Bengaluru, Jan 27 (UNI) Recent controversy of a brawl outside a pub notwithstanding, English all-rounder Ben Stocks was hot property being sold at whooping Rs 12.5 Crore lapped up by Rajasthan Royals, while Karnataka batsmen Manish Pandey and K L Rahul created flutter pocketing Rs 11 Crore each on the opening day of the IPL 2018 Player Auction here on Saturday.
Stokes was seen in poor light in the recent times for his off the field acts leading to an inquiry ordered by England Cricket Board and was left out of the country’s squad but he was the most sought after all-rounder at the auction with IPL franchises ready to loosen their purse for the burly all rounder after he had received a
clearance by ECB to play in the IPL.
Prolific Karnataka batsmen Pandey and Rahul also attracted lot of attention with King’s XI Punjab Priety Zinta bidding aggressively for the opening batsman and bagged Rahul for Rs 11 crore while middle order batsman Pandey commanded a similar price by Sunrisers Hyderarbad. Another Karnataka batsman Karun Nair with a base price of Rs 50 lakh, went for Rs 5.6 crore to KXIP which looked to hunt for top batsmen.
The other top players who commanded good prices were Australians Mitchell Starc (Rs 9.4 Crore to KKR), Chris Lynn (Rs 9.6 Crore to KKR), Aussie Glen Maxwell (Rs 9 crore DD), India’s middle order bat
Kedar Jadhav (Rs 7.8 Crore to CSK) and English bowling all-rounder Chris Woakes (Rs 7.4 to RCB), Australian batsman Aaron finch (Rs 6.2 Crore to KXIP) and Dwayne Bravo (Rs 6.4 Crore to CSK).
Those who had a disappointing day were West Indian explosive batsman Chris Gayle, who had a long stint at RCB but was not retained, went unsold along with England skipper Joe Root, Australian fast bowler James Faulkner, Indian opener Murali Vijay, South African Hashim Amla and Kiwi Martin Guptill. But all these marquee players will come for re-auction tomorrow and most of them are likely to be picked up.
Those who were sold but still could manage only their base price to be deeply disappointed were Yuvraj Singh, who was sold for Rs Two Crore to Chennai Super Kings. Yuvi had commanded Rs 14 crore and Rs 16 Crore during the last two seasons. Harbhajan Singh also dissapionted when CSK picked him up for the base price of Rs Two Crore.
Among the bowlers, apart from Starc, R Ashwin was in much demand with KXIP buying him for Rs 7.6 Crore. Interestingly while Ashwin moves to KXIP after serving CSK for a long time and Harbhajan leaves Punjab to join the Chennai outfit.
CSK and Rajasthan Royals are making a comeback into IPL after a ban of two years following a corruption scam.
Among the Wicketkeeper-batsmen seasoned Sanju Samson commanded the highest bid of Rs 8 Crore when Rajasthan Royals made the highest bid, while seasoned Dinesh Karthik got Rs 7.4 Crore and went to Kolkata Knight Riders. Robin Uthappa earned Rs 6.4 Crore when KKR won the bid and Wriddhiman Saha was bought for Rs 5 Crore by Sunrisers.
Among the fast bowlers Indian Umesh Yadav and Protea Kagiso Rabada attracted an identitical Rs 4.2 Crore apiece bid by RCB and DD while Mohammed Shami was bid for Rs 3 Crore by Daredevils.
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