LSG and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) started bidding for Pant, with Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) joining the race as soon as RCB withdrew. SRH and LSG raised the bid to INR 20.75 crore, at which point SRH withdrew and Pant was sold to LSG. The auctioneer then asked Delhi Capitals (DC) if they wanted to use a right to match (RTM) option to buy back Pant, and DC said yes. As per the new RTM rules in this auction, the team that won the bid was given another opportunity to increase its bid, which LSG did from INR 20.75 million to INR 27 million. DC said it did not want to match the offer, which meant Pant was sold to LSG for a record price.
“No matter how much you plan, things don’t always work out like that,” said Shashwat Goenka, owner of LSG. “That (getting Pant for 27 crore) was very much in line with our plan. It wasn’t really a magic number, we just wanted a number so that the RTM wouldn’t be exercised.”
Shreyas was the third player for sale from the first set of star players and KKR opened the bidding in a bid to rescue their title-winning captain. However, they withdrew from the INR 10 crore bid, following which DC and PBKS were competing for Shreyas, with both teams in need of captains. PBKS, which came with the biggest purse of INR 110.5 million, won the bid for INR 26.75 million.
Ricky Ponting, the new PBKS coach, said he was delighted to be working with Shreyas again after their time together at DC. “I haven’t spoken to him yet, I tried calling him before the auction but he didn’t answer,” he said when asked if Shreyas would be the new captain of PBKS. “He has already been a successful captain in the IPL, I worked with him for 3-4 years in Delhi and he was the league winner last season. I will be very happy.”
New homes for Buttler, Starc and Rabada
“I am very happy to have Jos Buttler at our side. He can bat anywhere, he can also keep, and he can also help Shubman,” said GT assistant coach Parthiv Patel. “We wanted to buy our No. 1 pitcher and our No. 1 marquee batter and we have both.”
KKR and MI began bidding for Starc, with RCB also showing interest before being bought by DC for INR 11.75 crore (US$1.40 million approximately), which represents a huge pay cut from his former record price of INR 24.75 crore last year (US$ 2.98 million approximately at that time).
Big payday for Chahal
Silent start for CSK, MI, KKR and RR
There were a total of 12 players in the first two sets, of which PBKS and GT each purchased three; DC and LSG bought two each; and RCB and SRH bought one. CSK, MI, KKR and RR are yet to make a successful bid for a player.
Arshdeep is the only RTM purchase of sign sets
While there were several opportunities for teams to use their RTM options to buy back their former players in main sets, PBKS was the only team to do so successfully when they bought back Arshdeep. They exercised their RTM option after SRH increased its final offer for Arshdeep from INR 15.75 million to INR 18 million.
More to follow …
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