2018-19 IPL Auctions: The Review Part-I

Seeing Tuesday’s IPL Auction and the utterly mind-boggling sums of money that were doled out by the teams for some unfancied names and the “flavour-of-the-season” players has set my mind off to think a little bit and thus in this article, I try to evaluate the 8 teams on the basis of their performance on the auction table on Tuesday and see which teams can go back home happy and the ones that would probably be feeling a little queasy. This would be a two-part article and Part II is coming soon: -

1.       Chennai Super Kings: -

o   The defending champions came into this auction having released the least number of players (just 3 players were released by them) and with the smallest auction purse, which gives an indication of how settled their squad is, and had to buy just 2 players to complete their playing squad. They were able to do that by making a big-money signing in their former pacer Mohit Sharma for 5 crores, which kicked off the big money spree of buying Indian pacers and Mohit Sharma’s presence would now give Chennai a valuable and experienced backup option to Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur, while also signing Maharashtra batsman Ruturaj Gaikwad, who’s been in a good run of form in the domestic circuit. Thus, even if Chennai decide to play with exactly the same XI as that of the previous season, chances are that they would still look good to retain the title.

2.       Delhi Capitals: -

o They changed their name (which honestly sounds quite odd), a new management in JSW came over and in a pre-auction transfer, they even managed to get the unsettled Shikhar Dhawan to return home from the Sunrisers Hyderabad, but on seeing their squad post-auctions, they actually have managed to assemble a decent squad on paper. Slightly inexplicable and overpriced was their purchase of all-rounder Axar Patel at 5 crores, who has been bought to fulfil the gaps left by the trade of Shahbaz Nadeem & Abhishek Sharma to Sunrisers Hyderabad, but is a left-arm spinner who only darts the ball through and doesn’t generate much spin and is a left-handed batsman of very limited quality, thus ensuring that the gaps left by those departures aren’t yet filled properly. Hanuma Vihari was rewarded for his India call-up with a 2 crore bid, while Ishant Sharma and West Indies pacer Keemo Paul add further depth to their pace-bowling line-up and Jalaj Saxena gives them another all-round spin bowling option. But the purchases that actually excite me a lot are that of the young West Indies all-rounder Sherfane Rutherford and the experienced South African batsman Colin Ingram, whose performances in the Vitality T20 Blast in England as well as the Big Bash League fetched him a huge 6.4 crore bid from the Capitals and these two would add a lot of muscle to an already power-packed batting line-up which consists of Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, their young skipper Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant and Kiwi Colin Munro.

My Smart Pick: -

·         If you’ve followed the Caribbean Premier League this year and also the T10 League, then the name of Sherfane Rutherford would be a familiar one. This young West Indian all-rounder has garnered a reputation of being a monstrous six-hitter and was one of the breakout stars of the 2018 edition of the CPL, consequently earning a call-up to the West Indies T20 squad and a 2 crore bid in this auction from Delhi Capitals. He would provide Delhi with a useful backup option to Chris Morris for the later part of the tournament as he’s a very effective right-arm medium pacer as well.

3.      Kings XI Punjab: -

o   Another year and there was another reboot to the Kings as they decided to clear out with a majority of their squad of last year and also let go of their coach Brad Hodge and mentor Virender Sehwag on the back of another inconsistent season and handed the coaching role to former New Zealand coach Mike Hesson. Having walked into this auction with the highest auction purse, with around 36 crores to spend on new players, they literally decided to go grand with their spending. Amongst the proven international faces, they made a big money bid to sign England all-rounder Sam Curran for 7.2 crores, on the back of his stupendous performance in the England-India test series while also signing the explosive West Indies keeper-batsman Nicholas Pooran and pacer Mohammad Shami to add further quality to their pace attack. That wasn’t all as they spent further big money on young talent as evidenced by their massive money signing of Tamil Nadu mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy and also the young Prab Simran Singh, whose performances for the India U-19 team in the Under-19 Asia Cup was attracting lot of attention. If captain Ravichandran Ashwin and Hesson can settle down on the right combination and get the players to play to their optimum, then a playoff spot isn’t out of the question.

My Smart Pick: -

·         The Tamil Nadu Premier League has often thrown up some very interesting players of varying skill-sets and this time, it was Varun Chakravarthy who became the cynosure of attention from as many as five franchises during the auction as he signed a life-changing Rs. 8.4 crore contract. This architect-turned-cricketer, who has a fascinating back-story to him, bamboozled every batsman and even the commentators at the TNPL as well as the Vijay Hazare Trophy, where he emerged as the highest wicket-taker in the group stage. He’s tagged as a leg-spinner but as confessed by him in an interview, he can bowl six different variations in a single over and that doesn’t make good reading for any opposition batsmen, who also have to deal with the young Afghanistan star Mujeeb Ur Rahman, who would now be Varun’s teammate in this squad.

4.      Kolkata Knight Riders: -

o   Last year, KKR made it to the playoffs with the smallest squad size and battling injury problems to key personnel. At this auction, they bought West Indies T20 captain Carlos Brathwaite at an inflated 5 crores bid to serve as a backup for Andre Russell and then they went about in making bargain signings of New Zealand pacer Lockie Ferguson, South African tearaway quick Anrich Nortje and the English duo of left-arm pacer Harry Gurney & opening batsman Joe Denly. With this squad brimming with potential and proven T20 performers, KKR look ready to stake their claim for 3^rd IPL title.

My Smart Pick: -

• There have been instances where this format has been kind to the old and experienced players, but not many would've thought that Joe Denly would've experienced the kind of a renaissance that he's had in 2018. His outstanding performances as an opener at Kent during the Vitality T20 Blast and Sydney Sixers during the Big Bash League earned him a well-deserved England recall for their tour of Sri Lanka, 9 years after he last turned out for them and immediately delivered a man-of-the-match performance in the T20I against Sri Lanka dismantling the Sri Lankan batting with his newly-acquired skill at bowling good leg-spin. Buying Denly at his 1 crore base price now gives KKR a proper backup for Chris Lynn if he misses out on the later part of the IPL for the World Cup preparations for Australia.

Please do read this and offer your views and opinions and stay tuned for Part-II.