In-form captain has team-mates running out of superlatives and home crowd loving every moment

Andrew Miller14-Aug-20216:00

Root or KP – England’s greatest batsman?

We cannot keep asking more of our star players. That has been the message from the ECB high command in recent months – including on the eve of this Test, when Tom Harrison, the chief executive, insisted the board were committed to a “people first” policy, for the remainder of England’s summer campaign and, most significantly, on into this winter’s Ashes.”It’s no longer acceptable to go ‘once more unto the breach dear friends’,” Harrison said, with Covid restrictions foremost in his thoughts, but with England’s insane itinerary right up there at the top of everyone else’s. For despite such stirring rhetoric, there really is no other way. The reality for England’s cricketers, in the sport’s post-pandemic panic, is that every day is Groundhog Day, every next-biggest occasion ever is just another day on the treadmill.But just as Bill Murray discovered while hanging out in Punxsutawney, some days can still be better than others if you can find it within you to seize the moment. And when you’ve ploughed on for as long as Joe Root has, willing yourself to perform in empty echoing stadiums for months of bubbled-up existence, then to emerge into a sunlight Saturday of a Lord’s Test, in front of a packed and enraptured crowd, with your own family looking on from their box in the Grandstand … well, there couldn’t really be a more perfect stage for a masterpiece.Related

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Root has had plenty reason to wave his bat in triumph in the course of his extraordinary 2021. But few milestone moments have dripped with more glee than his jab into the covers off Jasprit Bumrah, armed with the second new ball on Saturday afternoon. He scampered the single then veered abruptly towards his family in the stands, punching the air with a delirium that only the most devout can know.For Root isn’t just going to the well for England, time and time again. He’s living in the well. He’s so immersed in the day-to-day pressures of carrying the fortunes of his team that he’s become at one with his surroundings, at peace with the pressure of treading water for hours at an end, knowing that if he dares to stop swimming, everyone is liable to sink. Today he soared, and it was glorious.”Joe and I, when we were walking out, we were just smiling at each other,” Jonny Bairstow said at the close, after an innings of 57 that ended up being less than a third of his captain’s tally, but is still, remarkably, the only other half-century to have come from one of his team-mates this series.”How good is it to walk out on a Saturday at Lord’s, with one of your best mates?” Bairstow added. “That’s exactly what it was. Our partnership was about having fun while we were out there, and to have a full crowd back at Lord’s, with the new stand, with family and friends, was really special. That Lord’s buzz, or hum, or however you want to phrase it, was most definitely back.”Mohammed Siraj congratulates Joe Root on his unbeaten 180•Getty ImagesMuch like James Anderson’s first-innings five-for, hindsight confers an inevitability on Root’s magnificence that circumstance really shouldn’t allow. It was a point put to him in the lead-up to this match – as he opted once again to do his captain’s media duties two days out from the Test, in a bid to cocoon his game-brain and filter out the noise for an extra 24 hours.”How are you Joe?” was the gist of the final question, almost as an afterthought at the end of a 20-minute interrogation, featuring topics including the return of Moeen Ali and the wider failings of a team that had been outplayed in each of their first three Tests of the summer, the longest they’d been made to wait for a home victory since their struggles against Sri Lanka and India back in 2014.He insisted he was fine – but then so too, you suspect, did Ben Stokes last month, when he fielded that SOS after the white-ball Covid outbreak, and broke off his recuperation to lead out a squad of reserves. Today, however, Root offered up the most ringing affirmative he could muster, an innings so serene it was as though the solitude of his supremacy had bought even his classically tailored game an extra yard of response time.Soft hands, calm choices, unhurried strokeplay – at least until his white-ball savvy surged to the fore as Anderson got peppered in the day’s frantic closing moments. He barely presented a straight bat through the V at any stage of his innings, relying instead on nudges off his legs for the balls that veered too straight, and needle-threading judgement on his favoured off-side, which made a mockery at times of Virat Kohli’s attempts to bung up his options with a trio of short covers and two slips to check his dab to third man.And in keeping with the need to think happy thoughts to haul England through this summer’s predicament, Root’s running between the wickets was able to step up an extra notch once he had linked up with sidekicks in whom he could fully trust – Bairstow in the first instance, but Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali too, a trio whose white-ball world-beating counts for more than perhaps it ought to in the cramped confines of this itinerary. In the end Bairstow was bested by the short ball – a method he cannot really plan for when ruling the roost in one-day cricket – while Buttler and Moeen made just 50 runs between them. But they between scratched out half-century stands, and gave Root the ballast he needed to drag the match towards parity.None of this is sustainable. It’s barely even credible – much as in 2018, when India’s 4-1 losing margin was a travesty, it beggars belief that they are not already 1-0 up from Trent Bridge, and pushing for a second. But like a high-wire act over Niagara Falls, Root’s progress is both utterly compelling, and so inexorable, you start to believe he might just get to the other side without looking down.

