Due to the dire conditions of the present pandemic, the stadiums have been quite empty of audiences, and people are being driven to watch IPL on TV and enjoy online gaming as a favorite pastime. The market with fantasy sports is presently valued at over $100 billion, with a gradual increase in players every day. The fantasy cricket game has allowed players to engage in various tournaments and leagues with their favorite players. If you’re stuck at home, you can download the fantasy cricket IPL app and use your knowledge in cricket to choose players from upcoming matches and build your fantasy team with cricketers whose statistics match their actual performance on the field. You can become a top scorer in the fantasy league and earn cool tournament money by strategizing the right choices.
IPL has transformed the face of cricket and given birth to specific trends that have proposed new avenues since the introduction of this format in 2008. The trends evolve and change every year according to the club owners’ needs and fans’ demands.
The world of the Indian Premier League has experienced a total of 14 seasons as of 2021. The only thing more unpredictable about this short format of cricket is the auctioning of the players. Over the years of the game, the auctioning has taken over a cinematic backdrop, just like old Hindi movies. Each of these player-buying programs has a suspenseful moment, excitement coupled with raw emotion, sometimes pushing players far up the ladder and, in other cases setting back their value as performers. To the immense irony of perfect data analysis, the situation and the best advisors teams are often vexed into buying a cycle for the value of a car going to the unpredictable nature of the auction.
This year things got pretty interesting in the latest IPL auction that began on 12th February 2022 and ran for a solid two days.
High Demand For Indian Players
India’s Ishan Kishan became the most expensive player to be bought for a grand cost of Rs.15.25 crore. Mumbai Indians paid the price for the wicketkeeper-batsman, making him the second most expensive player to be purchased from India since Yuvraj Singh, who was purchased at 16 crores in 2015.
Fast forward to the second day, the draw did not disappoint, with KKR making another expensive buy with Shreyas Iyer. At a price of Rs.12.25 crore, Shreyas is presently the most expensive player who is a marquee. The other expensive acquisition on day 2 was Liam Livingstone from England, who was picked for a price of Rs. 11.50 crore by Punjab Kings.
Indian talent was bound to be on the more expensive side during this year’s installation as the demand for better players has exceeded the number of better-performing players. The auction had 590 players going under the hammer, amongst whom there were 143 uncapped Indians who had been there in previous installations of the game.
The scarcity of players with talent and quality has promised that the ones who outperform others will be swamped by the buyers like bees on honey.
Deepak Chahar became the most expensive bowler to be bought for Rs.14 crore by the Chennai Super Kings. The Royal Challengers came right behind by purchasing the all-rounder duo of Wanindu Hasaranga and Harshal Patel at the price of Rs. 10.75 crore.
Even though uncapped players were left entirely under the radar, Avesh Khan topped the list by getting bought for a whopping Rs. 10 crores by the Lucknow Super Giants.
Gujarat Titans Not Scoring On Batsmen
The team could not acquire a strong line-up for the matches, and the batting squad they could obtain remains relatively thin. The batting department has Jason Roy and Subham Gill as the two prominent players. In the end, however, they were able to acquire David Miller with Rs.3 crore value that strengthened their batting order by a very slim percentage. The other players they could get were Matthew Wade for Rs.2.40 crore and Wriddhiman Saha for Rs. 1.90 crore.
Retaining Old Players
Three top teams in the IPL retained some crucial players from their yesteryear lists. Mumbai Indian scores on top, most successfully keeping the performing batsmen from their past games. Their opening duo presently has Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan. The middle-order will consist of Suryakumar Yadav, Kieron Pollard, and Tim David.
Chennai Super Kings have also come close to retaining eight players from last year’s final team. Dhoni, known as ‘Captain Cool,’ stays to lead the team, but a threat befalls them as sooner or later the team will need replacements for 38-year-old Dwayne Bravo and 40-year-old Dhoni. However, the team’s middle-order certainly looks quite capable with the acquisition of Rajvardhan Hangargekar, who was in India’s under 19 world cup winning side playing as an all-rounder.
By taking the right chances in the auction, Kolkata Knight Riders have also retained their dynamic duo of mystery spinners, Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine.
A Controversial Purchase
Despite severe losses on star players, CSK also faced backlash on social media with the purchase of Sri Lankan skipper Maheesh Thikshana. The people of Tamil Nadu, whom Chennai Super Kings represent, demanded that Maheesh be removed from the team owing to his Sinhalese origin. According to the people’s history, Sinhalese soldiers have committed atrocities, specifically war crimes against people from Tamil Nadu. This incident happened in 2009 during the military action taken against LTTE. The people are left with a deep scar from this troubling situation and are unable to accept a possible enemy defending their home team.
Social media had been taken by a storm, with #Boycott_ChennaiSuperKings rising as one of the top trends on all social media platforms in India.
The bidding war in the IPL auction ended with tensions taut on all ends of the entertainment spectrum. The ten participating franchises cumulatively splurged over Rs. 550 crore in just two days, where 204 players were bought among 600 that went under the hammer. Suresh Raina, the highest run-getter in IPL from its previous installment, remained unsold in a shocking turn of events. The other big names who also did not have any buyers were Steve Smith, Shakib Al Hasan, Adil Rashid, Imran Tahir, Aaron Finch, Dawid Malan, Eoin Morgan, Chris Lynn, and Tabraiz Shamsi.
