Top five surprising picks at the IPL 2021 auction

The IPL 2021 Auction was going to be a small one. But, boy it was an auction where teams spent large sums of money on players who otherwise wouldn’t have expected such a huge salary cap. A total of INR 145 crores of money was spent by all the teams. 57 players were sold out of the original list of more than 1,000 players who had registered. 

Out of these 57 players, 22 players were overseas players while 29 were uncapped players. The IPL auction once again saw several dreams coming true and several young cricketers getting large sums of money to come and play in the biggest T20 league in the world. But, like always, some of those picks were too surprising. 

Out of the 57 players, let’s have a look at five players who were a surprising pick. We have created a list which consists of the players who we thought might get unsold and the players who went for way too much money than expected. 

Top five surprising picks at the IPL 2021 auction

1. Cheteshwar Pujara

Some eyebrows were raised when the Indian batsman, often referred to as a Test specialist, had added himself to the auction. Even after being a top-level cricketer of the national team, he decided to enlist himself in the category of INR 50 Lakhs. Still many had expected him to go unsold.

However, the unexpected happened when he was picked up by the Chennai Super Kings. As expected, no one else bid for him. When the hammer went down and he was finally sold to the three-time champions, Pujara got a team in the IPL auction after seven years. His last appearance was when he played a few matches for Punjab Kings (then known as Kings XI Punjab) early on in the 2014 edition. 

It will be interesting to see how MS Dhoni uses Pujara in the Chennai batting unit. Going by what the experts are saying, it seems that the right-handed batsman has been added as a backup option. Pujara’s record in T20 cricket is not bad at all. In 56 innings, he has managed 1356 runs with an average of 29.47. He has a strike rate of 110 and has even scored a T20 hundred!

2. Kedar Jadhav

Until a few years ago, the Maharashtra batsman was considered one of the most versatile cricketers in the Indian team. He could bat at any position in the middle or lower order, he could bowl a few overs if required and he was a wicketkeeper when he started his career. But, last year, after New Zealand, he was dropped from the Indian ODI team. 

Since then, Jadhav hasn’t played a lot of cricket. His IPL record is very poor for the past couple of seasons when he had represented Chennai Super Kings. Keeping all these things in consideration, it was expected that Jadhav might not find a team this time around. In addition to that, his base price was INR 2 crore. 

But, late in the day, Sunrisers Hyderabad, who were mostly inactive during the auction, decided to bid for him. They got him at the base price. For Sunrisers, it might be a good pick as it provides them with an option of having an Indian batsman who can bat at any position. It should be noted that Jadhav scored two quickfire fifties during the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy which happened last month. 

3. Marco Jansen

On the auction day, when Marco Jansen’s name came up, most of the fans wondered who he was? At the time, it was only shown that he has an experience of four T20 matches and he is from South Africa. But, when Mumbai Indians bid for the 20-year-old bowler, several people couldn’t understand what was that for?

However, one thing which we can say about Mumbai Indians, they pick good young players from several regions and their player scouting team have a really good eye for talent. We have seen them scout out several quality players like Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah. Marco Jansen seems to be one of the young players who got the attention of the Mumbai Indians’ management. 

Jansen is a gun left-arm fast bowler who plays for the Warriors franchise in South African domestic cricket. He has been really impressive in first-class cricket since his debut in 2018. He was recently picked for the South African Test squad as well but didn’t get an international debut. Some experts believe that Jansen has been kept as a backup option to Trent Boult. 

4. Tom Curran

Tom Curran has been in and out of the England limited-overs side. His inconsistency has led to some believe that he might get dropped soon from the team. Even though he has been referred to as a great death bowler, his IPL records aren’t that good. He has played for Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals in the 2018 and 2020 season respectively. 

In the two seasons, he played five matches in each of the seasons. In these 10 matches, he has managed to pick only nine wickets at an average of 36.33. His economy has been 11.50, which is quite poor as per the standards of the international players. All these factors had made almost everyone believe that Tom Curran will go unsold. 

But, on the auction day, a serious bidding war between Delhi Capitals and Sunrisers Hyderabad led to his bid sitting at 5.25 crores at one point. Sunrisers pulled out and he was sold to the Delhi Capitals. With Anrich Nortje, Chris Woakes and Kagiso Rabada already in the mix, it is doubtful that Curran will even feature in their first XI. 

Kyle Jamieson

The Auckland-born fast-bowler has been looked upon as the future of New Zealand’s fast-bowling. He has been really impressive in the short span in which he has played for the national team. Jamieson has even shown some class with the bat as well. There is a lot to like about him as a bowling all-rounder. 

Considering all these factors, it was kind of sure that he will make it to one of the IPL teams. But, on the auction day, it seemed like more than one team was interested in him. It was Royal Challengers Bangalore who wanted him badly. They opened the bidding at INR 75 lakhs. But, Delhi Capitals joined in soon. 

The two teams took the bid to INR 9 crores, but Capitals then pulled out. But as RCB was about to get the deal done, Punjab Kings came in. Even Bangalore took him home for INR 15 crore. All we can suspect is that Virat Kohli had a good look at Kyle Jamieson during India tour of New Zealand in 2020. Jamieson might have impressed Kohli enough for his franchise to want him so much.