IPL Auction 2017: Expectations were high when the Indian Premier League 2017 auction kicked off at the ITC Gardenia in Bangalore for the ninth time in the history of the tournament. Eyes were there on a number of players who were expected to hog the limelight. But as we all know, the Indian Premier League has always been a stage where predictions do not work out at all. And the auction has been a clear indication of that. As we come to an end of a fascinating session in the IPL auction 2017, we bring up all the action that took place in Bangalore in a nutshell
Ben Stokes Hogs the Limelight
It was one of the expected headlines that Ben Stokes will be the focal point of the IPL Auction 2017 particularly because of the fact that most of the franchises have retained the popular players. But what happened during the auction is something what you can call out-of-the-world. A whooping 14.5 crore INR is the price at which Rising Pune Supergiants got hold of the English all-rounder. A huge tug of war broke out between the franchises once the auctioneer called out the name of the English middle order batsman cum fast bowler. In the end, RPS managed to get hold of the star performer at the cost of such a hefty amount.
Pacers Got the Extra Bit
It was really fascinating to see the fast bowlers and the medium pace bowlers getting some high amount of money in a game that is ruled by the batsmen. If Ben Stokes got the highest bid, other pacers were not too far away. Tymal Mills got the second highest bid with Royal Challengers Bangalore breaking the bank for the T20 specialist from England.
The third Englishman Chris Woakes went to Kolkata Knight Riders and he was sold out for Rs. 4.2 crore. KKR got hold of Trent Boult at a price of 5 crore. Pat Cummins got a new team in the IPL 2017 in the form of Delhi Daredevils and he has been bought at a price of Rs. 4.5 crore. Young South African Kagiso Rabada was sold sold for a hefty amount of Rs. 5 crore and he found a buyer in Delhi daredevil as well. Nathan Coulter-Nile (Rs. 3.5 crore) got a buyer in the form of KKR while his fellow international Mitchell Johnson was sold out to Mumbai Indians at the cost of Rs. 2 crore.
Indians Were not too Far Away
The tournament is after all a domestic tournament in India and it should not be a surprise if the Indian bowlers get high amount of money. And there quite a few surprises as far as the Indian bowlers are concerned. Aniket Choudhary and T Natarajan were the two big surprises for they were the lesser known bowlers before the IPL Auction 2017 had kicked off. But they are no more just a mere name as Aniket Choudhary was sold out to RCB for Rs. 2 crore and T Natarajan got Rs. 3 crore from Kings Xi Punjab. Yet another youngster K Gowtham will play for Mumbai Indians at a price of Rs. 2 crore. Two of the familiar faces, Varun Aaron and Karn Sharma also got agood amount of money with the teams bidding up to Rs. 2.8 crore and Rs. 3.2 crore respectively. While Karn Sharma will play for the Mumbai outfit, Aaron will wear the KXIP colors.
Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan – The Surprise Package
As we all know and even something that it has been mentioned earlier, IPL is never short of surprises. Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan are the prime examples of that. It was a great day for the associate nation as one of their experienced players got a team in the Indian Premier League for the first who was followed up by their rising star Rashid Khan. Nabi and Rashid Khan, both were bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad. While Nabi was bought at the base price of Rs. 30 lacs, SRH shelled out Rs. 4 crore for the 18-year old leggie Rashid Khan.
World No. 1 Remains Unsold
The Indian Premier League is synonymous with surprise. And we have got yet another instance that provides enough evidence of that fact. World number 1 in T20 internationals Imran Tahir remained unsold. If Ben Stokes getting the highest bid is going to be the headline, Tahir’s failure to find a bidder will surely be one of the biggest shocks of all. A number of other players also did not find any team which includes the likes of Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Kyle Abbott, RP Singh, Brad Haddin and many others. However, nothing can match the shock of Tahir missing out on an opportunity to play in the IPL 2017.
Indian Premier League Auction 2017: Players Sold
Delhi Daredevils – Angelo Matthews, Corey Anderson, Kagiso Rabada, Pat Cummins, Ankit Bawne, Aditya Tare, Murugan Ashwin, Navdeep Saini and Shashank Singh
Gujarat Lions – Jason Roy, Manpreet Gony, Nathu Singh, Basil Thampi, Tejas Baroka, Munaf Patel, Chirag Suri, Shelley Shaurya, Shubham Agarwal, Pratham Singh and Akashdeep Nath
Kings XI Punjab – Eoin Morgan, Matt Henry, Martin Guptill, Darren Sammy, Varun Aaron, Rahul Tewatia, T Natarajan and Rinku Singh
Kolkata Knight Riders – Trent Boult, Chris Woakes, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rishi Dhawan, Rovman Powell, R Sanjay Yadav, Ishank Jaggi, Darren Bravo and Sayan Ghosh
Mumbai Indians – Mitchell Johnson, Asela Gunaratne, Nicholas Pooran, K Gowtham, Karn Sharma, Saurabh Tiwary and Kulwant Khejroliya
Rising Pune Supergiants – Ben Stokes, Daniel Christian, Jaydev Unadkat, Rahul Chahar, Saurabh Kumar, Milind Tandon, Rahul Tripathi, Manoj Tiwary and Lockie Ferguson
Royal Challengers Bangalore – Tymal Mills, Pawan Negi, Aniket Choudhary, Praveen Dubey and Billy Stanlake
Sunrisers Hyderabad – Mohammad Nabi, Chris Jordan, Ben Laughlin, Tanmay Agarwal, Eklavya Dwivedi, Rashid Khan, Pravin Tambe and Mohammed Siraj.
Wrap Up
It remains to be seen whether the players who have got the highest bids manage to live up to the expectations. Also, questions can be raised regarding the fact that the likes of Ben Stokes won’t be able to be a part of the business end of the tournament and the playoffs. So it is highly debatable if the decision to shell out such hefty amount of money for the players who are going to leave the tournament before its end. However, one good thing about the IPL has always been the exposure that the young Indian players get and the IPL Auction 2017 has been no exception. And all this sets up for an exciting season ahead in the Indian Premier League 2017 which is scheduled to begin on April 5. The inaugural match will be a repeat of the last year’s final which was played out between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore.
