New Delhi: On Sunday (November 24), Indian cricketers Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer were in different cities. One was in Perth, Australia, gearing up to play the fourth day of a Test match against Australia while the other was in Hyderabad with the Mumbai cricket team, whom he’s been leading in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024.
The two, once part of Delhi Capitals core group, scripted history in Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah city, eliciting big bucks for their cricketing skills. Never before in the history of the IPL auction did a player invokd interest worth more than Rs 25 crore.
Shreyas, who first went under the hammer among the two, became the most expensive player in the IPL. Punjab Kings, which will be coached by Australia’s World Cup winning captain Ricky Ponting, unsurprisingly, went after the Mumbai-born player in a full-throttle bidding tussle. The team with a fancy purse of Rs 110.5 crore was ready ready to shower all its asset to ensure Iyer was at the heart of Mohali and Dharamsala, finalising his deal for a whopping sum of Rs 26.75 crore.
Shreyas ‘most expensive’ player tag didn’t last for even an hour as Lucknow Super Giants shelled out Rs 27 crore, snatching him from the jaws of a Delhi Capitals return journey.
The trend of pumping money beyond Rs 20 crore started in the last year’s mini auction with two Australians creating the buzz, of course they were the World Cup winners, a heavy hat to carry in the auction.
With all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer attracting a bid of Rs 23.75 crore, three Indian players breached the bar raised by Pat Cummins (Rs 20.50 crore to SRH) and Mitchell Starc (Rs 24.75 crore to KKR).
One or two things are common among these players that help them land with a heavy paycheck. All of them are international players and barring Venkatesh, the rest have played all formats of cricket at the biggest stage of the game.
To break the mantra to become the most or one of the most expensive players is that one must have a multi-utility skills at their disposal to fit in the radar of multiple teams. In the case of the two Iyers, three teams were involved in a bidding war while Pant’s interest turned from three to four teams when Delhi Capitals attempted to exercise the right-to-match (RTM) card. A shrewd move of increasing the final bids by Rs 6.25 crore from the RPSG group plunged the Indian gloveman into a new team.
Pant is a T20 World Cup winner, middle-order power-hitting batter, wicketeeper, and a potential candidate for a captain, and most importantly an Indian.
It was crystal clear that LSG were looking for a new captain after releasing KL Rahul from their squad and then there is a saying that IPL is beyond cricket, the three-year-old IPL franchise requiring a face for it. For someone like Pant who has grown in the northern part of the country, it will be easy for him to connect with the core supporters of the franchise unlike Rahul who hails from the other part of India.
While Shreyas might not have any roots connected to Punjab, the 29-year-old certainly enjoys the tag of an ‘IPL winning captain’. For a franchise like Punjab who has been eagerly waiting to lift its first silverware, the tactical acumen of the Mumbai man will come into handy.
His familiarity of working with a coach like Ponting makes things smoother to embark on a transitional phase. He bats in middle order and don’t be surprise, he can roll his arms, though he hasn’t much in the last few years. The captaincy is one big skill, which requires a player to manage his teammates, chalk out strategies, communicate between professionals other than cricketers, and mostly bring the better out of his teammates.
Venkatesh Iyer might not have accomplished T20I careers like some of his contemporaries in the auction such as Glenn Maxwell (Rs 4.20 crore), Marcus Stoinis (Rs 11 crore), Ravichandran Ashwin (Rs 9.75 crore), Liam Livingstone (Rs 8.75 crore), Mithcell Marsh (Rs 3.40 crore), and Harshal Patel (Rs 8 crore).
He had the trust of his franchise, although it didn’t initially retaine him, but made the first bid for the Madhya Pradesh player in the auction. KKR is the place where he shot to prominence and he was the part of their title-winning campaign.
He can bat at any position required by the team management, displaying his versatility as a floater. He can bowl medium pace, though he bowled just one over in last two seasons, but the skill does add to his advantage.
Cummins was also a captain of a World Cup winning team apart from the fact that he can bowl pace and swing his bat. Starc does hold a renowned impression of being a stump-shatter but then he can bat too, perhaps not like Cummins.
The IPL dynamic auction indicated that players must keep growing their skillset and worth to end up with lucrative deals.
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