BENGALURU: Royal Challengers Bengaluru made a late swoop to re-sign their former seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar for 107.5 million Indian rupees ($1.28 million) on the second day of the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction in Saudi Arabia on Monday.
The bidding war for the experienced Indian pacer looked to be between Mumbai Indians and Lucknow Super Giants but Bengaluru stepped in to secure his services with their first bid, boosting their bowling attack for next season.
Rishabh Pant (270 million rupees) and Shreyas Iyer (267.5 million rupees) bagged eye-watering deals on the opening day of the auction in Jeddah on Sunday, shattering the previous record in the world’s richest Twenty20 tournament.
Deepak Chahar went to Mumbai for 92.5 million rupees while Delhi Capitals acquired Mukesh Kumar for 80 million rupees and Akash Deep joined Lucknow for 80 million rupees on Monday as Indian pace bowlers attracted big money.
Big money as Saudi makes foray into cricket with IPL auction
Punjab Kings fought off Mumbai and Gujarat Titans to sign South African all-rounder Marco Jansen for 70 million rupees.
All-rounder Daryl Mitchell, who joined Chennai Super Kings for a bumper 140 million rupees last year, was unsold during the early bidding along with New Zealand teammates Kane Williamson and Glenn Phillips.
England’s Sam Curran was among a number of players heading back to Chennai, joining them for 24 million rupees in what was a bargain compared to the 185 million rupees that Punjab had paid in 2022.
Mumbai bolstered their attack with Afghanistan spinner Allah Ghazanfar for 48 million rupees and India all-rounder Washington Sundar was a steal for Gujarat at 32 million rupees.
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