The 11th edition of the Indian Premier League was a combination of big bucks spent on buying uncapped players and a focus on building teams for the future.

In the 2018 auction, spread over two days, eight franchisees spent ₹431.7 crore to buy 169 players, with Ben Stokes being the costliest buy for ₹12.5 crore. He tops the auction charts for the second consecutive year. He was snapped up by Rajasthan Royals.

Prior to the auction, a total of ₹197 crore was spent on retaining players, which included top-guns like Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni.

To put things in perspective, in the last mega auction in 2014, a total sum of ₹262 crore was spent to buy 154 players.

“It was our endeavour to focus on uncapped players this year, as we always seek a level playing field,” said Rajiv Shukla, Chairman, IPL.

Fresh talent

Jaydev Unadkat, a top performer in the domestic circuit, was snapped up by Rajasthan Royals for ₹11.5 crore, after frenetic bidding, making him the most expensive Indian player.

Manish Pandey was sold for ₹11 crore. Krunal Pandya and Ishan Kishan, bought by Mumbai Indians for ₹8.8 crore and ₹6.2 crore, respectively, were the star uncapped players on Day 1 of the auction.

In contrast, established names such as Joe Root and Eoin Morgan were unsold, due to various factors.

According to Hemant Dua, Chief Executive Officer, Delhi Daredevils, English players were not sought-after because of their availability issues for the IPL season, receiving of no-objection certificates from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), and their high base prices.

Interestingly, IPL’s past decision to completely overhaul the franchisees every three years could be changed, and going forward, the frequency of mega auctions could come down.

Frantic bidding

However, enthusiasm amongst the franchisees showed no signs of waning. The first day of the auctions saw the bulk of heavy lifting as the eight franchisees spent ₹318 crore on 78 players.

Every franchisee came with half a dozen people, including head coaches, owners and strategists, with iPads and laptops, poring over their spreadsheets, to help in their number crunching.

Right To Match

On the first day, the auctionsaw the exercising of the Right To Match (RTM), a clause which enables a franchisee to retain a player even in the event of them losing out on the bidding. Shikhar Dhawan, who went under the hammer first, went through the RTM process, which saw Sunrisers Hyderabad retaining him for a price of ₹5.2 crore.

While some IPL teams followed the strategy of snapping up established players, others like Chennai Super Kings didn’t make any big-ticket buys. Instead, it preferred a mix of players who were available cheap, with a focus on spinners such as Harbhajan Singh and all-rounders like Dwayne Bravo.

The 2018 auction also saw the sale of four Afghan players, with Kings XI Punjab buying 17-year-old Mujeeb Zadran for ₹4 crore.

Sandeep Lamichhane became the first cricketer from Nepal to land an IPL contract when he was picked by Delhi Daredevils. The 17-year-old, the only Nepal player in the IPL auction, was sold at his base price of ₹20 lakh.

Many uncapped players sold on Day 1 saw their fortunes go up, with several of them getting ₹3-6 crore.

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