India’s rising star Ishan Kishan fetched a whopping $2 million in the IPL auction on Saturday.
Five-time champions the Mumbai Indians bought back the 23-year-old, a wicketkeeper-batsman, in a fierce bidding war on a dramatic first day in Bangalore where auctioneer Hugh Edmeades retired midway after a fall.
Ten teams, including two new additions in the Lucknow Super Giants and Gujarat Titans, started with a total purse of nearly $75m to spend across two days.
Kishan’s fee fell short of the Indian record of $2.2m paid to Yuvraj Singh in the 2015 edition of the auction, which sets players’ salaries for the tournament.
South Africa’s Chris Morris is the most expensive IPL player ever, selling for $2.23m last year.
Second to the left-handed Kishan, who made his international debut last year, was bowling all-rounder Deepak Chahar, who was bought back by the Chennai Super Kings for $1.85m.
Shreyas Iyer, who stood out with his match-winning 80 in India’s 3-0 ODI whitewash of the West Indies on Friday, was won by the Kolkata Knight Riders for $1.62m.
Kolkata secured a return for Australia’s Pat Cummins, who went to the same team for a record $2.17m in 2019 but was released last year, for nearly $1m.
Cummins and Iyer remain Kolkata’s options for the captaincy after they did not retain England’s Eoin Morgan – who led them to the runners-up spot last season.
Pace bowler Harshal Patel, who played just two T20I matches for India last year, went for $1.42m to the Royal Challengers Bangalore, who also got Sri Lanka spinner Wanindu Hasaranga at the same price.
Edmeades – a former chairman of Christie’s South Kensington in London – collapsed during the bidding for Hasaranga and organisers said later he was “stable” under medical care.
Veteran sports presenter Charu Sharma took over for the rest of the day.
The auction kicked off with Shikhar Dhawan, the India opener, going to the Punjab Kings for $1.09m.
Punjab also got Proteas pace bowler Kagiso Rabada for $1.22m (R18.6m).
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New Zealand pace bowler Trent Boult also crossed the million-dollar threshold with his $1.06m signing by the Rajasthan Royals, who also won the bidding for India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.
Ashwin joins England’s Jos Buttler at Rajasthan after a sportsmanship row between the two erupted 2019, when the spinner ran out the star batsman at the non-striker’s end in a Mankad dismissal.
“We spoke to Jos prior to the auction and just talked through all of our prioritisation of players. Honestly, he didn’t even think about it,” said Rajasthan chief executive Jake Lush McCrum. “I had to sort of bring it up to check it was OK and he said it’s absolutely fine.”
South Africa’s Faf du Plessis went to the Royal Challengers Bangalore for $929,000 (R14m), while the Delhi Capitals got David Warner for $826,000.
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West Indies wicketkeeper-batsman Nicholas Pooran went to the Sunrisers Hyderabad for $1.42m. West Indies all-rounder Jason Holder went to Lucknow for $1.16m.
New Zealand quick Lockie Ferguson was captured by Gujarat for $1.32m while England pace bowler Mark Wood went to Lucknow for $1m.
The teams have been bidding for 590 foreign and Indian players in the auction – which concludes on Sunday – to reset their teams after retaining few of their top players.
© Agence France-Presse
