The IPL Mega Auction was quite the eventful weekend, as expected by the cricketing world. While there were a few expected bidding wars, the 2022 IPL Auction kept up with the tradition of surprising picks.
The likes of Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan, along with Avesh Khan were all expected to kick start intense bidding wars, and their names did exactly that at a plush hotel in Bengaluru. The likes of Liam Livingstone and Wanindu Hasaranga however were in for a better day than they would have expected initially, laughing their way to the bank with some incredible deals.
Wicket-keeper batter Ishan Kishan became the most expensive buy in the Auction while England’s Liam Livingstone became the costliest overseas purchase. After Yuvraj Singh who was bought for 16 crores by Delhi Capitals in 2015, Kishan is the second most-expensive Indian player in the history of IPL auction. Fast bowler Avesh Khan became the most expensive uncapped player, when he was signed up or Rs 10 crore by Lucknow.
IPL 2022 has seen the addition of two new teams in the Lucknow Super Giants and the Gujarat Titans, making it a ten-team tournament, which is set to begin in the last week of March. While Lucknow will be captained by KL Rahul, the Titans in Ahmedabad will be led by Hardik Pandya.
So, who were the biggest gainers at the 2022 IPL Mega Auction?
Liam Livingstone
The Englishman, who does not mind being a T20 nomad, hasn’t got an impressive record in the IPL in his short career, but was picked up for 11.5 times his base price at the Auction by Punjab Kings. Listed at Rs 1 crore, Livingstone saw a flurry of bids before it settled at Rs 11.5 crore for the Punjab Kings.
In 9 games in the IPL, Livingstone has scored 112 runs, and will be keen to change that when he gets his chance in the Punjab colours. In 164 T20 matches, Livingstone has racked up a total of 4,095 runs at 29.04. He has slammed two centuries and 23 fifties. He has a strike rate of 144.49. His highest score in T20 cricket is 103. He also bowls a bit of leg and off-spin as well and has a total of 79 wickets across T20s.
Tim David
The Singaporean cricketer got his first taste of the IPL last year when he was brought in by the Royal Challengers Bangalore, for whom he played only one game. Listed at Rs 40 lakh, and eventually sold to Mumbai Indians for Rs 8.25 crore, David finished the day with a heavy pay packet.
David has been a consistent performer in that lower middle-order role in various T20 Leagues he has played around the world. Things changed for David after some stellar performances in the Big Bash League, Pakistan Super League and Caribbean Premier league. That he has succeeded in a variety of conditions, shows that he is quite an asset to have on your team.
Avesh Khan
Listed at a base price of Rs 20 lakh, Avesh Khan was expected to get a few bids to drive up the value. Eventually, Avesh was bought for Rs 10 crore, making him the most expensive uncapped player in the history of the Auction.
What drove this bidding war to pick up was the fact that Avesh had been in brilliant form last season with the Delhi Capitals. In the 2021 IPL season, he picked 24 wickets in 16 matches at an average of 18.75, and finished as the second highest wicket-taker in the tournament. Avesh, who has been talked about in terms of a call-up to the Indian white-ball set-up, also has 100 wickets in first class cricket in 27 games.
Shahrukh Khan
One of the talented middle-order batters who has been performing impressively at the domestic stage, Shahrukh Khan has shown great potential. A mainstay in the Tamil Nadu side in white-ball cricket, Shahrukh’s base price was listed at Rs 40 lakh.
Once his name was called out, there was an intense bidding war after that which drove his value up to Rs 9 crore as Punjab won the bidding war. Not only was this a huge rise from the base price, Shahrukh received almost double the amount from the previous season, when he was earning 5.25 crore at Punjab.
The 26-year-old has flourished in the role of a lower middle-order power hitter in the last two years with Tamil Nadu and played a couple of good knocks for Punjab Kings in the IPL as well. In IPL 2021, he amassed 153 runs at a strike-rate of 134.21 batting in the lower middle-order. He did the same job for Tamil Nadu in SMAT 2021 as well, amassing a total of 101 runs at an average of 33.66 and strike-rate of 157.81.
Abhishek Sharma
Formerly of the Sunrisers Hyderabad, left-handed batter Abhishek Sharma, who had a base price of Rs 20 lakh, returned to SRH for a whopping Rs 6.5 crore. He had not been retained after SRH had traded him from Delhi in 2019.
The youngster, who is a big hitting middle-order batter, had shown potential in 2018 itself, scoring 46 off 19 deliveries against RCB. Abhishek has played a total of 22 matches in IPL scoring 241 runs with a healthy strike rate of 139.31, and will be looking to build on that more for his side. The young 21-year-old Sharma is also a slow left-arm orthodox bowler and has seven wickets to his name in the IPL.
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