IPL Auction 2016: Uncapped players attract big money; Pawan Negi second most expensive player at Rs 8.5 cr

Negi recently made his entry to India's World Twenty20 squad

Left arm spinner Pawan Negi, who earlier played for the Chennai Super Kings, was the second costliest pick of the players in the 2016 Vivo Indian Premier League player auctions. Pune opened the bid for  Negi ( base price Rs 30 lakh) and was challenged by Delhi Daredevils. The two teams faced off in a tough bid war, with the Daredevils finally snapping up Negi for Rs 8.5 crore. 

Negi, who has recently made his entry to India's World Twenty20 squad, is well known for his lower order batting skills and left-arm orthodox spin bowling. 

The eight teams participating in the Vivo Indian Premier League (IPL) player auction 2016 finished the first half of the day’s proceedings with a little more than half the money intact for the post lunch session.

Of the total Rs 198 crore that the teams had at their disposal collectively, Rs 96.43 crore was spent  on capped Indian and international players. This leaves a total of Rs 101 .8 crore for the rest of the auction.

The second half of the bidding will include not only the uncapped Indian and international players, but also include players from the first half (capped) who went unsold in the first round.

Proceedings started on a good note with the first name to be pulled up – Sachin Baby went to the Royal Challengers Bangalore at base price.

Karun Nair (Rs 10 lakh) saw Pune Super Giants and Delhi Daredevils fight it out for a while before Pune bowed out and the Gujarat Lions entered the bidding. Gujarat Lions however gave up pursuit at Rs 1.5 crore at which point Sunrisers Hyderabad entered the race. The Daredevils persisted and picked him up at Rs 4 crore. The Gujarat Lions placed the opening bid for Paras Dogra (Rs 10 lakh), and acquired him at base price. 

Mithun Manhar (Rs 30 lakh), Ankeet Bawane (Rs 10 lakh), Himanshu Rana (Rs 10 lakh), Debabrata Das (Rs 10 lakh), Tirumalasetti Suman (Rs 10 lakh) and Aiden Blizzard (RS 30 lakh) went unsold from the set of batsmen.

Ishan Kishan (Rs 10 lakh) was bid for by Gujarat Lions and Pune Super Giants and was sold to the former at Rs 35 lakhs. Rishabh Pant (Rs 10 lakh), wicketkeeper batsman, was also sought after as Pune and Mumbai Indians bid for him aggressively. Pune however bowed out after a point, only to be replaced by the Royal Challengers Bangalore. The Mumbai team also bowed out at Rs 1.8 crore, when the Delhi Daredevils entered the race who picked him up for Rs 1.9 crore.

Next in line was Eklavya Dwivedi (Rs 20 lakh) with Gujarat Lions placing the opening bid which was raised by the Sunrisers. The Lions finally picked up the wicketkeeper for Rs 1 crore. The Sunrisers opened bidding for Aditya Tare (Rs 20 lakh) and were raised by the Mumbai Indians. The latter bowed out at Rs 1.2 crore, and the Sunrisers acquired the player for that amount. 

Pinal Shah (Rs 10 lakh), CM Gautam (Rs 20 lakh), Ankush Bains (Rs 10 lakh), Dishant Yagnik (Rs 10 lakh) and Manvinder Bisla (Rs 10 lakh) remained unsold.

Among the uncapped all-rounders, Iqbal Abdullah (Rs 10 lakh) was the first to be auctioned and was picked up by the RCB at base price. Deepak Hooda (Rs 10 lakh) was bid for by both Kolkata Knight Riders and Gujarat Lions. The Lions left the bid to be replaced by the Sunrisers at the Rs 1 crore mark. Both KKR and the Sunrisers continued to pursue the player till KKR threw in the towel, allowing the Sunrisers to pick up Hooda at Rs 4.2 crore. Ankit Sharma (Rs 10 lakh) went to Pune at the base price. 

Rajat Bhatia’s (Rs 30 lakh) auction saw Pune Super Giants and the Daredevils face off once again. However, the match was a short one with Pune picking up the player at Rs 60 lakh. Pradeep Sangwan (Rs 20 lakh) went to the Gujarat Lions at base price. 

RCB and Delhi Daredevils challenged each other while bidding for Nathu Singh (Rs 10 lakh). The Mumbai Indians also joined the race for Singh, picking up at Rs 3.2 crore. Pune opened the bid for Ishwar Pandey and managed to acquire the bowler at base price. Pune and KKR bid competitively for Ankit Singh Rajpoot, with KKR picking him up at Rs 1.5 crore.

The first uncapped spin bowler to be sold was Parvin Tambe (Rs 10 lakh), picked up by Gujarat Lions for Rs 20 lakh, after a shot challenge by the Daredevils. The Lions also picked up Shivil Kaushik (Rs 10 lakh) and Sarabjit Ladda (Rs 10 lakh) at base price. 

Pune and RCB seemed equally keen on getting M Ashwin (Rs 10 lakh) on their side as the two bid aggressively for the spinner. The Pune team picked him up finally at Rs 4.5 crore. KXIP opened the bid for KC Cariappa, one of the most sought after uncapped players from the 2015 auction. Vijay Mallaya led RCB KXIP’s bid, but the Kings managed to snap up the player for Rs 85 lakh.