Mumbai Indians on Saturday won a massive bidding war
for their experienced batter Ishan Kishan, who was released in the players’
draft for the IPL 2022 mega auction. Mumbai, for the first time on the day, went
all out to secure the service of swashbuckling Ishan Kishan. At the very start
of the auction, the bidding price went above Rs 5 crore from Kishan’s base price Rs
2 core. Initially, Punjab Kings joined the bidding war with Mumbai Indians.

Also Read: IPL 2022 Auction: Ishan Kishan sold to Mumbai Indians for Rs 15.25 crore

But once the price crosses Rs 8 crore mark, Punjab Kings
started backing out while Gujarat Lions, with a massive budget, started bidding
for the left-handed batter. The bidding went past Rs 9 crore. And then it went
past Rs 10 crore quickly just like the way Ishan score runs.

Mumbai made a show of conferring when it’s still 10.75
crore, and of course, they raised the paddle. And as Mumbai kept persisting Ishan
went past Shreyas Iyer’s 12.25. SunRisers Hyderabad, at this juncture, joined
the bid as Ishan’s value went past Rs 14 crore. The whole process seems like a joint strategy
to leave Mumbai Indians out of money for one single player.

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But Mumbai Indians made their minds and secured Ishan
Kishan for 15.25 crore.

Overall, Ishan is the fourth-most expensive player at
an IPL auction after Chris Morris (INR 16.25 crore), Yuvraj and Pat Cummins
(15.50 crore).

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Born in Patna, Kishan idolised former Indian
wicketkeeper-batsman and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Australia’s Adam
Gilchrist, always dreaming of following in their footsteps.

His brother supported his aspirations of becoming a
cricketer and after years of hardwork and struggle, he made it into the
Jharkhand team, just like his idol Dhoni.

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The 23-year-old shot to prominence in 2016, when he
was selected to captain India in the U-19 World Cup in Dhaka. Although he
didn’t live up to the billing with the bat, scoring just 73 runs in six
innings, he led India to the final, narrowly losing to West Indies by five
runs.

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In 61 matches in IPL, Kishan scored 1452 runs at an
average of 28.47 and a strike rate of 136.34. He scored nine half-centuries. For
MI, Ishan scored 1,133 runs in 45 matches across four seasons.