 materials which have proven credentials with them. And, by snapping Chris Jordan, England’s T20 death overs specialist, they made their bowling attack stronger than last year. Mohammad Siraj also brings in the raw pace into the side. Tanmay Agarwal and Eklavya Dwivedi were the only batsmen who were bought in the auctions.

Players Bought in the auctions: Rashid Khan, Mohammad Siraj, Eklvaya Dwivedi, Chris Jordan, Mohammad Nabi, Ben Laughlin, Pravin Tambe, Tanmay Agarwal

Royal Challengers Bangalore:

Royal Challenger did the least number of buying at the auctions. Their main motive at the auction was perhaps to get a worthy replacement for Mitchell Starc which they did by grabbing Tymal Mills and Aniket Choudary. Both are genuine left arm quicks and quite deceptive in nature. However, apart from those two they did not really make any good move. Logically, they weren’t required to get any players given the fact that they already have a superstar-studded squad with them.

Players Bought in the auctions: Tymal Mills, Pawan Negi, Aniket Choudhary, Praveen Dubey and Billy Stanlake

Gujarat Lions:

Jason Roy at a price of 1 crores was their costliest as well as the best buy from the auction. He now completes a very explosive opening trio with Brendon McCullum and Aaron Finch. Munaf Patel, Manpreet Gony (60 lakhs), Nathu Singh (50 Lakhs) and Basil Thampy (85 Lakhs), two raw fast bowlers also look like a good addition to the pace attack which comprises the likes Dwayne Bravo, Dhawal Kulkarni and Praveen Kumar. Rest others bought at the auction looked like mere backups. All these names came at relatively low prices and make their squad look more complete.

Players Bought in the auctions: Manpreet Gony, Nathu Singh, Basil Thampy, TS Baroka, Jason Roy, Munaf Patel, Chirag Suri, Shelley Shaurya, Shubam Agarwal, Pratham Singh and Akshdeep Nath

Kings XI Punjab:

Kings Punjab’s smartest buy at the auction were T Natrajan and Eoin Morgan. The former is a Tamil Nadu fast bowler known for his bowling style which is pretty similar to the Bangladeshi sensation Mustafizur Rahman. He certainly adds more zing to the bowling attack. Apart from him, they also did a good job by adding Darren Sammy (30 Lakhs) and Martin Guptill (50 Lakhs) to their squad. Both of them are time tested match winners at the T20 level. Varun Aaron was also good addition but at an expensive cost of 2.8 crores,

Players Bought in the auctions: Varun Aaron, Matt Henry, T Natarajan, Eoin Morgan, Rahul Tewatia, Martin Guptill, Darren Sammy and Rinku Singh

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