The first round of the auction featured marquee players from India and overseas. While Indian players like Ajinkya Rahane and R Ashwin were sought after, it was Englishman Ben Stokes and Australian Mitchell Strac who really got the franchises shelling out the big bucks. Stokes went to Rajasthan Royals for Rs 125 million, Rs 20 million short of last year’s record bid of Rs 145 million, while Starc will now don the purple and gold of the Kolkata Knight Riders, who placed the winning bid of Rs 94 million. Stokes attracts fierce bidding second year in a row. Four teams vied for the player, starting with CSK and KXIP. The Chennai team, however, bowed out at Rs 66 million at chick point KKR entered the bidding war and battled it out till the bid amount reached Rs 120 million.
At this point, RR joined in and finally walked away with last year’s most expensive player for Rs 125 million.
Starc saw a fierce war between two teams – Kings XI Punjab, with co-owner Preity Zinta at the table, and KKR. However, the team from Punjab bowed out at Rs 94 million. Four teams used the right to match (RTM) card to retain players after the winning bid was placed. These include Sunrisers Hyderabad to retain Shikhar Dhawan, Mumbai Indians to retain Keiron Pollard, Rajasthan Royals to retain Ajinkya Rahane and Chennai Super Kings to retain Faf du Plessis (see chart). Both Ashwin and Dhawan saw some heavy bidding, the former going for Rs 76 million while Dhawan fetched Rs 52 million. Contrary to expectations, Rahane saw tame bidding from two teams – Punjab and Mumbai Indians, before Rajasthan exercised their right to match. West Indies heavyweight Christopher Gayle surprisingly went without a bid in the first round of the auction. Players not sold in the first go may be recalled by the teams at the end of the auction when they will be re-presented for bidding. The next round will see players like Glenn Maxwell, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Dwayne Bravo going under the hammer. Of the total 1000 plus players who signed up for the auction, a shortlisted 578 will be available for auction over the next two days.