Indian Premier League 2022 Mega Auction: Review

As the two-day IPL Mega Auction comes to an end, we take a look at the highs and lows of each team and what the acquisitions mean for them ahead of the 2022 season.

Mumbai Indians

Players Bought

Sanjay Yadav, Dewald Brevis, Ramandeep Singh, Mayank Markande, Aryan Juyal, Arjun Tendulkar, Tilkar Verma, Hrithik Shokeen, Rahul Buddhi, Arshad Khan, Jaydev Unadkat, Tymal Mills, Murugan Ashwin, Jofra Archer, Fabien Allen, Ishan Kishan, Basil Thampi, Daniel Sams, Anmolpreet Singh, Tim David and Riley Meredith.

After going all out on Day 1 of the auction to get Ishan Kishan, the Mumbai Indians needed to fill up their squad on the second day following just a handful of purchases on the opening day.

The MI seem to be playing the long game with the purchase of English fast bowler Jofra Archer, while they tried to plug the gap left by the Pandya brothers with Fabian Allen, Daniel Sams and Tim David.

While Sams and Tymal Mills will give Bumrah the support he needs until Archer is fit, the Indians lack quality spinners and a quality Indian batter other than Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav.

Chennai Super Kings

Players Bought

N Jagadeesan, Hari Nishaanth, Subhranshu Senapati, KM Asif, Mukesh Choudhary, Maheesh Theekshana, Simarjeet Singh, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Bhagath Varma, Prashant Solanki, Chris Jordan, Dwaine Pretorius, Ambati Rayudu, Robin Uthappa, Devon Conway, Deepak Chahar, Adam Milne, Mitchell Santner, Dwayne Bravo, Shivam Dube and Tushar Deshpande.

The Chennai Super Kings have more or less stuck to the system that has helped them take home four IPL titles. They have brought home most of their core players whom they couldn’t retain and have mixed it up with a combination of uncapped Indians and experienced international T20 players.

The Super Kings went big to get back Deepak Chahar and also brought back the experienced Dwyane Bravo, Robin Uthappa and Ambati Rayudu. The additions of Devon Conway, Chris Jordan and Dwaine Pretorius give them good options for their foreigner slots, although the loss of Faf du Plessis is something that might hurt them. As good as an opener Conway is, an experienced partner with Gaikwad up top would’ve helped the team. 

The lack of a good Indian seam option is something that the CSK lack as well. They will be hoping the likes of Milne, Jordan and Chahar make up for it.

Lucknow Super Giants

Players Bought

Mohsin Khan, Ayush Badoni, Karan Sharma, Mayank Yadav, Manish Pandey, Shahbaz Nadeem, Kyle Mayers, Mark Wood, Quinton de Kock, Jason Holder, K Gowtham, Evin Lewis, Krunal Pandya, Deepak Hooda, Manan Vohra, Dushmantha Chameera, Ankit Rajpoot and Avesh Khan.

New boys Lucknow Super Giants were the only team to exhaust their entire purse, which helped them build a solid squad with options in almost all disciplines. The opening pair of KL Rahul and Quinton de Kock is, on paper, one of the best in the league, while the likes of Stoinis, Holder, Deepak Hooda and Krunal Pandya will give the team depth and balance with their all-round abilities.

Manish Pandey, K Gowtham and Manan Vohra are capable Indian batting options, while Ravi Bishnoi, Mark Wood, Chameera and Avesh Khan make up a strong bowling unit.

The Lucknow franchise should be pleased with their first outing and will definitely be one of the contenders for the Playoff spots if the players live up to their potential.

Delhi Capitals

Players Bought

Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Chetan Sakariya, Ripal Patel, Yash Dhull, Vicky Ostwal, David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Mustafizur Rahman, Mandeep Singh, Shardul Thakur, KS Bharat, Lungi Ngidi, Kuldeep Yadav, Tim Seifert, Sarfaraz Khan, Praveen Dubey, Ashwin Hebbar, Rovman Powell, Lalit Yadav and Khaleel Ahmed.

After the Lucknow Super Giants, the Delhi Capitals are the well-placed team after the auction.

Even though the Capitals lost Dhawan and Iyer, they got probably one of the best deals of the auction by snapping up David Warner for peanuts. Shaw, Warner, Pant and Mitchell Marsh provide Delhi with one of the strongest batting line-ups, while Mustafizur Rahman, Nortje, Ngidi, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Shardul Thakur make up a strong bowling line-up.

However, one reason as to why the DC might face some issues is the fact that they don’t have solid backups for each discipline.

Punjab Kings

Players Bought

Rahul Chahar, Atharva Taide, Prabhsimran Singh, Harpreet Brar, Vaibhav Arora, Ansh Patel, Raj Angad Bawa, Benny Howell, Shikhar Dhawan, Rishi Dhawan, Jonny Bairstow, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Liam Livingstone, Sandeep Sharma, Kagiso Rabada, Writtick Chatterjee, Shahrukh Khan, Odean Smith, Nathan Ellis, Prerak Mankad and Ishan Porel.

The acquisitions of Shikhar Dhawan, Jonny Bairstow, Liam Livingstone and Kagiso Rabada will definitely strengthen the starting eleven of the Punjab Kings, but they have spent a lot on Shahrukh Khan, who, to be fair, has had a good domestic season, but to expect him to be the main all-rounder given he doesn’t have any international experience is a big gamble.

