IPL Auction 2022: The Four Most Shocking Buys in the Auction!

Bengaluru, February 13: The IPL auction 2022 finished on Sunday (February 13) after two days of intense bidding that threw at us a lot of surprising decisions and some on the expected lines.

We have seen some pre-auction favourites getting the expected buys and some others falling by the way side.

But some other players sneaked in to the list to give us some real surprise, either by the amount they were picked or by the very fact that they were picked.

Here MyKhel is looking at 4 players who surprised us by getting the IPL contract in the auction.

1 Jofra Archer — Rs 8 crore

Mumbai Indians went hammer and tongs for the England pacer. But all that became a little unfathomable because Archer not readily available for IPL 2022 because of an injury. As per ECB, the pacer is likely to return in June to the field. So, essentially MI paid for potential participation in IPL 2023 and that dream combination with Jasprit Bumrah. But will that materialise in IPL 2023? We will have to wait.

2 Romario Shepherd — Rs 7.75 crore

The West Indian all-rounder started at Rs 70 lakh and ended at a price some 100 times more. Even Romario would not have expected that kind of bidding from Sunrisers Hyderabad but that’s what eventually we have at our hand. In fact, retaining Jason Holder perhaps would have costed the Hyderabad side as much but they let go a proven performer and took on board a rather inexperienced youngster. But this just might work too in favour of SRH.

3 K Gowtham — Rs 90 lakh

The Lucknow Super Giants grabbed Gowtham for Rs 90 lakh. Per se, it was not a surprising buy as it was expected that someone one will bid for Gowtham, But not at this amount and for this much less competition. In fact, Gowtham had a running Rs 9 crore contract with Rajasthan Royals before getting released but his lack of recent match time might have worked against the Karnataka all-rounder in the IPL auction.

4 Liam Livingstone — Rs 11.50 crore

Punjab Kings went on a bidding war to acquire the Englishman in the capped all-rounder’s list. He started off at a base price of Rs 1.5 crore but the jostle for him was unexpected. He had appeared for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL 2021 and did not click as much as he can like he did in the Hundred last year. Perhaps, the potential to do damage with the bat and ability to chip in with wickets might have worked in his favour.