Bengaluru: Indian Premier League (IPL) side and five-time champions, Mumbai Indians, have conceded that the auction got off to a “sedate start” for them, lamenting that they could not get a marquee player on board on the first day of the IPL Mega Auction on Saturday.
However, the Rohit Sharma-led side, who won their last IPL title in 2020 in the UAE, added that it would be an “action-packed day” on Sunday as the team has still to fill 18 slots with INR 27.85 crore left in the purse.
“The auction got off to a sedate start for us with no signings from the Marquee Players List. We did go for (South Africa’s) Quinton de Kock and (New Zealand’s) Trent Boult but were outbid. Our first buy came with (wicketkeeper-batter) Ishan Kishan becoming our most expensive buy from the auction at INR 15.25 cr,” said Mumbai Indians on their website.
“After that, we went for Rahul Chahar, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Josh Hazlewood but unsuccessfully so. Our next signing was (South Africa’s) Dewald Brewis touted to be ‘Baby AB’. The young Protean came to us for INR 3 crore.
“In the remainder of the auction, we picked up a couple of squad players in Murugan Ashwin and Basil Thampi for INR 1.6 cr and INR 30 lakh respectively. One thing’s for sure, tomorrow (Sunday) is going to be an action-packed day since we have 18 slots yet to be filled and INR 27.85 crore left in our purse,” said the Mumbai Indians statement.
