Chennai: South African Chris Morris led the pack with a record Rs 16.25 crore bid from Rajasthan Royals as all-rounders and foreign fast bowlers walked away with bank-breaking deals in the 2021 IPL players' auction here.
Morris became the most expensive buy in the IPL auction history with Rajasthan Royals shelling out big money for the all-rounder even as uncapped players such as Karnataka's K Gowtham also hogged the limelight with hefty deals here.
Spin bowling All-rounder Gowtham was bought for a record Rs 9.25 crore by the Chennai Super Kings. The 32-year-old is currently with the Indian team as a net bowler for the ongoing Test series against England.
Tamil Nadu's Shahrukh Khan, named after the Bollywood superstar, expectedly got a handsome Rs 5.25 crore deal from Punjab Kings, more than 51 times his base price of Rs 20 lakh. Shahrukh has been in the limelight with his exploits in the recent Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
Gowtham, an IPL regular who was released by Punjab Kings, was the second off-spinner CSK bought after England's Moeen Ali. With the hefty price tag, Gowtham became the most expensive uncapped buy in IPL history. His base price was also Rs 20 lakh.
Morris' big pay day came after another all-rounder and perennial under-performer, Australian Glenn Maxwell, once again managed to attract a winning Rs 14.25 crore bid from Royal Challengers Bangalore.
New Zealand pacer Kyle Jamieson, who is known more for his performances in Test cricket, secured a massive Rs 15 crore deal from the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Punjab Kings, who went into the auction with the maximum purse among eight teams, paid Rs 14 crore to rope in Australian pacer Jhye Richardson hoping he will plug the gap in their leaking bowling department.
The 24-year-old, who has played two Tests, 13 ODIs and nine T20Is for Australia, was the leading wicket-taker in the recent Big Bash League.
Punjab paid a big amount -- Rs 8 crore -- for another Australian pacer, the uncapped Riley Meredith, making him the costliest uncapped foreign player in the IPL history.
The 24-year-old has 43 wickets in 34 T20s that he has played.
While the pacers raked in the moolah, Chennai Super Kings were applauded by other teams in the room for buying India's Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara for his base price of Rs 50 lakh, paving the way for his IPL return for the first time since 2014.
Morris, who came with a base price of Rs 75 lakh, generated bids from four teams before it became a battle between Royals and Punjab Kings.
England all-rounder Moeen Ali also went for a high price of Rs 7 crore to Chennai Super Kings. Both Maxwell and Moeen had base prices of Rs 2 crore.
Bangladesh star Shakib Al Hasan was lapped up by KKR for Rs 3.2 crore. He missed the IPL last year as he was serving a ban for failing to report a corrupt approach.
Australian pacer Nathan Coulter-Nile also ended up with a good deal, fetching a Rs 5 crore bid from Mumbai Indians. He had a base price of Rs 1.5 crore.
Here are how the full squads of all the 8 teams for the IPL 2021 auction:
Mumbai Indians:
Retained players: Rohit Sharma, Aditya Tare, Anmolpreet Singh, Anukul Roy, Dhawal Kulkarni, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Jasprit Bumrah, Jayant Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Quinton de Kock, Rahul Chahar, Suryakumar Yadav, Trent Boult, Chris Lynn, Saurabh Tiwary, Mohsin Khan
Players bought at Auction: Nathan Coulter-Nile (Rs 5 crore), Adam Milne (Rs 3.2 crore), Piyush Chawla (Rs 2.4 crore)
Rajasthan Royals:
Retained players: Sanju Samson, Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Mahipal Lomror, Manan Vohra, Mayank Markande, Rahul Tewatia, Riyan Parag, Shreyas Gopal, Robin Uthappa, Jaydev Unadkat, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anuj Rawat, Kartik Tyagi, David Miller, Andrew Tye
Players bought at Auction: Chris Morris (Rs 16.25 crore), Shivam Dube (Rs 4.4 crore), Mustafizur Rahman (Rs 1 crore), Chetan Sakariya (Rs 1.20 crore), KC Kariappa (Rs 20 lakh)
Royal Challengers Bangalore:
Retained players: Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Devdutt Padikkal, Md. Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Joshua Phillipe, Pavan Deshpande, Shahbaz Ahmed, Adam Zampa, Kane Richardson
Players bought at Auction: Glenn Maxwell (Rs 14.25 crore), Sachin Baby (Rs 20 lakh), Rajat Patidar (Rs 20 lakh), Mohammed Azharrudeen (Rs 20 lakh), Kyle Jamieson (Rs 15 crore)
Sunrisers Hyderabad:
Retained players: David Warner, Abhishek Sharma, Basil Thampi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jonny Bairstow, Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem, Shreevats Goswami, Siddarth Kaul, Khaleel Ahmed, T Natarajan, Vijay Shankar, Wriddhiman Saha, Virat Singh, Priyam Garg, Mitchell Marsh, Jason Holder, Abdul Samad
Players bought at Auction: Jagadeesha Suchith. (Rs 30 lakh)
Chennai Super Kings:
Retained players: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, KM Asif, Deepak Chahar, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, N Jagadeesan, Karn Sharma, Lungi Ngidi, Mitchell Santner, Ravindra Jadeja, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shardul Thakur, Sam Curran, Josh Hazlewood, R Sai Kishore
Players bought at Auction: Moeen Ali (Rs 7 crore), K Gowtham (Rs 9.25 crore), Cheteshwar Pujra (Rs 50 lakh)
Delhi Capitals:
Retained players: Shreyas Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Ishant Sharma, Kagiso Rabada, Prithvi Shaw, R Ashwin, Rishabh Pant, Shikhar Dhawan, Shimron Hetmyer, Marcus Stoinis, Lalit Yadav, Anrich Nortje, Daniel Sams, Pravin Dubey, Chris Woakes
Players bought at Auction: Steve Smith (Rs 2.2 crore), Umesh Yadav (Rs 1 crore), Ripal Patel (Rs 20 lakh), Vishnu Vinod (Rs 20 lakh), Lukman Meriwala (Rs 20 lakh), M Siddharth (Rs 20 lakh), Tom Curran (Rs 5.25 crore)
Punjab Kings:
Retained players: KL Rahul, Arshdeep Singh, Chris Gayle, Darshan Nalkande, Harpreet Brar, Mandeep Singh, Mayank Agarwal, Mohd. Shami, M Ashwin, Nicholas Pooran, Sarfaraz Khan, Deepak Hooda, Ishan Porel, Ravi Bishnoi, Chris Jordan, Prabhsimran Singh
Players bought at Auction: Jhye Richardson (Rs 14 crore), Shahrukh Khan (Rs 5.25 crore), Dawid Malan (Rs 1.5 crore), Riley Meredith (Rs 8 crore), Moises Henriques (Rs 4.20 crore)
Kolkata Knight Riders
Retained players: Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Rinku Singh, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi, Shubman Gill, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Rahul Tripathi, Varun Chakravarthy, Tim Seifer
