Dubai: At the end of the first set of 2024 auction, Australia’s Travis Head emerged the top buy, but his country-mate Steven Smith went unsold.
Australia’s Head was bought by SRH for Rs 6.8 crore. They wanted him to strengthen their top order. Interestingly, CSK entered the fray and went at each other for a brief period, before CSK backed out.
Franchise owners were ready to splurge on Head who had a fantastic time at the ODI World Cup earlier this year, which included a 120-ball 137 in the final against India. He scored 329 runs in six innings in the tournament at 54.83.
Head went unsold in last auction where he was listed at a similar base price of Rs two crore. He has played for Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2016 and 2017.
Rovman Powell went to Rajsthan Royals for Rs 7.40 crore after they faced stiff competition from Kolkata Knight Riders, but RR had the last laugh.
The 30 years Powell had a base price of Rs one crore. Earlier, he had represented KKR and Delhi Capitals in the IPL. He had a strong T20 series against England, scoring a fifty in the second match.
Delhi Capitals bagged Harry Brook for Rs four crore. The English batsman generated huge interest starting with a base price of Rs two crore. RR and DC were in hot pursuit for the star batsman. SRH had bought him for Rs 13.25 crore in the last auction.
After the end of first set of capped batsmen, Rilee Rossouw, Karun Nair, Steven Smith, and Manish Pandey have gone unsold.
The 10 franchises have over Rs 262 crore to spend to purchase 77 players from a pool of 332 players.
Gujarat Titans (GT) has the highest purse remaining with Rs 38.15 crore left with them.
The remaining purse of other teams are: Sunrisers Hyderabad (Rs 34 crore), Kolkata Knight Riders (Rs 32.7 crore), Chennai Super Kings (Rs 31.4 crore), Punjab Kings (Rs 29.1 crore), Delhi Capitals (Rs 28.95 crore), Royal Challengers Bangalore (Rs 23.25 crore), Mumbai Indians (Rs 17.75 crore), Rajasthan Royals (Rs 14.5 crore), and Lucknow Super Giants (Rs 13.15 crore).
Having previously hosted the Women’s Premier League auction, Mallika Sagar became the first female auctioneer at a men’s auction.
On previous occasion the hammer was wielded by Richard Madley.
