Jofra Archer is not expected to be available for IPL 2022 as he recovers from surgery on his right elbow, but that did not stop Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians, as well as Sunrisers Hyderabad, briefly, from bidding frenetically for him on the second day of the mega auction in Bengaluru. Archer was finally sold to Mumbai for INR 8 crore (USD 1.06 million), not making him the most expensive buy of the day but certainly a surprise one.
The most expensive player on the day, and the day's first millionaire, was Liam Livingstone, who at INR 11.5 crore (USD 1.53 million) also became the most expensive overseas buy of the auction when Punjab Kings beat off bids from Kolkata Knight Riders, Chennai Super Kings, Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers to get their hands on the hard-hitting England batting allrounder. He was also, overall, the fourth-highest earner in the auction, behind Ishan Kishan, Deepak Chahar and Shreyas Iyer, in that order.
ALSO READ: How the ten teams stack up
Mumbai, in fact, started the day slowly, barely getting involved in the first couple of hours, but when they did, they did so aggressively. After Archer, they went toe-to-toe with a desperate-looking Knight Riders to get hold of Tim David, and won the race at INR 8.25 crore (USD 1.1 million) from a base price of INR 40 lakh.
"It [Mumbai] has been a franchise that was really close to my heart and I always wanted to play for them as long as I could have remembered watching IPL cricket," Archer said in a message. "I'm so glad that I've finally got the opportunity to represent such an amazing franchise. I'm also going to get the chance to play with some of the biggest stars in the world so I'm really looking forward to starting a new chapter."
"Jofra is a player Mahela (Jayawardene, the head coach) gave his first professional debut to. So happy to have gotten them together," Akash Ambani, the Mumbai owner, said on the official broadcast. "Although it is going to be in next year, but very happy to have a lethal combination. Tymal (Mills, who was also bought by the franchise) has been a lethal death bowler; Mahela coaches him in the Hundred and he has managed to stay injury-free.
"Tim David is going to partner (Kieron) Pollard at No. 6. We have been tracking Tim and he has got success at RCB last year. Looking forward to seeing him and Pollard finishing innings for us."
Then, later, on to the final round, after the ten teams submitted their wishlists, with not much money left but some key slots left to fill. At least a couple of teams were still without a first-choice wicketkeeper.
Titans started with a relatively big purse, and snapped up David Miller for INR 3 crore (USD 400,000), Wriddhiman Saha for INR 1.9 crore (USD 252,000) and Matthew Wade for INR 2.4 crore (USD 319,000) very quickly.
Knight Riders, meanwhile, added Sam Billings as possibly their primary wicketkeeper for INR 2 crore (USD 265,000), while Chris Jordan went to Super Kings for INR 3.6 crore (USD 478,000).
Some other prominent names also found teams late in the script, among them Lungi Ngidi and Tim Seifert (Capitals), Glenn Phillips and Fazalhaq Farooqi (Sunrisers), Mohammad Nabi, Umesh Yadav and Alex Hales (Knight Riders), Evin Lewis (Super Giants), Nathan Ellis (Kings) and Karun Nair and James Neesham (Royals).
Earlier, Aiden Markram, the first name to go under the hammer on the second day, invited a cautious bidding battle between Kings and Sunrisers, with Mumbai entering the fray too, before Sunrisers took him home for INR 2.6 crore (USD 346,000). Ajinkya Rahane, a well-travelled player in the IPL who has also led the now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiant/s and Royals in the past, went to Knight Riders for his base price of INR 1 crore (USD 132,700).
Among the other players to attract interest from more than one team, and therefore earn a big payday, were Odean Smith, Marco Jansen, Shivam Dube, Khaleel Ahmed, Chetan Sakariya, Romario Shepherd and Rovman Powell.
Anil Kumble, the Kings' head coach, was pleased with how the franchise - one of the more aggressive bidders - had gone at the auction. "To get some great players in the lineup like Rabada, (Jonny) Bairstow and Dhawan along with Mayank (Agarwal)," he said. "Young players like (Rahul) Chahar, (Harpreet) Brar, Arshdeep (Singh)… now Livingstone and Odean, really exciting talent, is really good. To get back Shahrukh (Khan) is wonderful. Obviously, we wanted to have a few more who played for us."