“I run out of superlatives, to be honest”Jonny Bairstow marvels at the feats of his captain

For his achievements in 2021 are already sensational. In the course of this innings, Root first skittered past Graham Gooch’s former England record of 8900 Test runs, then pushed on past 9000 too, and at a younger age than anyone bar the one Englishman ahead of him in the run-charts, Alastair Cook.By the time he’d run out of partners on 180 not out, Root’s tally for the year was close to double that of any other batter in world cricket – 1244 to Rohit Sharma’s mid-match tally of 669 – and while England’s overloaded itinerary is a contributory factor, the comparison with his peers is even more revealing.By the end of England’s innings, Root had scored almost four times as many runs in 2021 as his next most prolific team-mate, Rory Burns (353), and more runs than the rest of England’s top six in this match combined.He’s made five of their six centuries this year, including each of their four 150-plus scores, and is only one shy of England’s all-time record of six in a calendar year. And, as if further proof was needed of the burden he has carried for his side, in this match he even had to see off two hat-trick balls in the same innings. His first ball came in the wake of Haseeb Hameed’s golden duck on Friday; and his 277th came 152 runs later, as Ishant Sharma started a new over, fresh from delivering Sam Curran his own first-baller.”I run out of superlatives, to be honest,” Bairstow said at the close. “He means a heck of a lot [to the team], like he does to English cricket.”To go into second place in the leading run-scorers in the history of the English game is very special, to pass 9000 Test runs in this game is extremely special, to score another 180 not out at Lord’s is great, isn’t it, and to see him in the form that he is, playing the way he is, it’s awesome to be out there with him, putting on partnerships with him, and enjoying every single moment of it.”And as a consequence, he’s on the brink of his masterpiece now. A year to stand comparison with any of the greats that have gone before. Richards in 1976, Ponting in 2005… even the most prolific of them all, Mohammad Yousuf, whose 1788 runs in his annus mirablis in 2006 included nine centuries in 19 innings. That’s as many as Root himself has now played, but he’s still got 12 more scheduled before the New Year. As might have been mentioned once or twice, England’s itinerary really is something else.But more immediately, Root’s got the chance to prove a point about his contemporary credentials. The mutterings in recent seasons were that he had slipped out of the fabled “Fab Four” of modern batting – his century at Trent Bridge last week had been his first on home soil since India’s last tour in 2018, notwithstanding the fact that his role in England’s World Cup triumph had caused a wavering in his Test focus.But now it’s Kohli who’s feeling the heat for his own relative dip in standards. In consecutive series against England in 2016-17 and 2018, he amassed the small matter of 655 runs at 109.16, and 593 at 59.30. Likewise, Steve Smith racked up 687 runs at 137.40 in Australia’s 4-0 rout in their last home Ashes in 2017-18; then followed that up with 774 more at 110.57.Root, right at this moment, has 353 runs at 176.50, with potentially seven more innings to come. The same, in fact, as his next most prolific colleague for the entire year. It may not be fair to expect Root to keep giving more to the cause. But when you’re in a zone quite like this, who would ever wish it to end?

The intense scrutiny of his action has taken away the big turn, but he’s reinvented himself and remains hugely influential

Alagappan Muthu24-Sep-20212:53

Dasgupta: KKR’s plan to use fast bowlers against Mumbai’s middle order worked well

The Mohawk is still there. The bling too. And those full sleeves? Yeah, he probably wears them in the shower. Everything that makes Sunil Narine makes him box-office.But there’s something missing.He remains one of the Kolkata Knight Riders’ go-to bowlers. An architect of wickets and victories. The one he took on Thursday night was crucial to an all-round performance that keeps the play-off dream alive.But there’s something missing.He came on to bowl as early as the third over against Mumbai Indians. In his third over, the 10th of the innings, he brought down Rohit Sharma.But there’s something missing.The wicket was the result of extra bounce. Rohit had set up to slog-sweep a ball that got big on him and ended up caught at long-on.But there’s something mis–that’s it!Why is Narine relying on something as subtle as extra bounce?Think back. Back to 2012, when Kolkata Knight Riders signed this miracle worker for more than 10 times his base price. Back to those times that no one knew how, if and which way the ball would turn. There’s this curly-haired chap who always hangs out in the Mumbai dugout these days. Ask him about how he once tried to play a cover drive to a ball a bolt of lightning that ripped right through and cuh-lean bowled him.

