Young Afghanistan tweaker Rashid Khan as expected sparked a furious bidding war on Saturday during IPL auction in Bengaluru. In the last session, he played for SRH and took 17 wickets in 14 matches.
Rashid's credibility has only increased leaps and bounds from then. He has impressed in international circuit only and is one of the main reasons Afghanistan got the test status from ICC. In ODI cricket, he has so far got 70 wickets from 31 matches with best of 7 for 18 vs West Indies. In T20 Internationals, Rashid Khan has got 42 wickets in 27 matches.
So, expectedly he got a lot of bids from franchises. His base price was Rs 2 crore.
Initially the bidding was kickstarted by KXIP and RR. Soon DD joined the party while RR opted out. At Rs 7.2 crore mark, RCB entered the fray. Then the battle was all between RCB and KXIP. Finally KXIP won the bid offering Rs 9 crore for Khan. But the drama wasn't over. SRH who were sitting pretty with a beaming Muralitharan in the auction table, promptly used the RTM card. The writing was always in the wall. SRH was always going to use the RTM, it was only about how much they would have to cough up for him.
Finally he went for Rs 9 crores, making him the most expensive spinner of IPL 11 getting even more money than Ravi Ashwin.
With Rashid in the bank, SRH has an extremely formidable bowling with likes of Bhuvi, Shakib, Yousuf Pathan, Brathwaite.
For KXIP, it was another heartbreak. We have lost count of number of times, Preity Zinta though she has bought a player, only to see some other franchise use the RTM option.
