Indians get the big bids
The biggest earners at the IPL auction for the 2022 season turned out to be local players, something which is unusual. The three most expensive buys this weekend - Ishan Kishan, Deepak Chahar and Shreyas Iyer - were all Indians.
The only other time that happened was in 2011, when the top seven winning bids were on Indian players only. In fact, until 2021, 13 players had earned INR 10 crore or higher bids, out of which seven were overseas players. The 2022 auction had 11 players touching the 10-crore mark, but only four were foreigners.
A hike of 5275%
Five players had seen their previous IPL salary raise by 2000% and more. Four of them belonged to Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2021. Two of them still do - Harshal Patel and Wanindu Hasaranga. Harshal was traded to them in 2021 for INR 20 lakh, but will now earn INR 10.75 crore (USD 1.4 million) - 53.75 times his previous salary.
Meanwhile, Prasidh Krishna will now be 50 times richer, thanks to a INR 10 crore (USD 1.3 million) bid by Rajasthan Royals. Prasidh was with Kolkata Knight Riders earlier, having been bought for his base price of INR 20 lakh in 2018.
Allrounders and bowlers strike big
One hundred and forty-six of the 204 players sold at the auction were either allrounders or bowlers. These players also went for big amounts. Only seven of the top 30 buys were either batters or wicketkeepers. Five of the 11 players to earn bids of INR 10 (USD 1.3 million) or more were bowlers. Three were allrounders. Two were hard-hitting wicketkeepers (Kishan and Nicholas Pooran). Only one was a specialist batter (Iyer).
Mumbai Indians' contrasting buys
Mumbai bought Kishan for INR 15.25 crore (USD 2 million), by far the highest they have paid for any player. On Sunday, they got Tim David for INR 8.25 crore (USD 1.1 million) which is the highest they have ever paid for an overseas player. They also put out INR 8 crores (USD 1 million) for Jofra Archer, who is likely to miss IPL 2022. This meant the five-time winners spent INR 31.5 crore (USD 4.2 millions) to secure those three, and a little above half of that figure - INR 16.4 crore (USD 2.2 million)- for 18 other players.
Gowtham's slump
Krishnappa Gowtham became the costliest uncapped player when he was picked for INR 9.25 crore (then USD 1.2 million) by Chennai Super Kings in 2021. Despite the high price, the allrounder did not play a single game through that title-winning season. In 2022, Lucknow Super Giants bought Gowtham, but for only 90 lakh (USD 120,000), which was just about one-tenth his previous pay.
His salary decrease of 90.27% was the biggest pay cut of this auction. Tymal Mills, who will be returning to IPL after four seasons, is No. 4 on this list. He had earned a winning bid of INR 12 crore (then USD 1.7 million) from Royal Challengers in 2017, but had to settle with only INR 1.5 crore (USD 200,000) from Mumbai this time.
Auction No. 10 for Unadkat
Jaydev Unadkat was bought by Mumbai for INR 1.3 crore (USD 173,000), the tenth instance of his being sold at IPL auctions, by far the most for any player. Dinesh Karthik is in second place, along with Nathan Coulter-Nile, both being sold on seven occasions. If Unadkat does play for Mumbai, he will become one of the few players to represent six different IPL teams. Only Aaron Finch, with eight, has played for more franchises in the IPL.
All current dollar values are approximations where 1 USD = 75 INR