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Narine was in his first over that night in 2013 when he made Sachin Tendulkar look like he didn’t belong. He was a spinner at the top of his game. A magician in whose hands the ball went from being just a piece of leather into a force of nature.All that has changed now. The crippling scrutiny on his bowling action – he has run into trouble at both IPL level and higher – has forced Narine to let go of some of his tricks. And it’s been tough. Perhaps even overwhelming. Why else would a player of his quality choose to withdraw from a World Cup?Eoin Morgan and Sunil Narine celebrate Rohit Sharma’s dismissal•BCCIThere are those who are skeptical of the ICC and the way they police suspect actions. Saqlain Mushtaq, for one, has often wondered how the 15-degree flex rule even came to be. And Mohammad Hafeez thinks there’s something fishy in the way some bowlers keep getting called up repeatedly and some just aren’t.Narine couldn’t be bothered with conspiracy theories. Like Joey if he could no longer say ‘how you doin’ or Courage if he could no longer be the cowardly dog, he had to find a way to reinvent himself. And so this new avatar was born.In the 2012 IPL, because of the way his balls turned big, turned quick and turned in every which way, he generated a false shot roughly once every three deliveries. Nine years later, relying on subtlety rather than mystery, Narine remains a nuisance, drawing a false shot once every four deliveries.This is how he was able to bounce back from conceding 11 off his first over to giving up just four, three and two (plus a leg bye) off his next three overs, while dismissing Rohit and sucking precious momentum out of a Mumbai innings that had gotten off to a flier.”I’m coming off a good amount of cricket,” Narine said while picking up the Player-of-the-Match award, “The Hundred, CPL and out here. It’s been a while since I’ve played so much cricket and I’m happy to be playing as much as possible. I’ve put a lot of work into my action and it’s getting better and better. So just to be able to continue the good work and hopefully I can get in good performances that contribute to my team’s victory.”But there’s something missing.And it’s okay. Because although Narine at his peak was an absolute spectacle, the one we have now might be just as good. He is a reminder that no matter what comes your way, you just never give up.

There is intrigue in the way the BCCI has handled and communicated the removal of Kohli, but that is not new with the board

Sidharth Monga09-Dec-2021India once had a captain, Player A. One of his main batters, Player B, pulled out of a big match at the last moment. India lost the match. Player A, among India’s greatest of all time, then found out from a journalist that he was being sacked as captain. “Whom are they giving it to?” Player A asked, and lost it when told that Player B was going to be the new captain.We haven’t reached that kind of suspected palace intrigue, but it is just a reminder to not get fooled by the MS Dhoni-N Srinivasan blind faith: India’s captaincy has always been a precarious job. You get absolute power when in the job, but you can be dumped just as unceremoniously. It used to be through a journalist earlier – even till the time of Sachin Tendulkar – and it is one line of a postscript in a press release about something else these days.Let us not mistake it: intrigue there is aplenty. India have essentially removed – statistically – one of the most successful captains in ODI cricket, a 33-year-old, who openly and calculatedly made public his desire to keep captaining India in ODIs when he gave up the T20I leadership three months back. The change is not made with long-term future in mind: in fact, the new captain is a year-and-a-half older.Related

