With just 292 cricketer’s up for grabs, it was supposed to be a mini-auction in Chennai this year for the Indian Premier League (IPL) fraternity. However, on Thursday (February 18), the whole process turned out to be quite enthralling and riveting as 57 out of the total pool of players found takers. For a few specific players we saw intense bidding wars which costed the franchises big pay paychecks but at the end of the day most of the teams eventually got what they were looking for.
In this piece we will highlight how two of the most successful teams in the history of IPL – current defending champions Mumbai Indians and three-time former champions Chennai Super Kings – went about their business in this player’s auction.
Mumbai Indians
Players bought: Seven
Purse spent: INR 11.70 Cr
Purse left: INR 3.65 Cr
Squad strength: 25
Players retained: Rohit Sharma (C), Aditya Tare, Anmolpreet Singh, Anukul Roy, Dhawal Kulkarni, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Jasprit Bumrah, Jayant Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Quinton de Kock, Rahul Chahar, Suryakumar Yadav, Trent Boult, Chris Lynn, Saurabh Tiwary, Mohsin Khan
Full list of players Mumbai purchased:
| Nathan Coulter-Nile | Bowler | ₹5,00,00,000 |
| Adam Milne | Bowler | ₹3,20,00,000 |
| Piyush Chawla | Bowler | ₹2,40,00,000 |
| James Neesham | All-Rounder | ₹50,00,000 |
| Yudhvir Charak | All-Rounder | ₹20,00,000 |
| Marco Jansen | All-Rounder | ₹20,00,000 |
| Arjun Tendulkar | All-Rounder | ₹20,00,000 |
As expected, Mumbai’s primary focus was adding versatility in their bowling attack. They needed as few overseas fast bowlers and to fill the slots they repurchased Nathan Coulter-Nile for INR 5 Cr alongside New Zealand’s Adam Milne and young South African pace bowling all-rounder Marco Jansen. The team management also opted to go for a bating all-rounder – James Neesham.
The Kiwi cricketers primarily seems like a cover for someone like Kieron Pollard and unlikely to feature in the first-choice XI. The The defending champions further beefed up their spin attack by picking up Piyush Chawla, who will give Rahul Chahar a stiff competition for a spot in the playing XI.
Yudhvir Charak and Arjun Tendulkar have come in as uncapped all-rounders and unlikely to be a part of their scheme of things in the upcoming season.
Chennai Super Kings
Players bought: Six
Purse spent: INR 17.35 cr
Purse left: INR 2.55 Cr
Squad strength: 25
Players retained: MS Dhoni (C), Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, KM Asif, Deepak Chahar, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, N Jagadeesan, Karn Sharma, Lungi Ngidi, Mitchell Santner, Ravindra Jadeja, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shardul Thakur, Sam Curran, Josh Hazlewood, R Sai Kishore, Robin Uthappa
Full list of players CSK purchased:
| Krishnappa Gowtham | All-Rounder | ₹9,25,00,000 |
| Moeen Ali | All-Rounder | ₹7,00,00,000 |
| Cheteshwar Pujara | Batsman | ₹50,00,000 |
| K.Bhagath Varma | All-Rounder | ₹20,00,000 |
| C Hari Nishaanth | Batsman | ₹20,00,000 |
| M. Harisankar Reddy | Bowler | ₹20,00,000 |
Paying as many as 9.25 Cr for an uncapped cricketer is pretty rare in CSK’s standards but on Thursday the ‘Yellow Brigade’ seemed adamant. They needed an Indian spin all-rounder and got it in the form of Krishnappa Gowtham following an intense bidding war. Meanwhile, following a failed pursuit of Glenn Maxwell, CSK aggressively went for Moeen Ali and eventually secured his services. Both these all-rounders suit ideally to the slow-low surface of Chennai and of course the scheme of things of MS Dhoni.
Getting Cheteshwar Pujara on board was more like showing respect to the legend. However, the CSK management considers him as a back-up for Suresh Raina, who last season had some off the issues with the team opted out of the tournament.
CSK also bought Andhra fast bowler M. Harisankar Reddy Hyderabad slow-bowling all-rounder K Bhagath Varma and Tamil Nadu opener C Hari Nishaanth at their base price.