IPL: Year-wise best signing in the auctions

The amount of thinking that goes into every season’s IPL auction is pretty much unthinkable for a layman. All these teams break their brains to come up with a proper permutation that fits their assumptions, interests and most importantly, financial constraints.

It is never easy to get the combination of their marquee signings and the domestic signings perfectly in place in order to make up a squad worthy of winning the tournament eventually. For all of it to fall in place and also for the team to do well when the T20 league begins, it is not a very pleasant ride for the franchise owners.

Over the years, the think tanks of each franchise have done a tremendous job in picking up one or two brilliant players every season. Here are the best signings made by teams in every edition of the tournament.

2008 edition – Sohail Tanvir, Rajasthan Royals (INR 40 lakh)

For an amount close to INR 40 lakh, Sohail Tanvir’s services went to the Rajasthan Royals and that proved to be a decisive signing in their title-winning campaign. The Pakistani bowler’s confusing action backed by his brilliant pace and accuracy made him nearly unplayable and he also hit the winning runs in the inaugural finale.

Tanvir ended up picking the Purple cap, becoming its first-ever winner. He picked up 22 wickets in just the 11 games he played and left his mark in pretty much every game he played. He maintained an economy less than 6.5 at the end of the season and had a staggering strike-rate of 11.22.

In the game against Chennai Super Kings at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, he registered figures of 6/14 in his 4 overs. That was the best bowling performance by any bowler in IPL for a good 11 seasons, before Alzarri Joseph broke the record against the Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2019.