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It is hard to think of an India captain who achieved full-time captaincy for the first time when older than Rohit Sharma’s 34-and-a-half. Anil Kumble got it at 37, but he was clearly a stop-gap as MS Dhoni found his bearings as the limited-overs captain. That appointment was necessitated by Rahul Dravid’s resignation; this one has been initiated by the BCCI.Any captaincy change in Indian cricket has to be ratified by the board president. So right now, the selectors and the BCCI president clearly believe there is a better captain in Indian cricket than the one under whom India won five matches for every two they lost and under whom they went to the final and the semi-final of the two world events they took part in.However, it is possible too that the selectors and the BCCI have looked beyond the record. Apart from the T20 World Cups, which are a tough format, you expect any Indian team – given the quality of any given side – to make the knockouts of world events because they are designed to discourage upsets. Having said that, it can’t be ignored that India did so comprehensively.Under Virat Kohli, India took the bold step of doing away with two fingerspinners, two of India’s biggest match-winners in the years leading up to it, but they were late to it: India were the only side in the 2017 Champions Trophy without a wristspinner. Now if it was the selectors who didn’t yield or if it was the team management that was caught napping we will probably never know.During the 2019 World Cup, India found themselves with a back-up allrounder with no experience of anchoring ODI innings and then a wicketkeeper-batter whom they didn’t originally want•IDI via Getty ImagesThe 2019 World Cup was more disappointing. At the start of 2018, Ajinkya Rahane was supposed to be India’s No. 4 despite Dhoni’s astute assessment that he struggles once the field is spread and the ball is old. Then Ambati Rayudu came in and proved himself only to be dropped after one ordinary series right before the World Cup. During the event, India found themselves with a back-up allrounder with no prior experience of anchoring ODI innings and then a wicketkeeper-batter whom they didn’t originally want at the World Cup suddenly playing that pivotal role. It was just their luck that it came down to the middle order in a big match.Of course, the selectors and the BCCI need not make any such explanations because Kohli all but decided his fate by giving up the T20I captaincy. It makes more sense to have one man leading both the limited-overs sides than two. It is in that format that Kohli was more vulnerable, given his IPL record and lack of role clarity in the national side. Rohit’s sides have had clearer roles and plans for its players. He is not shy to use data inputs. Kohli runs on emotion; Rohit seeks to take emotion out of it.Yet if these were the arguments, why it took the BCCI two-and-a-half years after the 2019 World Cup is anybody’s guess. Kohli’s lack of runs, for one, makes this call easier and less unpopular. A 2012 Yuvraj Singh advert comes too close to reality: “Till the bat talks, the world is yours.” It was only when Dhoni was struggling with the bat that he received the tap on his shoulder in 2017 and jumped before being pushed. But Kohli, possibly, still believed in himself as the ODI captain and refused to jump.It is never not uncomfortable, though. It is clear now that Kohli didn’t want to move on, which always makes it a little awkward for the new captain for wanting the job and now having to lead the former leader. It is not unnatural either. These are ambitious, competitive men who have come this far because they haven’t acknowledged self-doubt. The success of the team environment that Kohli is proud of building will lie in how maturely they move on from here. That yes, we respect each other’s ambitions, that it is perfectly natural and that we are mature enough to not carry on with this.Coach Dravid has previously been caught in similar crosshairs when the BCCI last sacked an India captain. This is different. Kohli still has the Test captaincy. Kohli still has the record and the fitness. There is no coach whom players see as a threat. Kohli the captain has backed Rohit the batter; there is no reason to suspect Rohit the captain doesn’t feel the same about Kohli the batter. Although purely from the outside, it has always seemed that Kohli and Rohit are one similar batter too many for a T20 top three.Most importantly, India remain a highly successful side in all formats never mind the T20 World Cup exit. Equally importantly, this is done well in time for Rohit to get a certain number of games in so that he can build his own side for the 2023 World Cup. It also gives Kohli more time to work on his batting. It is not appreciated nearly enough how taxing it can be to captain India in three formats and also an IPL side.Yet this is a transition that needs to be handled delicately, but not one that Dravid, Kohli and Rohit can’t see through.

Harmanpreet Kaur made an eventful debut for the Renegades, while Richa Ghosh has impressed for the Hurricanes

