Indian cricketer Shreyas Iyer drew the highest pay of Rs 12.25 crore among the ten marquee players that went under the hammer on Day 1 of the mega auction held on Saturday for the upcoming IPL 2022 season.
Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan-co-owned Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) shelled out the whopping sum to buy Iyer from Delhi, giving the Indian all-rounder a Rs 5.25 crore pay hike over last year.
Fellow actor Preity Zinta- co-owned Kings XI Punjab's bids for South African player Kagiso Rabada at Rs 9.25 crore and Indian batsman Shikhar Dhawan at Rs 8.25 crore rounded off the top 3 highest players in the marquee list.
This year's IPL, which will have the Tata Group as the title sponsor, also sees two new teams - business tycoon Sanjiv Goenka-owned Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Gujarat Titans (GT) backed CVC Capital, joining the fray.
The 2-day auction will see the ten franchises bidding on a total of 600 players (377 Indian and 223 overseas) for 217 slots. This includes 229 capped players, 364 uncapped players and seven players from the associate teams.
LSG, which has picked three players ahead of the auction, bought South African cricketer Quinton de Cock for Rs 6.75 crore. Gujarat, which also had locked in three players, bought Indian player Mohammed Shami for Rs 6.25 crore.
Indian all-rounder R Ashwin drew the lowest bid of Rs 5 crore among the marquee players. He takes a Rs 2.6 crore pay cut, moving from Delhi Capitals to Rajasthan Royals.
By the end of bidding for the marquee set, the teams locked in 43 players (33 pre-auction and 10 during bidding) and have a total kitty of Rs 485.25 crore remaining.
Individually, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) has the highest balance left at Rs 68 crore with 22 slots to fill. KKR has the least at Rs 28.5 crore and 19 slots to fill. New teams Gujarat and Lucknow each have 21 slots to fill and Rs 45.75 crore and Rs 52.25 crore left, respectively.
SRH, Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians did not make any purchases in the marquee set. The marquee set will be followed 61 more sets of capped and uncapped players based on their specialisation - batters, allrounders, wicketkeeper-batters, fast bowlers, and spin bowlers.
Also read: IPL Auction 2022: List of players, time, date; all you need to know
Also read: IPL Auction 2022: Five marquee players franchises will gun for