IPL Auction: Bids, Buys & Team Composition Trends as 72 Players Find New Homes

Tracking the trends followed by the 10 IPL teams in the #IPLauction2024 as 72 players joined new teams on Tuesday.

Australia’s finance minister Katy Gallagher could well have been on a call this morning with her Indian counterpart, Nirmala Sitharaman. After all, India signed for a direct trade of close to Rs 70 crore through the ‘sale’ of key Aussie players in Tuesday's 2024 IPL auction that took place in distant Dubai, through the largesse of IPL franchise owners.

Together the two finance ministers can probably put their heads together for simpler tax measures between the two countries considering the heavy cricket trade that happens annually through the IPL.

At the magnificent Coca Cola Arena where the best of the world has wowed the crowds, Dubai’s newest showpiece venue became witness to yet another historic event, albeit in cricket.

Australia made the biggest gain with their top two stars- Test and ODI skipper Pat Cummins, alongside lead fast bowler Mitch Starc pocketing the biggest paycheques. The IPL franchises were involved in furious bidding for the duo with both netting record sums in the end thanks to the dogfight between the sides.

Most of the franchises came well prepared and were sure of the choices they wanted to make. Some of their auction choices may befuddle many on the outside but within the room, each of the franchise knew exactly who they wanted to pick.

It was clear that the following category of players were of interest for the franchises:

• An Australia ODI World Cup winner

• Overseas fast bowler

• Overseas All-rounder

• Capped Indian fast bowlers

• Uncapped Indian all-rounder and spinner

The only three players from the Australian champion side who bucked the trend were: Steve Smith, Josh Inglis and Josh Hazlewood. All for a variety of reasons. Smith is not considered a T20 fit, Inglis would find it hard to fit into an XI and Hazlewood was not available for a major part of the season as he's expected to be on paternity leave.

The other categories were perfectly represented through the day with some of the top buys fitting into the job description put out by the franchises. It was clear that if you were a player (Indian or overseas) with more than one skill you had the heart of the franchise. A multi-skilled player is in short supply especially in India; hence they are much in demand.

However, in some other cases the likes of Gerald Coetzee, Dilshan Madhushanka and Nuwan Thushara were easily snapped up by Mumbai Indians because they love their overseas quick bowlers. Mumbai’s new bowling coach Lasith Malinga will have a tough time managing his disciples Jasprit Bumrah and Thushara because they have all modelled themselves on him!

Elsewhere the other picks that made heads turn were that of the Indian capped fast bowlers/seamers like Harshal Patel, Umesh Yadav, Shivam Mavi, Shardul Thakur et al. It was clear that these fast bowlers were in high demand because ultimately you end up playing seven Indian players, or maybe eight, depending on how you use the impact player rule. So, it becomes important that you have the right capped Indian seamer in your ranks.

Gujarat have therefore gone retro and reunited India’s 2015 ODI World Cup pace attack in Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, and Mohit Sharma! Some others have punted on young Indian quicks to back their capped Indian fast bowlers.

The uncapped Indian all-rounders and spinners have also been bought with much gusto. It was evident that the sides have scouted a lot during the off-season with several unknown Indian players being chased quite furiously.

The following are some of the unknown Indian names who scored big:

• Sameer Rizvi - Chennai Super Kings (Rs 8.40 crore)

• Shahrukh Khan - Gujarat Titans (Rs 7.40 crore)

• Kumar Kushagra - Delhi Capitals (Rs 7.20 crore)

• Shubham Dubey - Rajasthan Royals (Rs 5.80 crore)

• Yash Dayal (him of the Rinku Singh fame) - RCB (Rs 5 crore)

• Robin Minz - Gujarat Titans (Rs 3.6 crore)

• Sushant Mishra - Gujarat Titas (Rs 2.20 crore)

• M Siddharth - Lucknow Super Giants (Rs 2.4 crore)

• Sumit Kumar - Delhi Capitals (Rs 1 crore)

These players made it big thanks to excellent spotting by the scouts and their performances in the local tournaments and of course their own state T20 leagues which has now become a big feeder system.

Of course, there were some complete steals also that the teams pulled off like Wanindu Hasaranga and Rachin Ravindra going for near their base price. They are handy cricketers and hence their franchises swept them away quite easily.

But if you were an overseas spinner with just bowling as your main skill then there was not much joy on the auction table once again. History has shown that except in the case of Shane Warne, most other overseas spinners have found it difficult to make it big in the IPL. Of course, if you lengthen the run-up and bat a bit, things improve majorly for you in the auction stakes!

In the end this is how the franchises stack up:

• Chennai Super Kings: Most secure side with a lot of common-sense picks, several all-rounders, and a lot of back-ups

• Gujarat Titans: Miss Hardik, but have made a lot of sensible picks, with a lot of dual skilled players and good Indian quicks

• Mumbai Indians: Rebuilding the squad with a lot of fresh faces, good strong overseas fast bowlers

• Kolkata Knight Riders: Look confused, lack lot of options, and have over spent on Starc

• Sunrisers Hyderabad: Problem of plenty in overseas category with several options, but we have been there before

• Delhi Capitals: Recasting the squad with several new faces will take some time to get back to the top

• Rajasthan Royals: Lack all-round options and look a bit imbalanced now

• Royal Challengers Bangalore: Given up on a top-class specialist spinner, lack bite in bowling again

• Lucknow Supergiants: Look very balanced, have plenty of options, now they need to perform to potential

• Punjab Kings: Have made a few smart picks this time, but the way try to ‘undo’ the Shashank Singh bid was a bit embarrassing to say the least

But if you thought that all the squad dynamics were done and dusted after the nearly 10-hour long auction, then you are sadly mistaken. A fresh trade window opens on 20 December 2023 and will last for another month.