The 2024 IPL Mega Auction lived up to its billing and witnessed a lot of drama and action across the two days in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah. There was intense bidding for a few marquee players, some record-breaking purchases while a few big names remained unsold.
RG looks at the trends, patterns and talking points of the mega auction.
Pant & the Iyers – the 20-crore Club
Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer and Venkatesh Iyer were the three players who were purchased for INR 20 crore on Day 1 at the auction. Shreyas was the first one to be picked for INR 26.75 crore by Punjab Kings making him the most expensive player in IPL auction history! He broke the record of Australian left-arm fast – Mitchell Starc – who was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for INR 24.75 crore at the mini-auction in Dubai last year.
Shreyas was the captain of the victorious KKR franchise who lifted the IPL trophy (for a third time) this season. Shreyas scored 351 runs in IPL 2024 at an impressive strike rate of 146.9. He has been a consistent run-getter at the IPL and had an aggregate of 400-plus runs in five editions – in 2015, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022.
Pant surpassed Shreyas shortly after as Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) overcame an RTM from Delhi Capitals and still won the bid for the swashbuckling Indian wicket-keeper batter for a whopping INR 27.75 crore! LSG were keen to replace KL Rahul with a marquee wicket-keeper batter who would also lead the franchise and Pant fitted in nicely in that slot. Pant has not been a great T20I batter for India but was at his peak in the IPL between 2017 and 2019. After a few years where he experienced a bit of a lull, he showcased glimpses of his genius this season hammering 446 runs at a scoring rate of 155.4.
Local – the flavour of the auction
Indian players were much sought-after at the mega auction in Jeddah. The top 5 players (in terms of price) were all Indians. Joining Pant and the Iyers were Arshdeep Singh and Yuzvendra Chahal, who were bought by Punjab Kings for INR 18 crore each.
There were as many as 12 players from India in the INR 10 crore-plus bracket while only nine combined from overseas. The most expensive overseas player was Jos Buttler who went for INR 15.75 crore to the Gujarat Titans.
Indian pacers bag big bucks
Indian pacers were more sought after on Day 2 at the auction. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the most expensive buy and was picked by RCB for INR 10.75 crore. Kumar led the SRH attack for nearly a decade and was their leading wicket-taker with 157 dismissals at a strike rate of 20.8 and economy of 7.7.
In contrast, some big-ticket overseas pacers did not receive a hefty pay cheque. Spencer Johnson went to KKR for a measly sum of INR 2.8 crore while Lockie Ferguson was taken by PBKS at his base price of INR 2 crore. South African quick, Gerald Coetzee, ranked amongst the fastest bowlers in the world, was snapped by the Gujarat Titans (GT) for just INR 2.4 crore while Nathan Ellis was bought by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for a paltry INR 2 crore.
Low price for overseas superstars
The other big talking point of the auction was the relatively low price paid to some of the big names in international and franchise T20 cricket. David Miller, Harry Brook, Glenn Maxwell, Quinton de Kock, Liam Livingstone, Faf du Plessis, Rovman Powell, Tim David, Sam Curran, Will Jacks and Sherfane Rutherford were some of the overseas stars who went quite cheaply at the auction.
West Indian T20I captain and a T20 specialist, Powell, was bought by KKR at his base price of INR 1.5 crore while hard-hitting David – one of the most destructive finishers in T20 cricket – was sold to RCB for just INR 3 crore. The biggest surprise in this category was the shockingly low price paid by DC for Du Plessis – he was purchased at his base price of INR 2 crore! Faf is one of the finest batters in IPL history and has scored 4571 runs at an average of 36 and strike rate of 136.4. He had a good season for RCB in 2024 hammering 438 runs at a rate of almost 162!
The big unsold players
David Warner and Jonny Bairstow has no takers across the two days of the mega auction. This was one of the biggest talking points from Jeddah. Warner is an all-time IPL great and the highest run-getter amongst overseas batters in the league’s history!
Some other big-wigs who remained unsold were Kane Williamson, Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, Finn Allen, Brandon King, Steven Smith, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Adil Rashid, Naveen-ul-Haq, Kyle Jamieson, Chris Jordan, Shardul Thakur, Daryl Mitchell, Sikandar Raza and Shai Hope.
Naveen-ul-Haq was the other big surprise on this list. Some experts had predicted him to be amongst the most sought-after overseas buys at the mega auction. Naveen has a brilliant record in all T20 cricket with 246 dismissals in 204 outings at a strike rate of 17.5.
Nikhil Narain is a die-hard cricket romantic, published author, and has worked for some of the leading digital websites and broadcasters in India and overseas. An alumnus of the London School of Economics, Nikhil's forte is using data and numbers creatively to weave interesting stories and revolutionize the way cricket statistics are generated and analyzed.
