IPL 2018: Fans going to witness something unique for the first time in the tournament's history

The beauty of the IPL is the frenzy that surrounds it even before its inception. Even in its Pre-tournament stages where the franchises’ think-tank tries all permutations and combinations to get the best bunch of players on board, the excitement is onto another level given the media coverage every event receives before the real action begins. In the ongoing auction which is live at Bengaluru for the IPL’s eleventh edition, there has been much tussle between the franchises to fulfil their list of players that they have in mind.

Till now KL Rahul and Manish Pandey have grossed the highest bids as far as the Indian players are concerned with both acclaiming a hefty amount of 11 crores( INR) each. Both of them were in contention of such huge bids given the amount of success they have tasted in the shortest format of the game be it at the IPL or at the international level.

The Duo of Robin and Manish

For people who believe in numbers, there is a very interesting fact to share given that we are into the eleventh edition of IPL. For all the mesmerizing ten years of entertainment that IPL has given to us even after the chop and cheese of players between different franchises, Manish Pandey and Robin Uthappa have always represented the same franchise in every single edition of IPL ever since its inception in 2008.

In the inaugural edition in 2008, the duo represented for the Mumbai Indians while they played for their home side for the next two years before joining Pune Warriors for 2011-2013 period. In the auction that took place in 2014, the Karnataka born-guys moved to the city of joy for four consecutive golden years before entering the auction in this year’s IPL.

Now, in today’s auction for the forthcoming IPL, finally, for the very first time, fans would watch them play against each other as Pandey joins the Orange army, the Sunrisers Hyderabad and Robin stays with the Knight Riders as they buy him back using a Right to match card. It may have ended their love affair to play for the same IPL franchise but the bond that the two share is immense given that both have played their age group cricket together for their home side Karnataka.