It was the biggest ever auction in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL), as 10 teams fought it out for 600 players who went under the hammer. Close to 204 players were ultimately bought, and a mind-numbing INR 550 crores were spent in total.
On February 12,13, BCCI held the IPL 2022 mega auction, as two new franchises entered the cash-rich league. That meant a new auction, and thus, all 10 franchises were asked to make their teams from scratch.
They were allowed to retain as many as four players each, while the two new entrants, Lucknow Super Giants, and Gujarat Titans were allowed to pick three players each as their draft picks from the players who had been released by their fellow franchises.
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Many records were created and broken in the two-day extravaganza in Bengaluru, Ishan Kishan became the most expensive player in the current auction when Mumbai Indians splashed out INR 15.25 crore on the youngster.
Kishan had a base price of INR 2 crore, but such was the fierce bidding for the youngster that his eventual price crossed the 15 crore mark. Despite this, Ishan Kishan wasn't the player who drew most bids, in fact, the player who drew the most number of bids in IPL 2022 mega auction was an uncapped player.
Avesh Khan had five teams chasing his signature, as he drew a total of 62 bids from all of the interested franchises. Lucknow Super Giants came out as eventual winners as they spent INR 10 crore to make Avesh the most expensive uncapped player ever!
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For comparisons, Ishan Kishan drew a total of 55 bids. Similarly, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) were the team that registered the most bids in total.
Defending champions CSK were the most active paddle raisers as they bid for as many as 50 players while eventually opting to sign just 21 personnel for the upcoming season.
