IPL Auction 2019: Rookie Varun strikes treasure in Pink City

Varun Chakravarthy was an unknown commodity till 2pm on Tuesday. But by the time Indian Premier League auctions got over, this architect-turned-cricketer became the latest superstar of Indian cricket by fetching as much as Rs 8.4 crore bid against his name. 

This was all happening at a time when yesteryears superstar and once upon a time sold for Rs 16 crore, Yuvraj Singh was finding it hard to even get the base price of Rs 1 crore. 

Fortunately, veteran Yuvraj got a new home in Mumbai for his base price. But will have to live under the shadows of Chakravarthy, who was picked at 40 times more than his base price of Rs 20 lakh by Kings XI Punjab. 

Kings XI fought an intense war with Kolkata Knight Riders for this little known mystery spinner. The Punjab franchise further paid the maximum amount of Rs 7.2 crore, the highest for any overseas player, to English left-arm quick Sam Curran. And by snapping India’s pacer Mohammed Shami for another Rs 4.8 crore, Punjab outfit looks to have put much of their money in bowling department.

Who is Varun?

Chakravarthy story is even interesting because he began his career as a wicketkeeper-batsman as a 13-year-old kid. He was forced to ditch the game at a young age of 17 after being rejected several times in age-group tournaments.

He then pursued a five-year degree in architecture at the SRM University in Chennai. And went on to work as a freelance architect.

His passion for cricket was rekindled when playing tennis-ball cricket during his profession. Unable to resist the temptation to come back into the game, he he quit his job and joined CromBest Cricket Club as a seam-bowling allrounder.

As the luck would have it, a knee injury forced him to take up spin as an alternate career. And here he is, with a tag of mystery spinner, having seven different variations — off-break, leg-break, googly, carrom ball, flipper, top-spinner, a slider aimed at the toes of batsmen to york them — to accommodate in his six legitimate deliveries.

Rise of Shivam

Another player whose stock was touching roof was Mumbai’s 25-year-old all-rounder Shivam Dubey, who was grabbed by Royal Challengers Bangalore for Rs 5 crore.

It was a sweet reward for his five sixes that he hit against Baroda spinner Swapnil Singh only a day before the auctions in a Ranji Trophy game. Dubey first came into the limelight during the T20 Mumbai Premier League where he hammered veteran spinner Praveen Tambe for five consecutive sixes. There was no looking back for Dubey as he played a key part in Mumbai’s Vijay Hazare trophy triumph. His 567 runs, with two centuries, in six first class games has also made him a permanent in the Mumbai squad.

Unadkat lucky, again

Another surprise of the day was medium pacer Jaydev Unadkat with a price tag of Rs 8.4 crore, again from Rajasthan Royals. 

Having been released by the same team before the auctions, there were speculations that Royals termed his services last year as “heavily priced at Rs 11.5 crore”. But his old team lapped him once again, even though it was a bit low than the last, after fighting a big battle with Kings XI, Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Capitals. The Rajasthan Royals also bought Varun Aaron for Rs 2.40 crore.

In other picks of the day, Mumbai Indians first bought Sri Lankan veteran speedster Lasith Malinga for Rs 2 crore, before buying Punjab’s left-armer Barinder Sran for Rs 3.4 crore to share the new ball with him.

Indian veteran speedster Ishant Sharma had to be content with just Rs 1.1 crore with his home outfit. But Delhi splurged Rs 6.4 crore to buy New Zealand hard-hitter Colin Ingram. Axar Patel also attracted decent Rs 5 crore by Delhi franchise, while current Team India allrounder Hanuma Vihari had to be contentwith Rs 2 crore.

UNSOLD PLAYERS

Cheteshwar Pujara, Shaun Marsh, Brendon McCullum, Manoj Tiwary, Martin Guptill, Chris Woakes, Usman Khawaja, Naman Ojha, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Ben McDermott, Saurabh Tiwary, Hashim Amla, Angelo Mathews, Corey Anderson, Mushfiqur Rahim, Dale Steyn.