IPL 2019 Auction: Jaydev Unadkat, Varun Chakravarthy earn biggest bids of 8.4 Crore

For the second time running, Jaydev Unadkat, earned big in the IPL Auction as he was picked up by Rajasthan Royals for INR 8.4 Crore. The Royals had released him earlier after buying him for INR 11.5 Crore in the previous auction.

The other person picked with the same winning bid of INR 8.4 Crore was mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy who got a whopping 42x increase on his base price as Kings XI Punjab successfully added him to their roster. Chakravarthy is an architect-turned-cricketer who turned heads with his miserly spells in the Tamil Nadu Premier League and is still an uncapped player.

The other big bids

Overseas allrounders such as Sam Curran (7.2 Crore to Kings XI Punjab) and Colin Ingram (INR 6.4 Crore to Delhi Capitals) were the next in line to break the bank as teams looked to fill in the blanks in their squad.

Uncapped but rich

Along with Varun Chakravarthy, there were a few more uncapped players who zoomed into the spotlight.

Shivam Dubey, the big-hitting all-rounder from Mumbai also picked up a big sum, INR 5 Crore from Royal Challengers Bangalore. Prabhsimran Singh, India Under-19 wicket-keeper batsman and captain, was picked up for INR 4.8 Crore by Kings XI Punjab. Sixteen-year-old legspinner Prayas Ray Barman was picked up for INR 1.5 Crore by Royal Challengers Bangalore after an impressive Vijay Hazare outing recently.

The flavours of the season

Significant amount of money was shelled out for Indian pacers and T20 stars from the Caribbean.

Carlos Brathwaite (INR 5 Crore to Kolkata Knight Riders), Mohit Sharma (INR 5 Crore to Chennai Super Kings), Mohammed Shami (INR 4.8 Crore to Kings XI Punjab), Shimron Hetmyer (INR 4.2 Crore to Royal Challengers Bangalore) and Nicholas Pooran (INR 4.2 Crore to Kings XI Punjab) were all amongst those who attracted attention from various teams.

Barinder Sran (INR 3.4 Crore to Mumbai Indians), Varun Aaron (2.4 Crore by Rajasthan Royals) and Ishant Sharma (1.1 Crore by Delhi Capitals) were some of the other Indian pacers who found homes for the 2019 season while Axar Patel (INR 5 Crore to Delhi Capitals) moved to neighbours Delhi after spending four seasons with KXIP.

Ageing stars and notable buys

Yuvraj Singh found a sixth IPL home as Mumbai Indians bagged him for his base price of INR 1 Crore after he went unsold the first time around. That sort of luck didn't come the way for the likes of Dale Steyn, Brendon McCullum, Morne Morkel, Hashim Amla, Shaun Marsh, Angelo Mathews who all went unsold.

Meanwhile, Lasith Malinga (INR 2 crore) returned to Mumbai Indians as a player after serving as a bowling mentor for the three-time champions in the 2018 season.

England's wicket-keeper batsman Jonny Bairstow (2.2 Crore to SRH), Oshane Thomas (INR 1.1 Crore to Rajasthan Royals), Joe Denly (INR 1 Crore to Kolkata Knight Riders) were amongst those will feature in the IPL for the first time.

None of the teams exhausted their full purse at the end of the auction but had settled in on their squads after the auction that had stretched close to six hours.