Annesha Ghosh21-Oct-2021Harmanpreet KaurA dropped catch of Ruth Johnston that briefly turned into an injury scare while fielding, a wicket of India team-mate Richa Ghosh in her first over, and then the run-out of Naomi Stalenberg with a wrong-handed underarm throw from backward point… a busy first day at Harmanpreet’s second WBBL team ended with her sealing the Melbourne Renegades’ chase of 122 against the Hobart Hurricanes with a four in the final over.Having received a reprieve on 10, when an lbw appeal should have gone medium-pacer Nicola Carey’s way at the start of the 19th over, Harmanpreet carted 14 off her next six balls, including a mighty six off Carey. If her 19-ball 24 in the Renegades’ opening win offered glimpses of Harmanpreet the finisher, whom India have missed in the recent past, her 37-ball 41 in Renegades’ next outing against the Adelaide Strikers anchored a rebuild after they had lost their top three inside the first 10 overs.Jemimah RodriguesOpening alongside Sophie Molineux, Rodrigues top-scored on WBBL debut, against the Hurricanes, marrying timing with placement in her 34-ball 33 while also stitching a vital second-wicket stand of 68 with Courtney Webb. Her commanding use of feet and improved power game, which had been on view through her breakout Hundred campaign and the T20I leg of the multi-format India tour of Australia, were on show in the six-wicket win over the Hurricanes.In the Renegades’ second game, however, she couldn’t get going, hitting just one four in a 17-ball 12 before slog-sweeping legspinner Amanda-Jade Wellington straight to mid-on. Ever the livewire in the field, though, Rodrigues put up an impressive exhibition of boundary-riding, diving around to save runs in what would ultimately be an unsuccessful defence of 126 against the Strikers.Shafali VermaFor all the fear the very name of the gum-chewing, big-hitting Shafali evokes even among the most formidable attacks, the teenager has time and again needed hiding in the field. No wonder, then, that social media went into a tizzy when her rocket throw from short midwicket, with just one stump to aim at, caught the Melbourne Stars’ Annabel Sutherland short of her ground at the non-striker’s end in the Sydney Sixers’ curtain-raiser.

Wow! That came out of nowhere

Shafali Verma – with one stump to aim at – with a direct hit to run out Sutherland #WBBL07 pic.twitter.com/5QdyshDi3l

— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) October 14, 2021

The highest score in a World Cup final. The first 300-plus total in a World Cup final. The highest partnership in a World Cup final. And more

Sampath Bandarupalli03-Apr-2022170 Alyssa Healy’s score against England. It is now the highest individual score for any batter in a World Cup final (men or women), surpassing Adam Gilchrist’s 149 against Sri Lanka in 2007.ESPNcricinfo Ltd356 for 5 Australia’s total is the first-ever instance of a 300-plus total in a Women’s ODI World Cup final. The previous highest was only 259 for 7 by Australia in 2013 against West Indies. Australia’s 356 is also the second-highest total in a World Cup final (men or women), behind the 359 for 2 by the Australian men’s team against India in 2003.ESPNcricinfo Ltd3 This 356 is Australia’s third-highest total in Women’s ODIs. They posted 412 for 3 in the 1997 World Cup against Denmark and 397 for 4 against Pakistan earlier in the same year. This is also the highest Women’s ODI total against England. Australia broke their own record, which they set at the start of the tournament with 310 for 3 in Hamilton.2 Healy’s 170 is the second-highest score in Women’s ODIs for Australia, behind Belinda Clark’s 229* in the 1997 World Cup against Denmark. It is the highest score by any batter against England in this format, going past Clark’s 146* in 2000.

“There is a bit of sentiment, definitely, but once the game starts you don’t really think about that stuff”

Andrew McGlashan28-Feb-2022Usman Khawaja is aware of the significance of his return to Pakistan as part of the first Australia Test team to visit the country in 24 years, but won’t be treating the opening contest in Rawalpindi, close to where he was born in Islamabad, as any different to the multitude of other matches he has played.Khawaja last visited the country with his family in 2010 and after a sliding doors moment during the recent Ashes, he returns as one of Australia’s incumbent openers, so could walk out on the opening morning of the game on Friday.Related

