Comeback man Ashish Nehra will also play for Hyderabad this year as the Sunrisers bought him for Rs 5.50 crore.
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Yuvraj has a base price of Rs 2,00,00,000 this year and it will be interesting to see whether the franchises opt to go the distance for the veteran southpaw. IPL Auction starts at 9.30 AM IST. Pune and Bangalore bid for Watson, who recently hit a T20I century against India.
Rising Pune Supergiants have won the services of Ishant Sharma at Rs 3.8 crore. Meanwhile, Kings XI Punjab will have to look for bowlers -and a player with leadership abilities -as they go into the new season without a captain. Ishant Sharma has not created an impact on any of the IPLs either.
AM: SOLD – Pune buy Pietersen for Rs 3.5 crore. With this the number of marquee players in the auction goes up to nine.
The stage is set for the ninth edition of cash-rich an Indian Premier League (IPL) as all the eight franchises will fight it out in the broad room before ground. Apart from a handful of players, most Indian and foreign cricketers have comparable base prices, and bidding for them would be heated.
The capped players from other countries taking part in the auction are: South Africa – 18 players, West Indies – 20, Sri Lanka – 16, England – 7, New Zealand – 9 and Bangladesh – 5, Canada – 2 and Ireland – 2.
With a majority of the teams having retained their core players, attention will be riveted on the strategy adopted by the two new entrants – Rising Pune Supergiants and Gujarat Lions – as they try to beef up their respective units led by M.S. Dhoni and Suresh Raina respectively. Players like Watson, Martin Guptill, Aaron Finch, Jose Buttler and Dwayne Smith will be chased but it is likely that an Indian rather than a foreigner who will command the highest bid. In 2014, Royal Challengers Bangalore spent Rs. 14 crore and past year, Delhi Daredevils signed him up for Rs. 16 crore!
A BCCI press release stated: “In terms of available spots, if every franchise were to have the maximum of 27 players in their squad, 116 will be taken in the auction (of which upto 36 may be from overseas)”.
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Traditionally, Indian players have always been the top picks by teams.
