Mitchell Starc carried his sharp tongue into the Perth Test, telling ex-Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) teammate Harshit Rana to be prepared to face bouncers that will be faster than what he was dishing out to him. The Aussie fielders were also heard on stump mic reminding Rishabh Pant about the IPL auction. Even the verbals in the Border-Gavaskar Test series have an IPL flavour.
For two days, the cricket world will be focused on Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where 577 players are listed to go under the hammer to fill 204 slots in the IPL mega auction. For some, November 24-25 could bring life-changing money. Australia bowling coach Daniel Vettori left the Perth Test midway, as did Ricky Ponting and Justin Langer giving up commentary duties, to join the auction table as head coaches of Punjab Kings and Lucknow Super Giants respectively.
Each franchise has 20% more money this time ( ₹120 crore) to complete their squads. Following the retentions, which was trickier than ever with the fourth and fifth retention costing more money, franchises still have ₹641.5 crore in hand. Expect at least one, perhaps two players, to bag a ₹20 crore-plus deal. Starc’s ₹24.75 crore earning from last year’s mini auction is a high threshold, but who knows? The other upper limit to beat is Heinrich Klaasen’s ₹23 crore retention sum spent by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), a story by itself.
Klaasen retention effect
The South African batter solely focuses on white-ball cricket, hits the ball far and is a destroyer of spinners. Still, SRH’s decision to reward Klaasen so handsomely and so publicly – the news trickled in days before the retention deadline – is being seen by many as a tactic to queer the pitch for other teams. A few retentions are known to have fallen through after players began demanding bigger sums. It’s another case in point how competitive the auction business is, where building the right squad or not, it impacts winning probability across three seasons.
There’s a flip side to SRH’s high retention spends. Maximising the ₹75 crore retention limit for five capped players, the 2016 champions, like Mumbai Indians (MI), are left with only ₹45 crore. While MI have spent heavily to keep their Indian core intact, only two of SRH’s retained players – Nitish Reddy and Abhishek Sharma – are Indians. MI have chosen to chase at least four quality overseas picks to complete their playing twelve from a pool of 193 capped foreigners. SRH have signed up to identify six good Indian players from a much smaller pool of 48 capped Indians, but these bids will prove more expensive – contrasting strategies by the two teams on where to pay a premium and where to look for a bargain buy.
Differing strategies
There is another striking contrast in team tactics that’s based on their evaluation of their previous squad. Take the differing tactics of Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Punjab Kings (PBKS). Sanju Samson-led RR have spent the most on retentions – ₹79 crore for six players – and may stay quiet during most of the high-bidding wars. PBKS, on the other hand, decided to do all the heavy lifting in the auction by going with a huge sum of ₹110.5 crore after retaining only two players. The difference in spending power between the two is ₹69.5 crore.
The freedom to use a bigger sum opens up opportunities to win when bidding hits the roof. Along with PBKS, four others – Royal Challengers Bengaluru (purse left ₹83 crore), Delhi Capitals ( ₹73 crore), Lucknow Super Giants ( ₹69 crore) and KKR ( ₹51 crore) are yet to name captains. Most of these teams will go hard for the top Indian candidates – Pant, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul.
Defending champions KKR took the brave call to let go of skipper Shreyas and may be open to picking a less in demand but experienced overseas international for the post, unless they see a leader in Rinku Singh.
A bigger purse also allows teams to use the Right-To-Match (RTM) card effectively. PBKS with four RTMs in hand are expected to go all out to win back pacer Arshdeep Singh. RCB with 3 RTMs available may try to regain the services of big-hitter Will Jacks and pacer Mohammed Siraj.
From a player standpoint, it will hugely matter in which order they are called in every set. Jos Buttler, Shreyas and Pant, for example, are competing in the first set. But if PBKS already have Pant in the bag, will they go as hard for Shreyas? Kagiso Rabada, Starc and Arshdeep are the pacers competing in the first set. The last to be called out for bidding might lose some money. The big winners in the auction room always come with a stroke of luck.