Apart from Mayank Agarwal and Shikhar Dhawan, the Kings don’t have any experienced Indian batter, nor do they have a solid international bowler apart from Rabada. They will be banking on their select few superstars to perform and hope the uncapped Indians manage to chip in regularly.

Kolkata Knight Riders

Players Bought

Anukul Roy, Shivam Mavi, Abhijeet Tomar, Pratham Singh, Rasikh Salam, Aman Khan, Ramesh Kumar, Ashok Sharma, Sheldon Jackson, Alex Hales, Mohammad Nabi, Ajinkya Rahane, Sam Billings, Umesh Yadav, Baba Indrajith, Pat Cummins, Nitish Rana, Chamika Karunaratne, Shreyas Iyer and Rinku Singh.

Two-time IPL champions Kolkata Knight Riders were fairly quiet on Day 1 of the auction apart from their big buy of Shreyas Iyer. They then filled up their remaining slots on Day 2 with a lot of experience and a bunch of uncapped, unheard-of Indian players. On paper, the inexperience of their Indian unit should hurt them, but then the Knight Riders are known to think out of the box.

The Knight Riders have a solid Indian batting line-up of Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana, Ajinkya Rahane and Shreyas Iyer, with Iyer most likely to take up the captaincy role. Pat Cummins, Russell, Narine, and Nabi provide a good bowling unit, while Alex Hales and Sam Billings bring worldwide T20 experience to the team.

If their starting eleven manage to get their act together early on in the 2022 season, the Knights Riders will unquestionably be a force to be reckoned with.

Rajasthan Royals

Players Bought

Riyan Parag, Tejas Baroka, Devdutt Padikkal, Anunay Singh, Kuldeep Sen, Dhruv Jurel, Kuldip Yadav, Shubham Garhwal, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Rassie van der Dussen, Jimmy Neesham, Daryl Mitchell, Karun Nair, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shimron Hetmyer, Navdeep Saini, Obed McCoy, KC Cariappa and Prasidh Krishna.

Good and experienced their bowling unit might be, but the Rajasthan Royals’ batting line-up is a bit weird and inexperienced. While Jos Buttler and Samson have experience, the fact that the Royals have bought Padikkal means that the southpaw will most likely open with Jaiswal, which means Buttler would have to slot into the middle order. Apart from Samson, the Royals do not have any good Indian batter.

In terms of the bowling department, the prospect of Ashwin, Chahal, Boult and Saini together should be an exciting watch for the Royals fans.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Players Bought

Anuj Rawat, Luvnith Sisodia, Suyash Prabhudessai, Akash Deep, Aneeshwar Gautam, Jason Behrendorff, Dinesh Karthik, Karn Sharma, Josh Hazlewood, David Willey, Siddharth Kaul, Harshal Patel, Faf du Plessis, Chama Milind, Wanindu Hasaranga, Mahipal Lomor, Sherfane Rutherford and Finn Allen.

The Royal Challengers broke the bank to get back Wanindu Hasaranga, while the purchases of Hazlewood, Karthik, du Plessis and Harshal Patel should do them no harm.

As strong as the RCB batting line-up is with Maxwell, Kohli, du Plessis and Karthik, the fact that it is very one-dimensional might cause them some problems. None of the RCB’s main batters are left-handers, and they also lack a go-to experienced spinner.

That being said, the fast-bowling trio of Patel, Hazlewood and Siraj is definitely one of the best in the league, and Hazlewood’s incredible rise in the last year or so in the T20 format will only boost the Royal Challengers’ chances of a Playoff spot.

Gujarat Titans

Players Bought

R Sai Kishore, Darshan Nalkande, Sai Sudharsan, Yash Dayal, Noor Ahmad, Matthew Wade, Pradeep Sangwan, Wriddhiman Saha, Jason Roy, David Miller, Varun Aaron, Rahul Tewatia, Jayant Yadav, Vijay Shankar, Mohammed Shami, Lockie Ferguson, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Alzarri Joseph, Abhinav Manohar and Dominic Drakes.

The Gujarat Titans’ auction strategy was a bit weird: they roped in some international experience in Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Shami, Matthew Wade, Lockie Ferguson, Rashid Khan, Jason Roy and David Miller, but barring a couple of players from that list, none are out-and-out T20 specialists.

As good as the Titans bowling line-up looks with Ferguson, Shami, Rashid Khan in it, their batting line-up seems extremely thin. Barring Gill, Miller and Roy, there aren’t any good batting options for them, which means captain Hardik Pandya will need to take on additional responsibility.

SunRisers Hyderabad

Players Bought

Priyam Garg, Abhishek Sharma, Kartik Tyagi, Saurabh Dubey, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shreyas Gopal, Shashank Singh, Sean Abbott, Rahul Tripathi, R Samarth, J Suchith, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Romario Shepherd, Marco Jansen, Washington Sundar, Vishnu Vinod, T Natarajan, Glenn Phillips and Fazalhaq Farooqi.

While the SunRisers have a solid bowling unit in Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Washington Sundar, T Natarajan, Marco Jansen and Umran Malik, their batting unit seems a little thin. Apart from Williamson, Pooran, Markram and Rahul Tripathi, there isn’t much depth or experience. While the youngsters like Garg, Sharma and Samad are capable, relying on them to win games will be a step too much. The lack of good Indian batting options or a good international spinner might hurt the SRH in IPL 2022.