It was an action packed day at the IPL Auction 2011, with as many as 88 players going under the hammer. Previous records in terms of bidding prices were broken, with several players attracting impressive bids. Here, then, is a quick summary of how things stand from a cricketing point of view at the end of Day 1 of the auction.
Chennai Super Kings:The Kings had already exercised their right to retain four players as per existing IPL rules. MS Dhoni, Murali Vijay, Suresh Raina and Albie Morkel were the ones who were picked to continue with the franchise before the fresh auction. Today, CSK successfully bid for Doug Bollinger and R Ashwin, players who have represented them in previous seasons, and strengthened their bowling department. They also got a reserve wicketkeeper in the form of Wriddhiman Saha, while Mike Hussey, S Badrinath and Dwayne Bravo shore up their batting resources.
Deccan Chargers:The Chargers must have been happy with themselves having picked up some big names– Kevin Pietersen, Cameron White, Kumar Sangakkara, JP Duminy and Dale Steyn - in today’s auction. The only problem with this list is that barring Shikhar Dhawan, whom they bought, they don’t have an Indian name representing them in the batting department. Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha and Amit Mishra were good bowling picks.
Delhi Daredevils:Virender Sehwag was the only player retained by the Daredevils. And today, they got David Warner, the explosive T20 specialist, to partner with Sehwag right at the top of the innings. Morne Morkel, the South African pacer who was impressive against India in the recent Test series, was also a good pick. As was Irfan Pathan who gives the Daredevils flexibility with his all-round ability. Naman Ojha (wicketkeeper), James Hopes (all-rounder) and Aaron Finch were the other names picked by the franchise.
Kings XI Punjab:Having not retained any player from the previous seasons, Punjab made some good moves today. Adam Gilchrist, Shaun Marsh, Dinesh Karthik and Abhishek Nayar provide good batting strength to the side while in David Hussey they have got a potential match-winner with the bat. They may have Ryan Harris, Stuart Broad, Praveen Kumar and Piyush Chawla in their bowling department, but they lack a genuine strike bowler. KXIP should look to address this on Day 2.
Kolkata Knight Riders: After having three forgettable seasons in the IPL, KKR looked to make amends by picking up some proven match winners in this format of the game. Gautam Gambhir, who also fetched the highest bid in the auction at USD 2.4 million, Yusuf Pathan and Jacques Kallis have shown how much they bring to a side. Shakib Al Hasan, Eoin Morgan, Brad Haddin and Manoj Tiwary, on the other hand, are good solid picks. The only curiosity stems from KKR’s decision to buy Brett Lee. The Australian speedster’s recent injury woes may put a question mark on his continued availability.
Mumbai Indians:Like CSK, Mumbai too exercised their right to retain four players - Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh, Lasith Malinga and Kieron Pollard. Yet, given their cash constraints, they made some really good buys by picking Rohit Sharma, Andrew Symonds and David Jacobs to augment their batting department. James Franklin, too, who was the only bright spark in New Zealand’s recent ODI series performance in India, is a good pick given his all-round cricketing ability.
Rajasthan Royals:Having retained Shane Warne and Shane Watson, the Royals made very few successful bids today. Rahul Dravid, Paul Collingwood and Ross Taylor are all batsman and while Johan Botha is predominantly an off-spinner who can bat a bit, the emphasis for the Royals heading into Day 2 of the auction is two-fold. One, they need bowlers. And secondly, given that other than Dravid they have no other Indian name in the side, they will have to bid aggressively for the next set of Indian stars.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Zaheer Khan and Dirk Nannes were the big names they picked to spearhead their bowling attack. Equally impressive was their decision to get Saurabh Tiwary, Tillakaratne Dilshan and AB de Villiers to partner Virat Kohli (retained player) in the batting line-up. Cheteshwar Pujara, a youngster of immense promise as a batsman, may also prove to be a smart buy by the franchise, given that Pujara can guide the team through a batting collapse.
Team Kochi:This new entrant into the IPL successfully bid for as many as 11 players on Day 1. Parthiv Patel, Ravindra Jadeja are good buys for the franchise, but where this franchise did well was to get a good mix of star players - Muttiah Muralitharan, Mahela Jayawardene, Brendon Mc Cullum, S Sreesanth and RP Singh – who are capable of winning T20 games on their day. Kerala boy Sreesanth, additionally, should help build the fan base for the franchise. VVS Laxman, Brad Hodge, Steven Smith and Romesh Powar are the other players picked by the franchise.
Team Pune:The other new franchise in the IPL, besides Team Kochi. And although they bought only eight players as compared to Kochi’s 11, the fact that they picked up Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa and Callum Ferguson shows that the emphasis is on batting. Angelo Matthews and Nathan McCullum are good all-rounders to have, while Tim Paine, who is a wicketkeeper batsman, has impressed with his ability to hit the ball a long way. What they will need, though, is to provide an adequate backup to Ashish Nehra in the bowling department. Graeme Smith was picked by the franchise.
Akshay Manwani is part of the editorial team at BCCI.TV
