The player auction ahead of Indian Premier League 2021 threw up several big stories among a gamut of players earning themselves lucrative IPL contracts. Chris Morris took the honours among all with a bid of Rs 16.25 crore by Rajasthan Royals – the highest ever in IPL history. Close on the heels was New Zealand all-rounder Kyle Jamieson, who was lapped up for Rs. 15 crore by Royal Challengers Bangalore. Glenn Maxwell, who had an ordinary season in 2020, had luck by his side as he was taken in by RCB, too, at a whopping Rs. 14.25 crore.
While there were several misses as well including the likes of Aaron Finch, Jason Roy and Adil Rashid, a total of 57 players were sold that included 22 overseas players. Here is a lowdown of how the eight teams stack up ahead of the 14th edition of the league.
Chennai Super Kings
The three-time champions made several bids in the auction and ended up these players: Krishnappa Gowtham (Rs 9.25 crore), Moeen Ali (Rs 7 crore), Cheteshwar Pujara (Rs 50 lakh), C Hari Nishanth (Rs 20 lakh), Harishankar Reddy (Rs 20 lakh), K Bhagath Varma (Rs 20 lakh).
Retained players: Faf du Plessis, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, N. Jagadeesan, Robin Uthappa, MS Dhoni (c), Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Dwayne Bravo, Karn Sharma, R. Sai Kishore, Mitchell Santner, Imran Tahir, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Lungi Ngidi, Josh Hazlewood, KM Asif
Mumbai Indians
The five-time champions made these buys: Adam Milne (Rs 3.2 crore), Nathan Coulter-Nile (Rs 5 crore), Piyush Chawla (Rs 2.4 crore), James Neesham (Rs 50 lakh), Yudhvir Charak (Rs. 20 lakh), Marco Jansen (Rs. 20 lakh), Arjun Tendulkar (Rs. 20 lakh)
Retained players: Rohit Sharma (c), Quinton de Kock, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Chris Lynn, Saurabh Tiwary, Anmolpreet Singh, Aditya Tare, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Rahul Chahar, Jayant Yadav, Anukul Roy, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Dhawal Kulkarni, Mohsin Khan
Royal Challengers Bangalore
RCB spent extravagantly this auction and got as many as eight players. Here are their buys: Glenn Maxwell (Rs. 14.25 crore), Sachin Baby (Rs. 20 lakh), Rajat Patidar (Rs 20 lakh), Mohammed Azharuddeen (Rs 20 lakh), Kyle Jamieson (Rs 15 crore), Daniel Christian (Rs 4.80 crore), Suyash Prabhudessai (Rs 20 lakh), K.S. Bharat (Rs 20 lakh)
Retained players: Virat Kohli (c), Devdutt Padikkal, Josh Philippe, AB de Villiers, Pavan Deshpande, Washington Sundar, Daniel Sams, Yuzvendra Chahal, Adam Zampa, Shahbaz Ahmed, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Kane Richardson, Harshal Patel
Rajasthan Royals
The 2008 champions also spent heavily at this auction, acquiring the most expensive player ever in IPL history – Chris Morris – at a whopping Rs. 16.25 crore. Here are their buys: Shivam Dube (Rs 4.40 crore), Chris Morris (Rs. 16.25 crore), Mustafizur Rahman (Rs. 1 crore), Chetan Sakariya (Rs. 1.20 crore), KC Cariappa (Rs. 20 lakh), Liam Livingstone (Rs. 75 lakh), Kuldip Yadav (Rs 20 lakh), Akash Singh (Rs 20 lakh)
Retained players: Sanju Samson (c), Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Manan Vohra, Anuj Rawat, Riyan Parag, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Mahipal Lomror, Shreyas Gopal, Mayank Markande, Jofra Archer, Andrew Tye, Jaydev Unadkat, Kartik Tyagi
Punjab Kings
Punjab went into the auction with the highest salary cap of Rs. 53.2 crore and understandably got nine new players in their midst. Their buys: Dawid Malan (Rs 1.5 crore), Jhye Richardson (Rs 14 crore), Shahrukh Khan (Rs. 5.25 crore), Riley Meredith (Rs 8 crore), Moises Henriques (Rs 4.20 crore), Jalaj Saxena (Rs 30 lakh), Utkarsh Singh (Rs 20 lakh), Fabian Allen (Rs 75 lakh), Saurabh Kumar (Rs 20 lakh)
Retained players: KL Rahul (c), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Mandeep Singh, Prabsimran Singh, Nicholas Pooran, Sarfaraz Khan, Deepak Hooda, Murugan Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi, Harpreet Brar, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ishan Porel, Darshan Nalkande, Chris Jordan
Delhi Capitals
Delhi netted Steven Smith, former Rajasthan Royals captain, for Rs 2.2 crore and added eight new players to their squad. Their buys: Steve Smith (Rs 2.20 crore), Umesh Yadav (Rs 1 crore), Ripal Patel (Rs 20 lakh), Vishnu Vinod (Rs 20 lakh), Lukman Meriwala (Rs 20 lakh), M Siddharth (Rs 20 lakh), Tom Curran (Rs 5.25 crore), Sam Billings (Rs 2 crore)
Retained players: Shreyas Iyer (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Marcus Stoinis, Chris Woakes, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Amit Mishra, Lalit Yadav, Pravin Dubey, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Ishant Sharma, Avesh Khan
Kolkata Knight Riders
KKR added eight new names to their list. Their buys are as follows: Shakib Al Hasan (Rs 3.20 crore), Sheldon Jackson (Rs 20 lakh), Vaibhav Arora (Rs 20 lakh), Karun Nair (Rs 50 lakh), Harbhajan Singh (Rs 2 crore), Ben Cutting (Rs 75 lakh), Venkatesh Iyer (Rs 20 lakh), Pawan Negi (Rs 50 lakh)
Retained players: Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Tim Seifert, Rahul Tripathi, Rinku Singh, Dinesh Karthik, Eoin Morgan (c), Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Varun CV, Kuldeep Yadav, Pat Cummins, Lockie Ferguson, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Sandeep Warrier, Prasidh Krishna
Sunrisers Hyderabad
SRH got only three players at the auction: Jagadeesha Suchith (Rs. 30 lakh), Kedar Jadhav (Rs 2 crore), Mujeeb-ur-Rahman (Rs 1.50 crore)
Retained players: David Warner (c), Kane Williamson, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Manish Pandey, Sreevats Goswami (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Priyam Garg, Vijay Shankar, Abhishek Sharma, Abdul Samad, Virat Singh, Mitchell Marsh, Jason Holder, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T. Natarajan, Sandeep Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed, Siddarth Kaul, Basil Thampi
