New Delhi: The auction for the 2024 season of the Indian Premier League, was completed successfully on Tuesday, at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai. The latest auction became the most sought-after auction in the history of the Indian Premier League, as for the first time in history, two players crossed the 20 crore mark. Australian left-arm pacers Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins, received record bids of 24.75 crore and 20.50 crore, from Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad, respectively, to create the history. A stellar location 🏟️ A stellar #IPLAuction 🔨 10 stellar teams 🙌🏻 And one stellar team behind the scenes 👌🏻🤌🏻 BRING ON #IPL 2024 😎 pic.twitter.com/R7a57udnpH — IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) December 19, 2023 Notably, while money was raining on these capped players, there were a few uncapped players who stole the show after they went for big money, performing better than some of the most experienced capped players. Let’s take a look at the top 5 most expensive players in the 2024 IPL auction who stole the show despite having some of the renowned names around. 1] Sameer Rizvi (Chennai Super Kings) Hailing from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, the young Indian batter sparked a huge bidding war, between the Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Titans. The quality of Rizvi can be understood by the fact that a team like Chennai Super Kings, who doesn’t run behind many players, regardless of the money, went all-in to acquire the services of the right-handed batsman for a whopping 8.40 crore. Rizvi can be Ambati Rayudu’s replacement as he can play the role of hard hitting batsman in the middle order, just like Rayudu used to do. 2] Shahrukh Khan (Gujarat Titans) The right-handed batsman from Tamil Nadu, was the talk of the town when Punjab Kings released him from the squad, as it sparked the interest of all the other franchises before the auction. Punjab Kings initially bought Shahrukh in the 2021 auction for 5.25 crore and released him the next season, only to buy him back again for a whopping nine crore in the following auction. After releasing him earlier last month, Punjab Kings once again tried to buy him back and went into an intense bidding war with Gujarat Titans, who eventually acquired his services for 7.40 crore. 3] Kumar Kushagra (Delhi Capitals) Sourav Ganguly promised Kushagra’s father that Delhi Capitals would buy the wicket-keeper batsman regardless of the price, and after an intensifying bidding war with Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Titans, Ganguly fulfilled his promise as Delhi acquired Kushagra for a whopping 7.20 crore price tag from his initial 20 lakh base price. 4] Shubham Dubey (Rajasthan Royals) The highest run scorer for Vidarbha in the Vijay Hazare trophy, Shubham Dubey, opened the account for the uncapped players in the IPL 2024 auction, as after an exhilarating bidding war with Delhi Capitals, Rajasthan Royals was able to seal their target buy with an impressive price of 5.40 crore. The hard-hitting batsman can be Rajasthan’s answer for the lower middle order headache, where they need a player who plays with an attacking strike-rate to help them finish the innings positively, something they were unable to do the last season. 5] Robin Minz (Gujarat Giants) The wicket-keeper batsman from Jharkhand shocked everyone, when, out of nowhere, in the accelerated round, the 21-year-old wicket-keeper batsman fetched a whopping total of 3.60 crores, from the Ahmedabad-based franchise in the 2024 IPL auctions. Minz is a hard-hitting lower-order batsman who can be a perfect impact player option for GT while batting second and in dire need of some high-scoring shots.
