IPL 2020 player auction: 5 biggest surprises
Which team lands which player? Who will be the top draws? Which team will be breaking the bank to get their desired players?
All these questions were answered as the drama unfolded today at the IPL 2020 player auction.
Naturally, the most active franchises were the ones who had earlier let go of players in order to bring in new faces. KXIP, RR, and KKR bought most of the players in today's auction while at the other end of the spectrum were teams like CSK, MI, and SRH, who already have their core team put in order and looked content with just filling in a few gaps.
There have been quite a few surprises at the auction table over the years and this trend continued this year as well. Here are the five biggest surprises of IPL 2020 player auction:
#1. Chris Lynn (Australia) - Rs 2 Crores
One of the biggest surprises before the player auction was the release of Australia’s hard-hitting batsman Chris Lynn by KKR. Fans expected that the main strategy behind the move was to buy him back at the auction for a much lesser price. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen today.
Even though he had an average season in 2019, most of us would have expected some stiff fight for him because of his reputation in this format. But surprisingly, there was only one team that was interested in recruiting him. Defending champions Mumbai Indians easily bought him for his base price.
As made evident by his tweet, the Aussie is looking forward to his time at his new franchise.
#2. Kesrick Williams (West Indies) - Unsold
The medium-pacer from the West Indies has been getting under the skin of the Indian captain Virat Kohli in the ongoing limited-overs series and has been a successful bowler so far for the touring side.
His clever change of pace makes him a very effective bowler in T20s and he was expected to invite some heavy bidding by the franchises but surprisingly, there wasn’t anyone who picked him.
A sad day in his (note)book for sure!