The cricket Indian Premier League (IPL) auctions threw up many surprises as some stalwarts and short format performers found no takers, while youngsters saw the 10 franchisees bidding aggressively for them.

No wonder that wicketkeeper-batsman Ishan Kishan saw Mumbai Indians wrest him back into their fold after stridently bidding for him and finally bagging him for Rs. 15.25 crore, thus making him the most expensive player at IPL 2022.

Before Kishan’s staggering fee, it was batter Shreyas Iyer, who, as predicted, fetched high quotes before Kolkata Knight Riders closed the deal with a whopping bid of Rs 12.25 crore.

Punjab Kings bought England all-rounder Liam Livingstone for $1.53 million, but Australia’s World-Cup winning skipper Aaron Finch went unsold in the players auction for this year’s IPL on Sunday, Reuters reported from New Delhi.

England white-ball skipper Eoin Morgan was not signed up but team mate Jofra Archer was bought by Mumbai Indians for Rs. 80 million ($1.06 million) even though the fast bowler, recovering after an elbow surgery, is unlikely to play in this year’s tournament.

England spin-bowling power-hitter Livingstone triggered a five-way bidding war, which Punjab clinched by forking out Rs. 115 million for him.

Finch, who led Australia to their maiden Twenty20 World Cup title last year, did not interest any of the league’s 10 franchises on the second and final day of auction in Bengaluru.

Compatriots Marnus Labuschagne and Nathan Coulter-Nile as well as England batsman Dawid Malan also went unsold.

There was a healthy appetite for quick bowlers in the two-day auction.

The 15th edition of the world’s richest cricket league will begin in the last week of March with two new franchises — Lucknow and Ahmedabad — taking part.

After the players’ auction, action would shift over the next 45-60 days to the various rights for IPL, including the broadcasting and digital rights. Last time round, Star India (now part of Disney) paid approximately a whopping $ 2.6 billion for the rights. With Reliance Jio/Viacom18, Sony-Zee, and tech and the streaming companies to throw their hat in the ring for the rights, another round of juicy and aggressive bidding is expected.

Meanwhile, PTI reported that the 15^th IPL auction is the last mega event as the BCCI is planning to do away with the concept as most franchises don’t want their stable core to be tinkered with.

The teams that bid for the players put up for grabs included CSK, MI, RCB, KKR, DC, PBKS, RR, SRH, Gujarat Titans, Lucknow Supergiant.

The total purse for auction was Rs. 90 crore (Rs. 900 million) per franchise. There were 229 capped (international), 354 uncapped (domestic) and seven players from ICC Associate nations in the auction pool.

Oldest player at the auction was South Africa’s Imran Tahir at 43 years. He remained unsold. The youngest player at the auction was Noor Ahmed of Afghanistan at 17 years.

 (IPL logo courtesy iplt20.com; Ishan Kishan courtesy his Twitter handle)