Karnataka’s cricketers struck it rich at the IPL player auction here on Saturday, with K.L. Rahul and Manish Pandey commanding gigantic bids. The two batsmen were sold for ₹11 crore each to Kings XI Punjab and Sunrisers Hyderabad respectively, while Karun Nair was also signed by Punjab for a hefty sum of ₹5.6 crore.
Rahul triggered a fierce bidding war among four franchises. Preity Zinta, the Kings XI Punjab owner, later said the 25-year-old from Mangaluru was a player her team “really wanted”.
For city franchise, Royal Challengers Bangalore, though, the first day of the auction was a mixed one. The team chose not to use a ‘right-to-match’ card on retaining Rahul, whose price had seemingly spiralled out of its reach. Neither did it enter the race for the other Karnataka players — Stuart Binny, Mayank Agarwal, Pandey, and Nair.
“It’s hard to let go of players who have done well for you in the past,” RCB chairman Amrit Thomas said of Rahul. “We were keen on him but that’s the way things have turned out. You can’t control them.”
RCB also missed out on other targets it had pursued: Kuldeep Yadav, Krunal Pandya, Chris Lynn, and Glenn Maxwell. The team did, however, manage to retain leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal besides signing English all-rounders Chris Woakes (its most expensive buy of the day at ₹7.4 crore) and Moeen Ali (₹1.7 crore), and the Kiwi duo of Brendon McCullum (₹3.6 crore) and Colin de Grandhomme (₹2.2 crore).
Chris Gayle, a firm fan-favorite at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, went unsold, but could still find a taker on the second day of the auction.
“The auction is not over yet,” Thomas said when asked of Gayle. “We should reserve this question for later.”
