Hits, misses and surprises from Indian Premier League auction 2016

Bengaluru, by Akash Sarkar • Last updated on Sunday, 07 February, 2016, 01:13 AM

Pawan Negi was bought by Delhi for a whopping Rs. 8.5 crore - the second highest bid for the day © BCCI

Going into the Indian Premier League auction 2016 on Saturday (February 6), the likes of Shane Watson and Yuvraj Singh were expected to fetch a fat pay cheque. Watson eventually went to Royal Challengers Bangalore for Rs 9.5 crore while Yuvraj went to Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs. 7 crore but not before the franchises surprised everyone by not going after him straight away. Mumbai Indians went for him after a lengthy delay before Bangalore and Hyderabad joined in.

It was interesting to see that the franchises were a bit cautious throughout the day and while there was aggressive bidding in some cases, it didn't stretch past the Rs. 10 Crore mark - a mark breached quite a few times last year.

"Having been in this in the last eight years the franchises have become very smart. They know when to enter a bid and when to leave. They know what team they want and they get it," explained TA Sekar, the Delhi Daredevils coach. 

Preity Zinta too had the same version to offer. "Franchises here, who have been here the longest, understand that you play to a plan and not bid for the players."

But the auction was much more than who fetched what. There were winners, some bystanders, a few surprises and a few lucky steals.

The winners

These are good times from Pawan Negi. He has done well for the Delhi state side and was named in the squad for the Asia Cup and the ICC World T20 2016. To make things better, he was bought by Delhi for a whopping Rs. 8.5 crore - the second highest bid for the day.

It was a good day for Jos Buttler and Chris Morris as well. The England wicket-keeper was bought by Mumbai for Rs. 3.8 crore and we are all aware of what he's capable of.However, a few people were a bit surprised when, Morris who had a base price of Rs. 50 lakh, was bought by Delhi for Rs. 7 crore.

"We feel Morris is a very good bowler, who can bat a bit. Everyone thinks, T20 is about batsmen, but if you have a good bowling side you can restrict the opposition under 150 and then chase it down easily. Morris was very much in our plans," said Sekar, explaining why Delhi went after him.

The bystanders

It's hard to understand what Martin Guptill or Usman Khawaja are feeling now. Both have piled up runs at an astonishing rate and yet fail to find a spot in the IPL.

Especially Khawaja, who has had scored of 174, 121, 109 not out, 144, 56, 62, 104 not out, 70 and 50 in his last ten games across formats. He finished as the second-highest run-getter in the Big Bash League 2015-16 with 345 runs from just four games at an average of 172.50 and a strike rate of 163.50. Still not good enough?

On the other hand, Michael Hussey just led Sydney Thunder to their maiden Big Bash title this season but him going unsold sends across a clear message that the franchises are looking for multidimensional players.

The surprises

Even Carlos Brathwaite was surprised when he saw Kolkata and Delhi going aggressively after him. For someone, who's highest score in Twenty20 is 36, the franchises much have seen something special in him to go after him. From a base price of Rs 30 lakh, he finally went to Delhi for a whopping Rs. 4.2 crore.

Kings XI Punjab started slow, bidding for Ishant Sharma and Ashish Nehra but soon pulled out. They picked up the pace when Mitchell Marsh was up for grabs but went after Mohit Sharma and grabbed him for Rs. 6.5 crore. "We were made to stretch for Mohit Sharma," said a beaming Zinta. "We needed someone, who can bowl at the death and he was our first choice."

And then added: "We've just heard that Mohit is getting married. His fiance is really lucky from him." Surely that can't be the only reason.

Rishabh Pant has been in good form but even he wouldn't have expected for the teams to go as high as Rs. 1.9 crore. What was surprising to see was Delhi went after the wicketkeeper even with Samson and Quinton de Kock in their ranks. They then went on to bag Sam Billings, another wicketkeeper, for Rs. 30 lakh as well. It'll be interesting to see how many chances the Under-19 star will get or the other keepers for that matter.

Understandably surprised with teams going after uncapped players, Richard Madley, the auctioneer, chipped in: "They make more money if they are uncapped. Next year we'll put uncapped players up front."

If Khawaja and Guptill going unsold wasn't baffling enough, the franchises surprised everyone by not going after the spinners. "Spinners are not to popular this morning. Can't sell if you don't bid me. Let's get a spinner sold," urged Madley to the franchises without much effect with Sachitra Senanayake, Veerasammy Permaul, Nathan Lyon, Devendra Bishoo, Michael Beer, Ajantha Mendis, Sulieman Benn, Rahul Sharma, Samuel Badree and Pragyan Ojha all going unsold.

Lucky grabs

Colin Munro, at his best, can be destructive. Ask the Sri Lanka bowlers and Guptill. The New Zealand opener set a record for the fastest T20I fifty, off 19 balls, from a New Zealand batsman but the record lasted just 20 minutes. Munro raced to 50 in just 14 balls. It wasn't a surprise to see the Kolkata paddle going up straight away as soon as his name came up. There were no more bids after that for him and that meant Kolkata stole the power-packed left-hander at a very cheap price.

Travis Head, on the other hand, emerged as the fifth-highest run-getter in the Big Bash 2015-16 with 299 runs from nine games at a strike rate of 154.92 to go with his six wickets at an average of just 19.66. Bangalore and Pune were interested in him before the former bought him for just Rs. 50 lakhs - a steal by all means.

Rags to riches

There was no fairytale for KC Cariappa this time but Nathu Singh and M Ashwin will be on cloud nine. Nathu was bought by Mumbai for Rs. 3.2 crore. Son of a labourer working in a wire factory, Nathu was spotted by Rahul Dravid and impressed everyone during the Board President's XI vs South Africa match, though he ended with just one wicket from his 14 overs.

Google M Ashwin + cricket and most results that'll come up in front of you will relate to R Ashwin. The legspinner has played just three first-class games, two List A and six T20 games for Tamil Nadu, yet Bangalore and Pune bid for him did not have second thoughts while bidding for him. It went up as high as Rs. 4.20 crore and he was eventually bought by Pune. The legspinner attended trials conducted by Punjab, Bangalore and Delhi before the auction. No wonder Bangalore were after him.

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There were some interesting moments, a few funny ones, some aggressive biding, a few decisions that'll completely change the lives of a few players and some baffling calls that shocked us and Jimmy Neesham as well.