Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell sparked a bidding war between four franchises – Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Chennai Super Kings – before finally getting sold to RCB for a whopping 14.25 cr in the IPL auction 2021 in Chennai.
It was KKR who gave the first bid at 2 cr (base price) for Maxwell. Rajasthan Royals were quick to join in. For the initial stage, the bidding war continued between RR and KKR. The Rajasthan Royals were the first to opt out after Royal Challengers Bangalore came in the fray.
KKR too opted out as soon as Chennai Super Kings threw its hat in the ring. The bidding then went on for more than 15 minutes with CSK and RCB placing one bid after another to get a hold of Maxwell.
Finally, RCB placed a bid of 14.25 crore to get Maxwell on board.
The dynamic Australian all-rounder’s poor show in the previous edition of the IPL had no bearings on his popularity among franchises.
Maxwell, who was bought for 10.75 crore by Kings XI Punjab ( now Punjab Kings), was released by the franchise after the Australia all-rounder had an ordinary season in the UAE. He scored 108 runs in 13 matches picking up only 3 wickets in the season in which the Punjab-based franchise failed to make it to the play-offs.
Overall in IPL, Maxwell has played 82 matches where he has amassed 1505 runs at an average of 22.13. He also has 19 wickets to his name. His breakthrough season was in 2014 for Punjab, where he scored 552 runs at a strike rate of 187.75