Punjab Kings broke the bank for England batter, Liam Livingstone, on Day 2 of IPL mega auction 2022, acquiring him for a staggering Rs 11.5 crore. The Punjab team also roped in West Indies fast bowler Odean Smith for Rs 6 crore.
While Livingstone bagged a mega-deal, his compatriots Eoin Morgan, Chris Jordan and Dawid Malan went unsold.
IPL Auction Day 2 Live
For their left-arm variety, second-string India pacers like Khaleel Ahmed and Chetan Sakariya got handsome deals of Rs 5.25 crore and Rs 4.20 crore, respectively.
Among Indians, all-rounder Shivam Dube fetched Rs 4 crore from Chennai Super Kings for his six-hitting abilities while Gujarat Titans bagged another out of favour multi-skilled player Vijay Shankar for Rs 1.4 crore.
Liam Livingstone played for Rajasthan Royals last season. Image: Sportzpics for IPL
CSK also picked up little-known Sri Lankan spinner Mahesh Theeksana (70 lakh), who had looked impressive against India when they toured the island nation in July last year.
Cheteshwar Pujara predictably went unsold at the auction while Ajinkya Rahae got a base price of Rs1 crore from Kolkata Knight Riders.
However, the first session’s highlight was Livingstone, who hit the million-dollar plus mark with five teams bidding for him at one point in time.
However, it must be mentioned that Livingstone played for Rajasthan Royals in the previous season and didn’t actually perform well on slow tracks but franchises with still slots to fill (minimum 18 per squad) looked desperate for him.
Marco Jansen, the South African pacer, who tormented India during the Test series, got Rs 4.2 crore from Sunrisers Hyderabad.
The two teams that engaged in a bidding war were SRH and Punjab with more than 20 crore and 28 crore in their kitty at the start of the day.
Odean Smith’s price shot up as he recently impressed with his pace and control against India in the ODI series and also showed that he can hit the ball a long way.
Smith has had the reputation of breaking Chris Gayle’s bat during the Caribbean Premier League with his sheer pace and no wonder Punjab went the distance with their adequate resources.
“I think, it is not just about the the recent performances, we all know he (Odean) is an upcoming talent and he has showcased his power, bowling skills and also his batting skills and we saw that on display against India here in the one-dayers,” Punjab Kings head coach Anil Kumble said.
“So we have been tracking the players for a while and we are very glad that someone like Odean as an all-rounder for us we have been able to secure, so really happy with that player onto Punjab,” he added.
Baffling strategy by Mumbai Indians
Mumbai Indians started the day with more than Rs 27 crore left in their purse but had to fill up at least 10 slots. However, they were strangely subdued during the first session before bidding conservatively for Navdeep Saini, but it was Rajasthan Royals who won the bid at Rs 2.40 crore.
The MI corner had something to smile about when they got Jaydev Unadkat for Rs 1.30 crore. They also bagged leg-spinner Mayank Markande for Rs 65 lakh, but the spark that is so typical of MI’s style of bidding for match-winners, was missing and not too many such players are now left.
Lucknow Super Giants have some bargain buys
Lucknow Super Giants had the least purse (Rs 6.90 crore) at the start of the day but after having created a good first XI on the opening day, the Sanjiv Goenka-owned franchise couldn’t bid aggressively on the second day and settled for bargain buys like Krishnappa Gowatham, who, from his Rs 9 crore-plus bid from CSK last season, ended with a Rs 90 lakh deal.
As a backup pacer, Sri Lanka’s Dushmantha Chameera was picked up by Lucknow.
U-19 WC star Bawa gets multi-crore deal
Delhi Capitals got U-19 World Cup-winning captain Yash Dhull for only Rs 50 lakh as there wasn’t much bidding over his base price of Rs 20 lakh. Dhull is a product of Delhi Capitals Academy.
However, it was all-rounder Raj Angad Bawa, who had a lot of interest shown by franchises before Punjab Kings snapped the local boy for Rs 2 crore.
His colts teammate Rajvardhan Hangargekar got a good bid from CSK, who bought the pacer for Rs 1.5 crore.
With PTI inputs
Full list of sold and unsold players from 2022 IPL auction
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