The Indian Premier League (IPL) has provided a great platform to the Indian young cricketers, not just in terms of earnings but also in regard to the chances of getting exposure of International level. It is true that not everyone will get the chance of playing at International level but these domestic players get to play with Indian as well as foreign international cricketers in the tournament which is highly beneficial for their game. The players in the IPL are selected through auctions and the bid for a cricketer that is made by franchise depends a lot on the talent and skills of the player.
Let us tell you about some of those cricketers for whom many franchise placed bids and they were bought for an exorbitant amount:
1. Yuvraj Singh:
In the year 2015, Yuvraj was not in a good form but due to his big stature, reputation and experience, all the franchises wanted him in their team. Four IPL franchises – Rajasthan Royals (RR), Delhi Daredevils now Delhi Capitals (DC), Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) competed heavily to get the left-hander in their squad. In the end, it was the Delhi team which bought Yuvraj Singh for a whopping amount of Rs. 16 crore.
2. Rashid Khan:
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) bought Rashid Khan in 2017 despite the fact that he was just an 18 years old youngster and paid Rs. 4 crore for him. He justified his selection but still he was not retained the next time and then two IPL franchises, KKIP and RR were quite eager to have him in their team. The bidding war intensified when Delhi also started bidding for Rashid. However, when Rashid’s price reached Rs. 7 crore, the RCB also joined the party and it was Punjab which bought the player for Rs. 9 crore. In the end, SRH decided to use their Right to Match Card and Rashid was the second highest wicket taker in that season.
3. Ben Stokes:
Ben Stokes is one of the best players of all the three formats and in the year 2017, he was the costliest player of IPL. Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) bought Ben Stokes for a huge price of Rs. 14.5 crore and he went on to score 316 runs in 12 matches including a fiery knock of 103 in 63 balls against Gujarat Lions and also took 12 wickets. There were four other teams who wanted him – Daredevils, SRH, RCB and Mumbai Indians (MI). Next year, Ben was bought by RR for Rs. 12.5 crore.
4. Shimron Hetmyer:
The Caribbean player was in great form in 2018 so he was in high demand during the auctions of IPL 2019. Despite the fact that his base price was just Rs. 50 lakhs, he was bought by RCB for Rs. 4.2 crore. However, it was not just RCB that wanted Shimron in the squad, four other franchises – RR, SRH, DC and KXIP also placed bid for him. Shimron didn’t perform as per the expectations and scored total 90 runs in five matches.
5. MS Dhoni:
Lastly, we will talk about one of the most successful captains and a great player MS Dhoni. India won the T20 World Cup in 2007 under his leadership so it was quite obvious that all the eight franchises wanted him in their team in IPL 2008 but it was Chennai Super Kings (CSK) which got success. CSK spent a huge amount of Rs 10 crore approximately (USD 1.5 million) for getting Dhoni and since then he has always been a part of the team. Dhoni has averaged 42.20 with 4,432 runs in 190 matches and CSK has won the title three times under his guidance.
