Ind T20 League Auction 2022 : Rating every franchise’s buy at the Mega Auction

After two days and 204 buys, the widely anticipated Ind T20 League Mega Auction 2022 has concluded. Like every other year, the bidding war had its fair share of misses. Today, in this article we will evaluate the performance of each franchise’s performance in the event   

Chennai

Rating: 6/10

A whole lot was expected out of the reigning champions before they went into the auction. The men in yellow stuck to their traditional policy of backing the veterans and bought Robin Uthappa, Ambati Rayadu and Dwayne Bravo. There’s nothing wrong in buying the same players again and again, especially when they are helping you win titles but what next? Chennai’s think tank seem too focused on acing a single season through experienced campaigners and as a result are losing sight of the future in the process. We feel they could have brought some promising young prospects keeping the future in consideration. Despite the addition of a few young talents, we believe the team is short of quality Indian players. Also, letting Faf go after he had a stellar 2020 with the bat is beyond our understanding. Shivam Dubey, Devon Conway and Chris Jordan are among a few good buys for the four time champions. Bringing Chahar back in the mix was also a wise move by Chennai.

Bangalore 

Rating: 8/10

Bangalore has done exceptionally well in the 2022 auctions. Not only have they surprised everyone with their approach this year, but have also made some great buys. Unlike any other auction, the South Indian franchise did not splurge over a single player but wisley used their purse to make clever signings. They managed to bolster their batting unit by adding Faf Du Plessis, Dinesh Kartik, Finn Allen and Sherane Rutherford to their squad. To strengthen their bowling attack, Bangalore went after Harshal Patel (last year’s leading wicket taker), Josh Hazlewood, Jason Beherendoff and David Willey. While Hazlewood and Beherendoff can cause havoc with the new ball, Willey and Patel can trouble the opposition batters and restrict the flow of runs during the death overs. Bringing Hasaranda back in the side is also a decent move. He can prove pivotal for Bangalore’s success this season. 

Mumbai 

Rating: 7/10

Mumbai is among the most consistent outfits of this tournament. Year after year, the men in blue have mustered to outperform themselves. The Mega Auction compelled the most dominant side of the T20 competition to retain only four players from last year’s unit which was a herculean task in itself. They went with Rohit, Bumrah, Suryakumar and Pollard. With no teeth in their bowling attack, the five time champions expectedly ran after bowlers. To complement Jassi, Mumbai brought in Jofra Archer and Tymal Mills forming a lethal trio. In addition to that they will also have Aussie quick Riley Meridith to back up. Despite the exceptional group of seamers, we believe Mumbai will sorely miss the services of a standout Indian quick.  Mumbai let go the likes of Kartik Tyagi and Avesh Khan easily and paid the price, eventually having to settle with a mediocre lot of Indian fast bowlers. They also lack a good spinner in their ranks. 

Punjab   

Rating: 9/10

Clinical! One word that aptly describes Punjab’s performance in the recent auctions. They have built an excellent squad for future and have almost ticked all checkboxes to be deemed the strongest contenders this year. They possess flexibility, a robust core, pinch hitters, one frontline quick, decent support seamers, a specialist spinner and a clear back up spinner in their arsenal. Batting order comprises the likes of S. Dhawan, M, Agarwal, L.Livingstone and S. Khan, establishing a solid top five.  

Lucknow

Rating: 8/10

Lucknow headed into the auction with some purpose. Assembling a squad from scratch is not an easy task, but Lucknow did exactly that without creating much fuss. Amazingly well balanced, Lucknow made versatile bids and got a few from the top-shelf early in the auction. Apace with their three draft picks, Ravi Bishnoi, KL Rahul and Marcus Stoinis- Lucknow had various issues sorted out at the start, helping them remain calm and collective as the auction progressed. They purchased D. Chameera, M.Wood and A.Khan to set up a lethal pace prowess. The late bid for E.Lewis was also a great backup plan by the Supergiants. 

Hyderabad

Rating: 4/10 

It is safe to say that Hyderabad had a poor auction. They roped in too many unproven Indian talents to fill up their bowling unit and purchased only a few overseas specialists to build their batting order. The fact that they do not have a senior standout Indian professional in their batting group could work against them. Aiden Makram and Nicolas Pooran will provide resilience to the middle order, Samad will play the role of finisher whereas Sundar will act as a floating batter but they do not have much experience in their batting department 

Marco Jansen will lead the bowling attack for the orange army eagles. He is the only solid first choice frontline overseas quick. Other than him the pace attack has inexperienced Indian quicks. The spin bowling also looks pretty fragile. Besides Sundar and Gopal, there is no quality in their spin attack.

Rajasthan

Rating: 7/10 

Rajasthan had a pretty decent auction this year. Like Punjab and Lucknow, they sorted their batting concerns quickly. With a good batting lineup, a premium wrist spinner (Yuzvendra Chahal), an Indian quick (Prasidh Krishna) and two top drawer overseas picks other than Jos Butler (Shimoron Hetmeyer and Trent Boult), Rajasthan certainly had a dream auction.  

They made some fine buys in the form of Russie Van Durssen and Nathan Coulter Nile towards the end of the auction. Only thing missing from the former champions is a quality all rounder. The lower batting order also looks light without a finisher.

Delhi

Rating: 7/10 

 Mega Auction might or might have not affected the team combination of any other team, but it certainly troubled the Delhi franchise. They built a strong team over the last couple of years, and to let go of the majority of the players you have nurtured over time is not easy. They had a strenuous job of reassembling a squad from scratch. Well almost. Their retentions were already first-rate, but Delhi still needed to get their auction right. 

They did well one day one buying the likes of David Warner, Mustafizur Rahman and Sarfaraz Khan. Warner at ₹6.65 crore was a great steal for them. However, they failed to create a formidable bowling unit, something that made them threatening in the last couple of years. 

Kolkata 

Rating: 4/10

It’s hard to comprehend what precisely was Kolkata looking from the auction. They broke their banks in their early bids to bag Shreyas Iyer, Pat Cummins and Nitish Rana and were left with two one dimensional middle order batsmen and an overseas quick who might not be available throughout the season. 

The late purchases of Hales and Billings salvaged their auction disaster to some extent but they are still cavernous holes in their lineup, in particular with the lack of a frontline wicketkeeper batsman who can fit in their playing XI. Their bowling department relies heavily on Cummins and he will have to shoulder an enormous chunk of responsibility.  

Gujarat

Rating: 5/10

After Gujarat made draft choices of the top grade trio of Rashid Khan, Hardik Pandya, Shubhman Gill, much was expected from the new entrant, but they clearly lacked strategic planning which was very evident when they had no wicketkeeper until the final hour of the auction and then frenziedly made bid for the first two names that came up in the accelerated auction. 

The batting order lacks depth with much riding on David Miller and Hardik Pandya who are in woeful form of late. Bowling department looks threatening with Alzarri Joseph now in the mix. He alongside Mohommad Shami and Lockie Ferguson can forge a fearsome pace trio.