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Had it not been for Travis Head’s positive Covid-19 result before the Sydney Test in January, Khawaja may well have been carrying the drinks at the start of the series. Instead he scored twin centuries at the SCG which left him undroppable, so the selectors shifted him to open alongside David Warner at the expense of Marcus Harris.He spoke with great eloquence on Monday, Australia’s first full day in the country, and answered a couple of questions in Urdu during a 30-minute press conference that almost became a life story. But, as he said, once the game starts and there’s a bowler running in nothing else matters.”Any game is just a game of cricket,” he said. “I’ve played it for such a long time now, been out of the team, now back in the team, [so] every game for me for Australia is just a bonus. I’m not out here to prove anything…got lot a lot of things in my life which are great that aren’t cricket related so for me it’s not the be-all and end-all. Just love playing cricket, love being competitive.”The fact I’m playing in Pakistan is special, don’t me wrong, it’s very special, something I’ve always want to do. I grew up down the road. There is a bit of sentiment, definitely, but once the game starts you don’t really think about that stuff. More worried about the ball coming down and everything else going on.”Khawaja’s mother and father are unable to travel from Australia for the series and the strict security around the team means he won’t be able to meet the many family and friends he has in the country. He expects a warm response from the crowds – although knows they’ll want Australia to lose – and is grateful how the stars have aligned for his chance at this experience.”I’m sure I’ll look back on it and think that was pretty cool, the first tour of Pakistan after so many years, being born in Pakistan,” he said. “As fate would have it everything has worked out beautifully – touchwood, I don’t hurt myself before the Test match – so things have worked out really well, but it’s hard to become too reminiscent at the time because you’ve still got to play a game of cricket.”Usman Khawaja scored his first Test ton in Asia against Pakistan, in 2018•Getty ImagesAlthough it is a considerable time since Australia have played in Asia (they haven’t toured overseas for a Test series anywhere since 2019), Khawaja produced one of his finest Test performances when these sides met in the UAE in 2018. It was part of an upturn in Khawaja’s record on the subcontinent – which also included ODI success in India – after a difficult start where he did not pass 26 in his first nine Test innings in Asia.”I took the onus on myself that I wasn’t going to listen to anyone else about how I need to bat on the subcontinent,” he said. “I tried that, failed. So I made sure I did learn from it. It wasn’t just a one-off in Dubai, have done it time and time again for different teams. It was a lot of work that went into it. If I didn’t have those experiences I probably wouldn’t be able to develop my game. In Sri Lanka and Bangladesh I probably didn’t understand what I need to do in those conditions.”In terms of preparing for the opening Test, Australia’s lead-in is short even by the standards of modern touring and the impacts of the pandemic. They will have their first training session on Tuesday, just three days before the series begins, although they did tailor their practice in Melbourne to subcontinent conditions with spin nets and a focus on reverse swing.”We’ve been on a lot of subcontinent tours where we’ve had two weeks preparation and still not done great, so maybe this is the way to go,” Khawaja said. “We’ll just have to wait and see. There’s only so much you can train before a Test anyway, so I’m actually quite looking forward to a short build-up this time and seeing how it goes. Could be a blessing in disguise, who knows, or it might not.”

Also, which Indian domestic team produced the biggest earners? An analysis of all the bids made at the IPL 2022 auction

Sampath Bandarupalli16-Feb-2022The most frequent paddle-raisers
Chennai Super Kings were the most active team at the auction – bidding for 50 players – although they bought only 21. Delhi Capitals are second on this list, with at least one bid for 49 players. Royal Challengers Bangalore bid for the least number of players: 35 – and they bought 19 of them. Kolkata Knight Riders were the most effective franchise at the auction table, with a success rate of 55.26% – having bought 21 players of the 37 for whom they made bids.ESPNcricinfo LtdSunrisers often fall short
Sunrisers Hyderabad entered the auction with the second-highest purse of INR 68 crore. Their moves at the auction table reflected this as they came close to buying most of the players who earned high bids. But they couldn’t clinch many of these deals, ending up as the losing bidder for 17 players – the most for any team – out of 30.In terms of success percentage as one of the final two bidders, only Rajasthan Royals had lower success than Sunrisers – 10 winning bids versus 14 runners-up bids. Royal Challengers had the best success rate, buying 11 out of 18 players for whom they were one of the last two bidders.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe most popular players
Fast bowler Avesh Khan, the first uncapped player to touch the INR 10-crore mark in the history of IPL auctions, received the most number of bids this time around. Five teams were in contention to buy him. He started with a base price of INR 20 lakh, and, many minutes later, it was Lucknow Super Giants who made the 62nd and final bid to secure his services.The most expensive player of the auction, Ishan Kishan, had 55 bids from four different franchises.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe most franchises involved in bidding for one player was six. This happened on three occasions, for Deepak Hooda, R Sai Kishore and Tim David. Nine players attracted bids from five different franchises at this auction.ESPNcricinfo LtdStriking at base price
Ninety-one players were snapped up at their base price. The team that secured the most players at base price was Knight Riders – they made 13 such buys. The fewest such buys was seven each by Sunrisers, Capitals and Gujarat Titans.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe mean multiplier of base price of the players (that is, the average number of times over base price a team went to secure their players) bought by Knight Riders at this auction was 2.78, only more than Super Kings’ 2.33. The highest was Sunrisers’ 6.27 – they bought three players at least 20 times their base price.