Million-dollar men:
The T20 abilities of Tim David (in the picture), Odean Smith, Rovman Powell, and Nicholas Pooran – their consistency in turning a game on its head in various conditions – have made them millionaires Well begun is half done. In the Indian Premier League, even before the tournament starts in March-April, the beginning of the season starts with the annual Player Auction.
Naturally, the objective of every team is to get a balanced combination And the stakes are always higher during the mega auction when every three years (since its inception in 2008) a reboot button is pressed for a full rehash of the line-ups.
READ Final list of sold and unsold players.
The BCCI’s decision to add two new teams to the IPL from 2022 prolonged the wait for a full auction. The 10 teams had signed 33 players ahead of the auction. And with a potential 217 players up for grabs, this was to be the most chaotic of the IPL bazaars.
Pacers rule the roost.
Cometh the IPL Auction and conventionally it’s either the big-hitters or the all-rounders that steal the show with humongous price tags. In 2022, however, it was the pace bowlers, especially Indian pacers, who ruled the roost as franchises indulged in frantic bidding wars to latch on to them.
Six of the 11 cricketers who fetched 10-crore or more in the auction were pacers. Five of those six, except New Zealand’s Lockie Ferguson, were Indians. While the likes of Mohammed Shami didn’t feature in the top five, although he did earn a hefty pay packet, it was heartening to see India’s pace battery – which has become the hallmark of its recent rise in the global arena – rewarded handsomely.
More than a dozen Indian pacers – consistently clocking 140kph – are among the most dreaded exponents of the fast art in the world. The increasing thrust on data analytics also shows that an overseas-Indian pace combo is likely to succeed much more in the IPL than an all-overseas pace.
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