As many as 204 cricketers were bought by 10 IPL franchises on February 12 and 13 for an amount surpassing INR 500 crore. Ishan Kishan was the costliest player this auction as Mumbai Indians repurchased him for INR 15.25 crore, Deepak Chahar went to Chennai Super Kings for INR 14 crore and Shreyas Iyer was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders for INR 12.25 crore.
A total of 108 players landed deals equaling or greater than Rs 1 crore, and there were more than 10 cricketers who were bought for a sum of 10 crore or more. One such cricketer was Harshal Patel.
Harshal Patel became a household name last season as he finished with the Purple Cap, scalping 32 wickets in 15 matches. His heroics in the IPL 2021 also earned him a call-up to the national squad. Royal Challengers Bangalore shelled out INR 10.75 crore to retain the services of the 31-year-old pacer.
While many questioned the amount of money spent on him, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar believes that the amount spent on Harshal was justified provided how he has been performing since last year.
“Look he deserves every penny, every rupee that he’s earned at the auction. He put in a fabulous performance last year. And the best part about Harshal Patel is how he has reinvented himself. Earlier, he was a bowler batters were looking to face because he hardly had any change of pace. He was being taken for a lot of runs. He is learning from it, he has improved from that. Now, he is the bowler that batters do not want to face because they don’t know what he is going to bowl,” Gavaskar said to the host broadcaster.
“He has got a very good yorker. He has got a slower bouncer. He has got a delivery that skids along quite nicely so he has got the works and he knows when to use it because of the experience he has had playing in the IPL for the last few years. He has only got better every year,” added Gavaskar.
