Just a few minutes before the IPL 2022 Mega Auction began on 12 Feb 2022, the Star Sports Network broadcasting team was discussing a few options about who could end up getting the highest bid in this 2-day auction event. The pre-auction (IPL 2022 Auction LIVE) favourites were Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan among Indian players, but it all depended on the auction dynamics. Why, you ask?!
It’s all about purse strategy and the timing of who comes out first, because of demand-supply. Those names who are drawn out first are much more likely to bag the big contracts but either way, a few teams were keeping a budget aside for wicket-keeper batsman, Ishan Kishan. The left-handed batsman can bat as an opener, at one-down and even in the lower middle order, so he was one of the hot picks this year!
Ishan Kishan goes to Mumbai Indians for IPL 2022
He has batted at a very high strike rate of 136 in his IPL career of 61 games, where he’s also got as many as 9 fifties and a best score of 99 runs. However, he’s been maturing as a player in recent months and has also gone on to represent India in 3 ODIs and 5 T20Is since the last edition of the Indian Premier League, getting a fifty in each format so far.
A dynamic player, he was talked about a lot prior to the IPL 2022 Mega Auction and there was plenty of talk about Mumbai Indians buying back Kishan. However, there was the fact that they would also want Quinton de Kock and both of them are like-for-like players, and it wouldn’t make sense to buy both. Additionally, MI had never paid more than 10 Crore for any player at an auction in the past!
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Coming to the result though, there were bids being thrown around for this south paw and finally, he was SOLD to Mumbai Indians at the IPL 2022 Mega Auction. He wasn’t a part of the first set of 10 marquee players that went under the hammer and the other pre-event favourite Shreyas Iyer was picked up for lower than estimated, grabbing a contract of 12.25 Crore, which increased the chance of Kishan being the most expensive.
The bidding began with Mumbai Indians with the base amount and while there were a few nervous seconds before other bids got in, Punjab King entered the fray; the bidding was intense between them. MI was quick to raise the paddle each time and we knew they WANTED him. They were quiet in the IPL 2022 auction so far and it’s clear they were waiting for Kishan’s name, but they had to contend with bids from Gujarat and Hyderabad as well.
Ishan Kishan gets ₹15.25 Crore contract
Prior to this, he had only played for two IPL franchises, making his debut in IPL 2016 for Gujarat Lions for a contract of ₹3.5 Crore. He played two seasons for them and was then snapped up by Mumbai Indians for the next four seasons, where he was paid a salary of ₹6.2 Crore. And given the way he’s peaked in recent months, we knew a new high salary was coming to this youngster.
The 23-year old will have a new record career IPL salary of ₹15.25 Crore as he gets set to represent Mumbai Indians. He would’ve had to wait quite a bit as there was a delay in proceedings at the IPL Mega Auction because the auctioneer Hugh Edmeades collapsed halfway through the third set (all-rounders) which forced the lunch break to be taken early. However, all is good and you can read about that here.
For more updates from the world of cricket and the IPL 2022 season, stay tuned to ReadScoops.com…
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