The Indian players were in for a big surprise, some of the lesser-known players getting the nod ahead of the more established ones
The latest IPL auction was "one of the most trickiest auctions in IPL history", said TA Sekar, Director, GMR Sports Pvt Ltd that owns Delhi Daredevils.
"The auction went as per plan. We got all the players we wanted," Sekar, former pace bowling coach, told DNA from Bengaluru. "A lot of players who were unsold, when they came back, went for a huge price. People released players thinking they were going to get them cheap. But they also went for a big price." said Sekar, who was at the auction table representing his team along with other members of the Delhi Daredevils management.
Asked if the franchises went with any trend, Sekar said: "They have done home work. Now-a-days, the teams do their homework before coming to the auction. So, that is not a problem."
Delhi Daredevils spent Rs 14.05cr on the day on nine players including Rs12.50cr combined on overseas pace-bowlers all-rounders Kagiso Rabada, Patrick Cummins, and all-rounders Angelo Mathews and Corey Anderson.
The Indian players were in for a big surprise, some of the lesser-known players getting the nod ahead of the more established ones.
For starters, Ishant Sharma, who played for Rising Pune Supergiants last season, went unsold. The reason being that his base price of Rs 2cr was too high, felt some of the team owners.
"Ishant Sharma shouldn't have kept his base price at Rs 2 crore. Firstly, he doesn't play for India in T20s and not considered a white ball bowler. He is only playing Test cricket. Ideally, he should have shed his ego and kept his base price in the range of Rs 30 lakh. Varun Aaron gained just because of that even though Ishant probably has more quality," an IPL team official was quoted as saying.
Among other notable unsold players were Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara and Baroda and former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan.
Some of the beneficiaries were Tamil Nadu left-arm seamer T Natarajan, Karnataka off-spinner K Gowtham and Hyderabad right-arm medium-pacer Mohammed Siraj.
Natarajan benefitted from his performances in Tamil Nadu Premier League, where he bowled at an economy rate of 7.33. Natarajan was bought by Kings XI Punjab for Rs 3cr while Gowtham could not have timed better his assault on Australia spinners in their warm-up game that ended on Sunday. Gowtham, who was miserly at 5.58 in Karnataka Premier League, was purchased by Mumbai Indians for Rs 2cr.
Another interesting purchase is Siraj's for Rs2.60cr by Sunrisers Hyderabad. Siraj, who impressed in the Ranji Trophy for Hyderabad, bowled tidily in the Irani Cup for Rest of India and was included in the India A squad against Australia, though he did not get to play. Siraj is also the son of an auto driver in Hyderabad who has worked his way through difficulties to pursue cricket.
Also gaining majorly was Kerala speedster Basil Thampi, who clocked regularly 140kmph in the Mushtaq Ali T20 that was telecast live.
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The Indian players were in for a big surprise, some of the lesser-known players getting the nod ahead of the more established ones.
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