BANGALORE: India’s rising star Ishan Kishan fetched a whopping $2 million in the auction for the Indian Premier League — the world’s most valuable cricket tournament — on Saturday.
Five-time champions Mumbai Indians bought back the 23-year-old Kishan, a wicketkeeper-batsman, in a fierce bidding war on a dramatic first day in Bangalore that witnessed auctioneer Hugh Edmeades retire midway after a fall.
Ten teams, including two new additions in Lucknow Super Giants and Gujarat Titans, started with a total purse of nearly $75 million to spend across two days.
Kishan’s fee fell short of the Indian record of $2.2m paid to Yuvraj Singh in the 2015 edition of the auction, which sets players’ salaries for the tournament.
South Africa’s Chris Morris is the most expensive IPL player ever, selling for $2.23 million last year.
Second to the left-handed Kishan, who made his international debut last year, was bowling all-rounder Deepak Chahar who was bought back by Chennai Super Kings for $1.85 million.
Shreyas Iyer, who stood out with his match-winning 80 in India’s 3-0 ODI whitewash of the West Indies on Friday, was won by Kolkata Knight Riders for $1.62m.
Kolkata secured a return for Australia’s Pat Cummins, who went to the same team for a record $2.17m in 2019 but was released last year, for nearly $1m.
Cummins and Iyer remain Kolkata’s options for the captaincy after they did not retain England’s Eoin Morgan — who led them to the runners-up spot last season.
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Pace bowler Harshal Patel, who played just two T20 matches for India last year, went for $1.42 million to Royal Challengers Bangalore, who also got Sri Lankan spinner Wanindu Hasaranga at the same price.
Edmeades — a former chairman of Christie’s South Kensington in London — collapsed during the bidding for Hasaranga and organisers said later he was “stable” under medical care.
Veteran sports presenter Charu Sharma took over for the rest of the day.
The auction kicked off with Shikhar Dhawan, the Indian opener going to Punjab Kings for $1.09 million. Punjab also got South African pace bowler Kagiso Rabada for $1.22 million.
New Zealand pace bowler Trent Boult also crossed the million-dollar threshold with his $1.06 million signing by Rajasthan Royals, who also won the bidding for Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.
Ashwin joins England’s Jos Buttler at Rajasthan after a sportsmanship row between the two erupted 2019, when the spinner ran out the star batsman at the non-striker’s end in a Mankad dismissal.
“We spoke to Jos prior to the auction and just talked through all of our prioritisation of players. Honestly he didn’t even think about it,” said Rajasthan chief executive Jake Lush McCrum.
“I had to sort of bring it up to check it was okay and he said it’s absolutely fine.”
South Africa’s Faf du Plessis went to Royal Challengers Bangalore while Delhi Capitals got David Warner for $826,000.
West Indies wicketkeeper-batsman Nicholas Pooran went to Sunrisers Hyderabad for $1.42m. West Indies all-rounder Jason Holder went to Lucknow for $1.16 million.
New Zealand quick Lockie Ferguson went to Gujarat for $1.32 while England pace bowler Mark Wood went to Lucknow for $1m.
The teams have been bidding for 600 foreign and Indian players in the auction — which concludes Sunday — to reset their teams after retaining few of their top players. The 15th edition of the IPL begins in late March, with the final in May.
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