IPL 2024 auction stats: Pace bowlers take higher share, first-timers earn big

New benchmarks were scaled in the history of the IPL auction on Tuesday, as the INR 20-crore mark was breached for the first time. Sunrisers Hyderabad spent INR 20.5 crore (USD 2.47 million approx.) for Pat Cummins, as he broke the record set by Punjab Kings last year in buying Sam Curran for INR 18.5 crore (USD 2.2 million approx.) to become the IPL's most expensive player.

However, Cummins' selling price itself soon lost significance as Mitchell Starc surpassed his national team captain, with Kolkata Knight Riders splurging INR 24.75 crores (USD 2.98 million approx.) on the left-arm pacer. The two Australians now have a higher pay than the prize money of INR 20 crore received by Chennai Super Kings for winning the previous season.

The total of INR 45.25 crore (USD 5.4 million approx.) spent on the Australian duo was 19.64% of total spending by the ten franchises on Tuesday. Harshal Patel was the Indian with the highest bid at this auction, as Kings bought him for INR 11.75 crore (USD 1.41 million approx.). He was the only Indian among the six players with INR 10-plus crore bids at Tuesday's auction.

Daryl Mitchell was the third-most expensive player, bought by CSK for INR 14 crores (USD 1.68 million approx.). He is now the second-most expensive player from New Zealand at any IPL auction, behind Kyle Jamieson's INR 15 crore bid from Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2021.

KKR, who came in with a salary purse of INR 32.7 crore (USD 3.9 million approx.), ended up spending 75.69% of that on buying Starc alone. This move did play a part in them buying more players on their base price than the other teams. The other nine players KKR brought at the auction were at their base price itself. Before buying Starc, they made unsuccessful bids for only two players - Rovman Powell and Chris Woakes.

No team other than KKR bought more than five players at their base price. Gujarat Titans were in contrast - only two of their eight buys came at the base price. They did buy four other players at at least ten times their base price - Spencer Johnson, Shahrukh Khan, Robin Minz and Sushant Mishra. No other team had more than two such buys.

Thirty-six of the 72 players sold in Dubai were either listed as bowlers or as allrounders who bowled pace. Those 36 players were bought for a combined total of INR 154.5 crore alone (USD 18.5 million approx.), about two-thirds of the total spent. Twenty of those 36 players had registered themselves in the auction as specialist pace bowlers, earning a collective sum of INR 88.85 crore (USD 10.6 million approx.).

Overseas pace bowlers dominated the auction - ten of the 20 specialist pace bowlers were foreigners, as the franchises spent INR 66.15 crore (US USD 7.9 million approx.) on them. Six overseas pace bowlers earned bids of INR 4 crore (USD 481,015 approx.) or more, while only three Indian pace bowlers earned the same. The ten Indian specialist pace bowlers sold at the auction collected a total amount of INR 22.70 crore (USD 2.7 million approx.). All the six players who went for INR 10-plus crore bids were either pace bowlers or pace-bowling allrounders.

That indirectly meant the spinners barely attracted the interest of the franchises, as only 16 players sold in the auction were listed as allrounders and bowlers with spin-bowling roles. Among those 16, ten were picked at their base price of INR 20 lakh (USD 24,050 approx.) itself. Only Shahrukh Khan went past the INR 3-crore (USD 360,761 approx.) mark, and his selling price of INR 7.4 crore (USD 889,878 approx.) was nearly 40% of the total spent on those 16 players. Shahrukh, though, had listed himself as an allrounder who bowled offspin, although he is yet to bowl in the IPL.

The franchises spent a total of INR 31.05 crore (USD 3.7 approx.) on the eight Indian capped players they bought on Tuesday, but most of that went to Harshal alone, fetching a bid of 11.75 crore (USD 1.4 million approx.). Only two other capped Indians were sold for INR 5 crore (USD 6 million approx.) or more, while as many as five uncapped players earned the same. However, INR 48.4 crore (USD 5.8 million approx.) was spent on the 34 uncapped Indians sold at the auction. Sameer Rizvi topped the uncapped players, bought for INR 8.4 crore (USD 1 million approx.) by CSK.

Rizvi's price is the joint-highest for any player who was neither capped nor had played in the IPL before. He levelled with Varun Chakravarthy, also bought for the same sum by Kings (then Kings XI Punjab) in 2019. Kumar Kushagra's price of INR 7.2 crore (USD 865,828 approx.) is the joint-fourth in the same list, along with Jofra Archer in 2018 by Rajasthan Royals. Riley Meredith takes the third spot with a bid of INR 8 crore (USD 962,031 approx.) from Kings for the 2021 season.

Cummins' record of the highest bid in an IPL auction barely lasted an hour but he did become the first player whose bids across all IPL auctions crossed the INR 50-crore mark. Tuesday was the sixth instance of Cummins getting sold at the IPL auction, and his sold price across those combines to INR 54.15 crore, surpassing Yuvraj Singh's approx. INR 48.1 crore also across six auctions.

Starc's record sum took his total tally at the IPL auctions to INR 39.15 crores, the sixth-highest for any player. Only 11 players until the 2023 auction had their total auction bids at more than Starc's auction price of INR 24.75 crore on Tuesday itself.

Meanwhile, Jaydev Unadkat, a very familiar name at the IPL auctions, was sold for the 12th time on Tuesday. Starting from the 2021 season, Unadkat was not a part of only two auctions - in 2012 and 2021 - having been retained by his previous franchise on both occasions.

However, Sunrisers Hyderabad, who bought Unadkat for INR 1.6 crore (USD 192,406 approx.), became the eighth franchise to acquire him. If Unadkat does make his Sunrisers debut next year, he will be only the second player to represent eight different franchises at the IPL, after Aaron Finch, who played for nine teams.