Muristek
Bengaluru, February 12
Ishan Kishan and Deepak Chahar clinched the most eye-popping deals as India's battle-hardened T20 exponents laughed their way to the bank on the opening day of the two-day IPL auction in which the highest bids were made for home-grown talent.
Kishan's Rs15.25 crore winning bid from Mumbai Indians pipped the Rs14 crore that CSK offered to retain Deepak Chahar today. Franchises showed prudence in overall spending but didn't hesitate to loosen the purse strings for proven performers, especially Indians.
There were 20 players sold for over a million US dollars, the most by far at any IPL auction, with most of the beneficiaries being Indian T20 specialists.
It was a satisfying pay day for all current India internationals, with Shreyas Iyer getting a staggering Rs12.25 crore deal from Kolkata Knight Riders and the multi-skilled Shardul Thakur making Delhi Capitals break the bank with Rs10.75 crore.
These two, along with Kishan and Chahar, were the top four buys of the day.
"I'm really excited to be back at MI. I know everyone has treated me there like a family so I am really happy to be there and I hope to give my best to the team. Thank you so much," said the 23-year-old Kishan in a video posted on his Twitter page.
Young pacer Prasidh Krishna (Rs10 crore) was paid big by Rajasthan Royals, while Washington Sundar, another India regular, got richer by Rs8.75 crore. Yuzvendra Chahal would be a bit disappointed as he came late in the day and could get 'only' Rs6.5 crore from Rajasthan Royals. Even a Nitish Rana, not an India regular but an IPL performer, was retained for Rs8 crore by KKR while uncapped Rahul Tripathi got Rs8.50 crore. —