Smith, much-talked-about in recent times for his all-round skills in white-ball cricket, was a net bowler at Knight Riders last season. However, the team didn't enter the race for Smith at all, but Kings, Super Giants, Sunrisers and Royals did, before Kings got him for INR 6 crore (USD 796,000). Jansen, with Mumbai last season, was taken away by Sunrisers for INR 4.2 crore (USD 557,000). Dube went to Super Kings for INR 4 crore (USD 531,000), while Khaleel was Capitals' first buy of the day for INR 5.25 crore (USD 697,000), and Sakariya, one of the stories of the IPL in 2020, joined fellow left-arm quick Khaleel for INR 4.2 crore (USD 557,000).
It was a memorable day for some of India's 2022 Under-19 World Cup champions. Allrounder Raj Bawa, Player of the Match in the final against England, found a lot of interest. Sunrisers and Mumbai entered and left the race, leaving Kings to sign him for INR 2 crore (USD 265,430). Quick bowler Rajvardhan Hangargekar, meanwhile, went to Super Kings for INR 1.5 crore (USD 200,000). Their captain Yash Dhull went to Capitals for INR 50 lakh (USD 66,360) and Vicky Ostwal joined him there after being bought for INR 20 lakh (USD 26,000).
Others to find teams in the pre-lunch session were Dominic Drakes, Jayant Yadav and Vijay Shankar (Titans), K Gowtham, Dushmantha Chameera, Shahbaz Nadeem and Manan Vohra (Super Giants), Jaydev Unadkat and Mayank Markande (Mumbai), Sandeep Sharma (Kings), Navdeep Saini (Royals) and Maheesh Theekshana (Super Kings).
"See, we wanted someone like a Quinton (de Kock), because we wanted to free KL (Rahul) up from his keeping responsibilities. Sometimes, being a keeper, captain and opening batsman can be strenuous," Gautam Gambhir, the Super Giants team mentor, said on the official broadcast. "Then we wanted (Marcus) Stoinis, a batting allrounder, and then we went for a bowling allrounder in Jason Holder to split between them.
"Then we took Manish Pandey. Deepak Hooda can chip in with a few overs. (K) Gowtham clearly from a perspective that Hooda is a batting allrounder, Gowtham is a bowling allrounder. And we are using only three-four stadiums, so wickets may turn later in the season. Plus we always wanted pace. Imagine if you have Mark Wood and Avesh Khan bowling at 140-145, that will always be a luxury."
Broadcaster Charu Sharma, who had stepped in for the indisposed Hugh Edmeades as the auctioneer on the opening day of the auction, continued to conduct the proceedings. Edmeades sent a video message, which was shown on the official broadcast, saying that he was "absolutely fine" but not in a position to "give a 100% performance" and had therefore chosen to stay away. Right at the end of the day, though, Edmeades returned to the rostrum to complete the job he had started.
On the first day of the auction, almost all the teams - Kings the exception, but only just - bought at least one player for a price of INR 10 crore (USD 1.13 million) or more. Ishan Kishan, the old Mumbai hand, went back to the franchise for INR 15.25 crore (USD 2.03 million), making him the most expensive buy of the day. Super Kings splurged on Deepak Chahar, and Knight Riders on Shreyas Iyer, who could well become their new captain. Three overseas players earned similarly big bucks: Wanindu Hasaranga (Royal Challengers Bangalore), Lockie Ferguson (Gujarat Titans) and Nicholas Pooran (Sunrisers). Prasidh Krishna (Royals), Harshal Patel (Royal Challengers), Avesh Khan (Lucknow Super Giants) and Shardul Thakur (Delhi Capitals) also joined the big-leaguers.
Every auction sees at least a few lesser-known players, uncapped at the international level, earn big too, and this time that list included Shahrukh Khan, who went to Kings for INR 9 crore (USD 1.2 million), Rahul Tripathi, bought by Sunrisers for INR 8.5 crore (USD 1.13 million), and Rahul Tewatia, who was picked up by Titans for INR 9 crore (USD 1.12 million).
All USD values are approximations where USD 1 = INR 75