IPL 2018 Auction, Day 1 – Who Said What

The first day was more fun and less stressful as the franchises tested the depth of the water and the action will just get intense tomorrow.

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Preity Zinta
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Preity Zinta. (Photo Source: Twitter) | CricTracker.com

Day 1 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 auction was a huge success. Franchises spent money haywire, as they looked to form the core of the teams after having the choice of only retaining up to three players before the hammer went down. While most of the franchises opted to go with one or two retentions – Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Daredevils retained the services of three of their key players.

It was Kings XI Punjab, who opened the bidding aggressively on Day 1 of the auctions, as the left-handed opener Shikhar Dhawan was the first on offer. However, Sunrisers used their RTM card to ensure their opening duo of David Warner and Dhawan stayed intact. The biggest buy of the day was by Rajasthan Royals, who bid 12.5 crores to acquire the services of the English all-rounder Ben Stokes.

Where will Rajasthan play their home matches?

It was a highly anticipated question ahead of the IPL auction, as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had imposed a ban on the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) which was cleared by Amitabh Choudhary ahead of the Auction.

“The suspension of RCA (Rajasthan Cricket Association) is as good as gone. They are back in the BCCI’s fold. Along with that was the case of Jaipur ground. We have had a recce done and are anticipating something good would come. The Supreme Court has extended the termination of lease of the ground till the end of IPL,” Choudhary said.

Stokes the hottest player

England all-rounder Ben Stokes was and is the hottest property in the last two editions of the IPL auction, as he was once again the highest paid player on Day 1. Rajasthan Royals spent 12.5 crores to acquire his services while they used RTM card for Indian batsman Ajinkya Rahane.

“The ECB has cleared him (Ben Stokes) for auction. He is legally available, therefore we have bid for him. He’s a very important part. We’re like a start up company. We’re restarting and pressing the reset button.We’re trying to build the team and an all-rounder is absolutely important. Unlike other teams, we do not have very many players for retention. Our favourite blue-blooded player is Ajinkya (Rahane), so we retained him with an RTM. In a start-up mode, we’re trying to invest up front,” said Ranjit Barthakur, Rajasthan Royals co-owner and chairman.

Clinical Sunrisers

VVS Laxman and the Sunrisers Hyderabad camp were certain of the players that they were going to retain at the auctions, with Shikhar Dhawan and Rashid Khan being two of them.

“Shikhar Dhawan, Manish Pandey and Shakib Al Hasan were all part of our No. 1 priority list and we are extremely delighted to have them on board,” Laxman said.

Everything pretty for Preity

Preity Zinta‘s fiery IPL Auction stint instigated Twitter to troll her for the number of bids she made for each player available on the table. However, the KXIP owner was clear on what her strategy was.

“The early bird gets the worm. Every franchise has similar names on the list. All the players we wanted came up early so we went for them. I made that mistake in some of the auctions before. We just went for these players because some we couldn’t do without,” Preity said.

Amrit Thomas on missing out on KL Rahul

Royal Challengers Bangalore went in pretty hard to retain the services of the Indian opener KL Rahul. However, they could not match the price that KXIP put on the table and succumbed to the pressure and let the opener make his way to Punjab.

“It is hard to let go of players who have done well in the past. We have put the best combination together with the money we have. K. L. (Rahul) should be happy that we didn’t retain him because he got a lot more. We were keen on him but we are happy with the combination we’ve got,” Thomas said.

Fleming and Ravichandran Ashwin

CSK did not retain Ravi Ashwin and that was the talk of the day. However, Stephen Fleming stated the reason and it looks reasonable as CSK did not want to spend 4 crores for him and they pursued him till that bid.

“We picked up Harbhajan Singh because Ashwin was going to go for a high price. We just chose a different direction. Sometimes you have to put a price on people’s heads. It’s hard when you’re working your budget early in the auction. Ashwin has bowled well in Test cricket. We are happy with our choice. The skill-set is the same,” Fleming stated.

Delhi get Gautam Gambhir

It was almost clear that Gautam Gambhir would be home-bound as KKR decided not to retain the services of their skipper ahead of the IPL auction.

“This game (T20) is getting increasingly difficult to play. Younger players are picking up skills a lot earlier. Young Indians are getting to learn early. As an older player it’s tough to improve. You can maintain, but you’re on a steady decline. That might be the major reason. As of now Gambhir will lead the side. He would like the opportunity to come back home and lead the team. Nothing to fault in his time in KKR. Last season with KKR was very good as well. It will help Rishabh and Shreyas as well,” DD team management said.

 

 

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