The Mumbai Indians made the winning bid of Rs 8.25 crore for Singaporean all-rounder Tim David on the second day of the IPL mega auction in Bangalore on Sunday. MI earlier bought English pace spearhead Jofra Archer for Rs 8 crore and Australian all-rounder Daniel Sams for Rs 2.6 crore.
On Saturday, wicketkeeper-batsman Ishan Kishan returned to MI for a whopping Rs 15.25 crores, becoming the second-most expensive Indian player of all time.
Kishan, whose base price was Rs 2 crore, is behind only Yuvraj Singh – who was bought for Rs 16 crore by the Delhi Capitals in 2016, and is the fourth most expensive player of all time. Kishan, who was MI’s first buy of the auction today, also became the franchise’s most expensive player.
The bid also overshadows the Rs 14 crore paid by Chennai Super Kings to bring back Shardul Thakur and the Rs 12.25 crore the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) shelled out for Shreyas Iyer.
The five-time champions also bought 18-year-old South African batter Dewald Brewis, who lit up the recently concluded U-19 World Cup and is popularly known as ‘Baby AB’ for a similar playing style as the Protea great, for Rs 3 crore.
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MI added Kerala seamer Basil Thampi and Tamil Nadu spinner Murugan Ashwin to their squad for Rs 30 lakh and Rs 1.60 crore respectively to round off day one of the auction.
MI came into the auction with a purse value of Rs 48 crore to complete their squad. The franchise had retained skipper Rohit Sharma (Rs 16 crore), Jasprit Bumrah (Rs 12 crore) Suryakumar Yadav (Rs 8 crore) and Kieron Pollard (Rs 6 crore).
MI full squad:
Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah, Kieron Pollard, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Dewald Brevis, Basil Thampi, Murugan Ashwin, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande, N Tilak Varma, Sanjay Yadav, Jofra Archer, Daniel Sams, Tymal Mills, Tim David, Riley Meredith, Mohd Arshad Khan, Anmolpreet Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Rahul Buddhi, Hrithik Shokeen, Arjun Tendulkar, Aryan Juyal, Fabian Allen
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MI have always approached IPL auctions with a conservative approach, rarely breaking the bank on marquee players – a mantra that has served the five-time champions well over the years. Their most expensive buy of all time before this auction was the purchase of Rohit Sharma in the 2011 auction, when the franchise spent Rs 9.2 crore for the batsman.
The Mumbai Indians are coming off the back of a disappointing campaign in which they failed to reach the knockout rounds. Mumbai finished fifth in the IPL 2021 table, level with the Kolkata Knight Riders on 14 points but with Eoin Morgan’s side boasting the better net run rate.
