Ranking the 3 teams who had the best IPL 2024 Auction ft. CSK
An IPL auction is the first introduction to a franchise ahead of the new season. Good strategies not only get teams good players but also give a sneak peek into the outlook of each management towards the coming season.
Calmness and clarity in choices (not over-spending or under-spending) also suggest everything's well behind the scenes. Chaos and too many left-field picks hint at a bit of muddy decision-making. These are all preliminary feedbacks but sometimes they tell you a lot about what might happen when the season starts.
The IPL 2024 auction was a breeding ground of chaos. There were not many spots to fill for most teams and a lot of money available to almost each of them. Still, three teams stood out in how they went about their business and came out mostly better off compared to the previous season.
#3 Mumbai Indians
Mumbai Indians (MI) were the clear winner in the Cameron Green plus Hardik Pandya double all-cash trade with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Gujarat Titans (GT), respectively. They not only got a younger captain but also switched an Australian all-rounder for an Indian one, saving an extra overseas spot in the 11.
This allowed them to go hard to add meat to their fast bowling lineup. The signings of Gerald Coetzee and Dilshan Madushanka were top-class in that regard. Getting both under ₹5 crore each was seriously good business, especially Coetzee who is T20-tested and adds to the team's batting depth as well.
MI could get these by either ignoring or having a set limit for Australian picks, who could land big pay cheques not only based on their quality but also because of recency bias. Nuwan Thushara, an underrated gem with Lasith Malinga-like action, could be a brilliant squad player, ready to be unleashed after a bit of grooming.
The other big problem was the lack of spin options. For it, MI arranged a homecoming for leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal, who represented them in his initial IPL years. MI also got Afghanistan's Mohammad Nabi, who would make the best use of the overseas spot, getting chances in spin-friendly conditions.
The five-time champions could've perhaps gone harder for the likes of younger spin options like Wanindu Hasaranga and Mujeeb ur Rahman but other than that, they looked to be much stronger than before the auction.
With an all-Indian batting core and a mostly overseas players-led bowling attack, MI could be an interesting force in IPL 2024.
#2 Gujarat Titans
Gujarat Titans impressed in their third straight season of IPL auctions. In 2022, they needed to start from scratch and were criticized for not signing a lot of big stars. But it turned out to be a masterstroke after how the team played together.
IPL 2024 auction was a bit similar for them. Starting with two of the biggest steals - Kartik Tyagi for ₹60 lakh and Azmatullah Omarzai for ₹50 lakh.
Tyagi, it seems the other franchises forgot, is a gun death over pacers who can consistently click 150 kph and take wickets in any conditions due to his ability to hit yorkers. Omarzai is a good fast-bowler with an underrated batting ability. He was one of the most impressive players at the 2023 World Cup.
The biggest blow to GT was losing Hardik Pandya. India doesn't have anyone else like Pandya to fill his hole and neither did his IPL franchise. All GT could do was give themselves enough flexibility to utilize the Impact Player.
Shahrukh Khan, due to his IPL experience and hitting ability, is as good as it gets in terms of the batting side of things. He and Omarazai with someone like Vijay Shankar as the impact player could do a good job to fill that hole.
Robin Minz, 21, was a scouting choice but looks like a good wicketkeeping understudy to Wriddhiman Saha.
Umesh Yadav and Spencer Johnson were expensive picks but GT still had around ₹8 crore left in the bank. The team will either use the combination of Johnson and Sai Kishore or Tyagi and Noor Ahmed according to conditions, which is not too different than what they had the previous season.
Overall, Shubman Gill could not have asked for a better team to start his captaincy career with.
#1 Chennai Super Kings
It's not often that a defending champion comes to an IPL auction and gets out as a much better team. Chennai Super Kings (CSK), with their no-nonsense approach, did just that, fixing the handful of gaps with the best possible players.
To manage the departure of Ben Stokes and Ambati Rayudu, they got the likes of Daryl Mitchell, Sameer Rizvi, and Shardul Thakur.
Mitchell is not an upgrade on Stokes as a batter but is a pretty decent bet for the spin-friendly Chepauk. His sticky medium pace would also work better than Stokes' fast medium, which he anyway wasn't going to use had he stayed.
Rizvi is a punt but he has Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy performances to back him. And Thakur had his best time in the IPL at CSK and would be a good Indian pace backup to the injury-prone Deepak Chahar. He might even start in some games depending on the team's pace combination.
Mustafizur Rahman is a good squad player to have for Chepauk. Finally, the additions of Avanish Rao and Rachin Ravindra suggest the team's eye on the future after the departures of Dhoni and Moeen Ali, which is never a bad thing.