IPL 2021: 5 Cricketers who deserved a better sold price in the auction

The IPL Auction was quite an entertaining event as teams engaged in exciting bidding wars for several top players. 57 players were bought on the 18th of February including 22 overseas stars. More than Rs. 145 crore was spent by franchises as they looked to build title-winning squads. Chris Morris broke several records on the day as he was bought by the Rajasthan Royals for Rs. 16.25 crores which made him the most expensive player in the history of the league. Even Kyle Jamieson, Jhye Richardson, and Glenn Maxwell received bids in excess of Rs. 10 crores. Krishnappa Gowtham was the costliest Indian player as he was snapped up by CSK for Rs.9.25 crore. While there were several players who were bought for high prices, and in some cases arguably more than what they were worth, some players ended up with bids lesser than what they probably deserved. On that note, here’s a look at 5 players who deserved a better sold price in the IPL auction: 1. Shakib Al Hasan Shakib Al Hasan. (Photo by INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP/GettyImages) Shakib Al Hasan is back in the Indian Premier League after missing the last edition due to his one-year suspension, and he will be in action for Kolkata Knight Riders with whom he won two IPL titles. He was bought for Rs. 3.2 crore by KKR and will provide them with excellent competition for places. He has scored 5080 runs in 317 T20s and picked up 360 wickets while conceding at less than seven. He is a consistent performer with the bat and is economical with the ball in hand while also picking up crucial wickets. Although 3.2 crore isn’t that small an amount, given the fact that Shakib is one of the best all-rounders in the game makes it a bargain price for the Knight Riders. With the ability to bat anywhere and even bowl at various stages of the game, he will provide them with good value for money. 2. Mujeeb Ur Rahman Mujeeb Ur Rahman of KXIP celebrates a wicket. (Photo Source: Twitter) One of the many mystery spinners to have emerged from Afghanistan in recent times, Mujeeb Ur Rahman has established himself in various T20 leagues all over the world. He has consistently delivered good performances and is arguably Afghanistan’s best spinner behind Rashid Khan. The former KXIP bowler was picked up by the Sunrisers Hyderabad for his base price of Rs. 1.5 crore. His good form in the BBL coupled with the fact that he was one of the best spinners available should have fetched him more bids, but that wasn’t the case. He has picked up 145 wickets in 132 T20 games at a strike rate of 20.6 and has an excellent economy rate of 6.64. He can bowl at any stage of the game and would be a good backup for Rashid Khan. Depending upon the type of combination SRH wants to use, he could potentially be a starter, and a partnership along with Rashid would be quite special. 3. Fabian Allen Fabian Allen. (Photo by Randy Brooks – CPL T20/Getty Images) Fabian Allen was picked up by SRH at his base price last season, but he didn’t get a single game and was subsequently released ahead of the auction. He is a perfect T20 player with his aggressive batting, useful bowling, and outstanding fielding efforts. He has scored 449 runs in 32 T20s at a strike-rate of 159.21 and picked up 17 wickets while conceding runs at 7.85. The 25-year-old was picked up by the Punjab Kings for Rs. 75 lakhs and is essentially their replacement for Glenn Maxwell. The Jamaican wouldn’t be a starter for them in the initial games but could come into the picture as we go deep into the tournament. At 75 lakhs, his purchase is a solid one on paper as he is the complete package in the shortest format, and in an ideal world, he should have probably gotten more than Rs. 1 crore. 4. Steve Smith Steve Smith. (Photo Source: IPL/BCCI) Steve Smith was released by the Rajasthan Royals ahead of the new season and he set his base price as Rs. 2 crores for the auction. Given his reputation in the game, many expected him to be bought for a large sum. However, he was bought for a relatively low amount of Rs. 2.2 crore by the Delhi Capitals. RCB bid first for him before the Capitals made the 2nd and final bid for him. It was quite surprising that RCB didn’t bid again for him given that they were in need of an overseas batsman (Maxwell didn’t come up yet). He has scored 4438 runs in 209 T20s at an average of 30.6, and his strike-rate of 126.4 is decent for someone who predominantly plays the role of an anchor. It will be interesting to see how DC use him as they already have Ajinkya Rahane and Shreyas Iyer to perform similar roles, and he might initially find himself on the bench. 5. Dawid Malan Dawid Malan. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images) Dawid Malan receiving just one bid was one of the biggest surprises during the IPL auction. The Englishman was bought for his base price of Rs. 1.5 crore by the Punjab Kings. It is undoubtedly one of the steals of the auction, and it allowed the franchise to further strengthen their already powerful batting lineup at minimum cost. He has scored 6117 runs in 223 T20s at a strike-rate of 128.61 and averages 33.24. He is the No.1 ranked T20I batsman in the world and has 855 runs in 19 games at a strike-rate of nearly 150. With such stats, it was expected that he would go for a pretty big amount, but that wasn’t the case on the day of the auction. Specialist overseas batsmen didn’t seem to be in demand as teams preferred multi-dimensional players and that might have been the reason behind his rather modest price. Nevertheless, Malan will most likely be pleased to have been picked up by the Kings for his first-ever IPL.

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IPL 2021: 5 Cricketers who deserved a better sold price in the auction

Intensified bidding-wars were expected in case of these players.

3. Fabian Allen

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