KPL auction 2018: Robin Uthappa, Mithun emerge costliest buys; spinners hog limelight

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Bengaluru, July 21: The seven franchises participated in the KPL auction 2018 gave due stress to experience and it reflected in veterans Abhimanyu Mithun, Robin Uthappa and Amit Verma occupying the top three slots in that order in the spending chart here on Saturday (July 21).

Mithun, who had attracted Rs 1 lakh in the last KPL auction, took home Rs 8.3 lakh a year later as Shivamogga Lions broke the bank to rope in the right-arm pacer.

That Robin Uthappa will be a star attraction in the KPL auction was in no doubt given his T20 prowess and the explosive batsman nearly overtook Mithun before settling for a Rs 7.9 lakh bid by Bangalore Blasters.

Uthappa did not play in the last edition of the KPL because of the birth of his child got into this year's KPL auction as a replacement for Karun Nair, who is with the India Test team in England and will be unavailable for a good part of this year's KPL, beginning on August 15.

Amit Verma has been an experienced campaigner in Indian domestic circuit and the left-hander fetched Rs 7.6 lakh from Mysore Warriors.

But it was not all blind spending by the franchises as they were aware of the situation of big time players in the KPL auction. It amply reflected in the rejection of Shreyas Gopal, who made a blistering hundred on Thursday (July 19) in the Thimmappiah Memorial tournament but could miss out on a large chunk of the KPL as he is line for an India A and Duleep Trophy berth.

Opener R Samarth, another player who could possibly find himself in the national level mix, did not find any takers. However, the teams opted to buy K Gowtham and Mayank Agarwal from the KPL auction albeit at a drastically reduced price - understandable considering the doubt over their availability for the entire length of the tournament.

In fact, both Agarwal and Gowtham went unsold when their names came for auctioning for the first time. Even when the Warriors picked Gowtham for Rs 25,000, pacer Prasidh Krishna for Rs 35,000 and Hubli Tigers drafted in Agarwal for Rs 25,000 there was not even a remote of glimpse of a bidding war.

Other experienced names who fetched a good deal were: Jonathan Rongsen (Rs 5.4 lakh from the Lions, a significant increase from his last year's Rs 3.5 lakh), M Nidesh (Rs 5.85 lakh from Belagavi Panthers as he is the eighth overall highest run getter in the KPL) and wicketkeeper/opener KB Pawan (Rs 4.55 lakh from Bengaluru Blasters).

But the day did not only belonged to the known names. And as in any auction, some lesser known players walked away with a fortune. M Kranthi Kumar is not certainly a household name but his overall record in the KPL 26 wickets from 28 matches and 307 runs at over 137 helped him garner a Rs 3.5 lakh bid from Hubli Tigers. Last time, the Tigers had bagged him for Rs 1.8 lakh.

Little known Swapnil Yelave, who played a few matches for the Hubli Tigers last year, was poached by the Ballari Tuskers for Rs 3.5 lakh. The 28-year-old Arjun Hoysala, who made his Karnataka debut in 2016-17, garnered Rs 3.1 lakh from the Warriors.

Mir Kaunian Abbas (Rs 3 lakh from Bijapur Bulls) and the 33-year-old Shoaib Manager (Rs 1.55 lakh from the Warriors) and all-rounder Suneel Raju (Rs 3.5 lakh from the Bulls) too were smiling at the end of the day along with 17-year-old left-arm spinner Shubam Hegde (Panthers, Rs 3.05 lakh).

Former India U-19 and Karnataka player Gaurav Dhiman, who was kept himself away from the game for a while, had registered himself in the KPL auction and the Blasters bought him for his base price of Rs 20,000.

Among the teams, all except Mysore Warriors completed maximum number of players - 18 and the Warriors ended the KPL auction with 16 players.