The 17-year old legspinner, who has played grade cricket in Sydney alongside former Australia captain Michael Clarke, was bought by the Delhi Daredevils for his base price of INR 20 lakh (USD 31000 approx).
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Set amongst the backdrop of the most passionate and vocal cricket fans in the world, it is quite a spectacle.
The veteran paceman picked up a maiden one-day global five-wicket haul, and as he shredded England’s batting he was in the middle of a wild bidding war between the Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab – leading to a life-changing $1.4 million (7.2 crore) deal. “One will agree that eventually players go, move on, retire”. I am particularly delighted to see the faith they have shown in budding Indian cricketers and also uncapped players from overseas.
Ashwin was an integral part of CSK’s spectacular run in the opening decade after making his debut in 2009 and remains the side’s highest wicket-taker with 90 scalps. Here is the list of top players who didn’t receive a contract.
Paceman Chris Jordan, who like Billings has played in the IPL before, was bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad for £110,000.
Little-known Jofra Archer from the West Indies attracted a Rs 7.2 crore winning bid from Rajasthan Royals. He was one of the top-performers for RCB.
CSK bid for Ashwin till the mark of four crores and left him.
While Kings XI Punjab were the most active among all the teams with co-owner Preity Zinta raising the paddle for nearly every player, Sunrisers Hyderabad made the most investments, buying 14 players.
Among global players, last year’s top pick allrounder Ben Stokes saw the most aggressive bidding, finally getting sold for Rs 12.5 crore (Rajasthan Royals).
When Chris Gayle gets sold at his base price after his name is brought out for the third time during an auction of a T20 tournament, it perhaps tells one the story.
Boult sold for the same price as Australian Nathan Coulter-Nile who was snared by RCB.
Hashim Amla, surprisingly, was one of the unsold players despite his stunning performance in 2017 edition.
However, there were no takers for big global names such as Dale Steyn, England’s Eoin Morgan and New Zealand’s Corey Anderson.
Another Afghani teenager, legspinner Rashid Khan, snared $1.92 million to Sunrisers Hyderabad in a super competitive spinners’ group which saw Sodhi miss out.
I think England are still improving and showing that they have got some very, very good white-ball players, some have been snapped up, some haven’t.
Pre-auction predictions were unsafe and expectations were low, the mantra repeated by various New Zealand hopefuls who’d described the auction as a lottery.
Punjab opener Manan Vohra, who was in sublime touch in the recently concluded domestic T20 event, got a Rs 1.1 crore deal from Royal Challengers Bangalore.
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Williamson’s reserve was $321,000 but, as the bidding paddles duelled, his value doubled to $641,000.
