The Chennai Super Kings went overboard with their bid to get back seamer Deepak Chahar, splurging a whopping Rs 14 crore to outbid rival franchises and make the 29-year-old their most expensive player of all time. 

The Delhi Capitals and the Sunrisers Hyderabad were locked in a bidding war, inflating the price to Rs 10 crore – from a base price of Rs 2 crore – before the reigning chamipions entered the fray. SRH dropped out of the race soon after, with the Capitals persisting with their bid to sign the bowling all-rounder until CSK raised their price to Rs 14 crore. 

CSK’s aim was to follow Mahendra Sigh Dhoni’s template and retain their core base of players as much as possible as they waited to buy back Deepak, another multi-skilled cricketer on ascendancy for India.

Apart from being a new-ball specialist – unsettling opposition openers with deadly swing as well as using variations expertly at the death – Chahar is handy with the bat and has a knack for lofty blows, making him a very valuable addition to any squad. 

Meanwhile, Ishan Kishan became the second-most expensive Indian player of all time as the Mumbai Indians spent a whopping Rs 15.25 crore to secure his services. It was a satisfying ‘Pay Day’ for all current India internationals with Shreyas Iyer getting a staggering Rs 12.25 crore deal from Kolkata Knight Riders and the multi-skilled Shardul Thakur making Delhi Capitals break the bank with a Rs 10.75 crore.

These two, along with Kishan and Chahar, were the top four buys of the day.

In terms of US Dollars, there were 19 million-plus buys, the biggest by far at any IPL auction with most of the beneficiaries being Indian T20 specialists.