IPL Auction 2023: 3 players who are being overvalued
With the IPL auction only hours away, the excitement levels will only keep increasing for fans and cricketers with every passing minute. It is one of the most-awaited cricketing events of the year. The auction can be career-defining for several hundreds of player, who stand a chance to join the exciting league and make a lot of money as well.
With 206.5 crores available for teams to splash in the auction on 87 slots, there will be some big money buys. Sam Curran, Ben Stokes and Mayank Agarwal are all expected to receive massive bids and will be at the center of bidding wars because of a combination of their experience and skillsets.
However, not all players expected to go for big money will end up going for such prices, and here, we'll look at three such players whose values for the auction are being overestimated.
#1 Cameron Green
A slightly left-field choice given that Cameron Green is being predicted to be amongst the most expensive players in the auction. He offers a skillset that high in demand but low in supply. The Western Australian is a terrific player of pace, given that he has played a lot of his cricket on Perth's bouncy surfaces. He is decent against spin as well.
With the ball, he can touch speeds around 140 kmph. Given his qualities, the hype needs no justification. While he will attract bids in the region of 10-12 crore, predictions that he could be the most expensive player with bids exceeding 15 crores are a bit too outlandish.
One must remember that he has played only 21 T20s in his career thus far, and it is unlikely teams will want to spend more on him than more proven options in Stokes and Curran. His stock exploded after his exploits against India in the T20I series, where he hammered two quick-fire fifties in 3 games, but in his other five T20I appearances for Australia, he has scored just 21 runs.
Thus, it is evident that he is still only a work-in-progress and far from a finished product in the shortest format of the game, and while teams will bid for him based on his potential, 15 crore seems a bit of an overestimate.
#2 Adil Rashid
Adil Rashid has been amongst the best leg-spinners in limited-overs cricket over the last decade but has always found himself ignored by IPL franchises in the auction. The Englishman has made only 1 IPL appearance, and even that came when he got called up as a replacement player for the second leg of the tournament in 2021.
Teams don't often use up an overseas slot for a spinner unless there's an element of mystery about him because there are a lot of options in the Indian market itself. He has been mentioned by quite a few as an option for teams like MI and SRH among others after his performances in the knockout phase of the T20 World Cup.
However, apart from those two games, where he was brilliant, he doesn't have much going in his favour. He's only picked up 19 wickets in 24 T20Is this year, and his economy rate of 7.5 isn't low enough to compensate for the lack of wickets. The 34-year-old's record in India is poor, as he averages over 30 while conceding at well over 8.
His poor record in the country and his rather average form, will make it difficult for him to attract bids, especially with Adam Zampa and Mujeeb Ur Rahman in the mix. His best chance at the auction is being picked up at base price or a couple of bids beyond, but not exceeding that.
#3 Sikandar Raza
The fact that a Zimbabwean player's value is being overestimated, shows how good Sikandar Raza has been this year, as only three Zimbabweans have ever been a part of the marquee league. He has had a stellar year in international cricket and even scored a lone-warrior century in a thrilling ODI against India.
His efforts with bat and ball helped his country into the Super 12s of the T20 World Cup, where he again delivered a Man of the Match performance against Pakistan in a memorable win. At that point in time, his stock was at an all-time high, and if the auction was held back then, there would've been serious bidding wars for him.
However, a really poor showing at the Lanka Premier League (LPL), where he's averaged 10.45 with the bat and 34.4 with the ball could significantly dent his chances. While a good LPL season might not really affect a player's chances of being picked, a poor season in LPL for a player on the franchises' radar could make them hesitant at the auction.
The Pakistan-born player will most likely not receive bids in the range of 4-5 crores that one was expecting a while back, but given that his base price is only 50 lakhs, he could still get picked for cheap as a backup.