IPL 2023 Auction Review: PBKS
Punjab Kings made the headlines during the IPL 2023 auction in Kochi with the biggest buy of the day. The Indian Premier League 2023 is still months away but it’s never too early to start the preparation for one of the toughest T20 leagues in the world.
Punjab Kings finished the last season in the sixth position with seven wins from the 14 group-stage matches and were expected to go through some big changes ahead of the 2023 edition of the tournament. The biggest change came before the auction as they released the captain Mayank Agarwal and named Shikhar Dhawan as a skipper for the 2023 edition.
Apart from Mayank, they also released the Caribbean all-rounder Odean Smith and were expected to target the replacement in the mini-auction. Punjab Kings entered the auction with the second-largest purse, of INR 32.2 crore, and were expected to make a big impact.
The mega purchase
IPL 2023 auction started with specialist batters set and as expected PBKS made their first bid for Mayank. But they lost their former skipper as Sunrisers Hyderabad signed Mayank for INR 8.25 crore.
But PBKS broke the bank to sign English all-rounder Sam Curran for INR 18.50 crore. Curran surpassed all the previous auction records to become the most expensive buy in IPL history. The in-form youngster started his IPL with Punjab Kings and rejoins the team after winning the player of the tournament award at the T20 World Cup 2022.
Curran definitely boosts PBKS’s all-round strength with Liam Livingstone, Rishi Dhawan, and Raj Angad Bawa already on the roster. They next signed another impact player, Sikandar Raza for a base price of INR 50. Punjab’s next bids came for Mukesh Kumar and Yash Thakur but they hesitated to spend big on the Indian talent.
Despite INR 12.2 crore in the purse before the accelerated round, PBKS seemed content with their business on auction day. They did sign four uncapped Indian players for a combined fee of INR 1 crore in the last accelerated round, including an exciting prospect of Vidwath Kaverappa for just INR 20 lakh. The Karnataka young pacer can prove a quality backup option for Arshdeep Singh and Kagiso Rabada but PBKS struggled to find any quality spin options to compete with Rahul Chahar.
PBKS also failed to sign a proven specialist batter as a replacement of Mayank Agarwal as Shahrukh Khan, Jitesh Sharma, and Prabhsimran Singh all lack the experience to perform on the highest level of T20 franchise cricket. At the end of the auction, Punjab Kings left with a heavy purse of INR 12.2 crore after filling just 22 slots of a possible 25.
Players Bought: Sam Curran (INR 18.5 crore), Sikandar Raza (INR 50 lakh), Harpreet Bhatia (INR 40 lakh), Vidwath Kaverappa (INR 20 lakh), Mohit Rathe (INR 20 lakh), Shivam Singh (INR 20 lakh).
