The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 mini-acution is currently taking place at the Coca Cola Arena in Dubai. West Indies all-rounder Rovman Powell went for a whopping sum, while Australia's destructive opener Travis Head found himself a new home in Sunrisers Hyderabad as a direct replacement for Harry Brook, who also found a buyer in Delhi Capitals. Powell was the first player at the auction, having set his base price at Rs 1 crore, was bought by RR for a sum of Rs 7.4 crore. Head, on the other hand, after a bidding war between CSK and SRH, was bought by the latter for Rs 6.8 crore.
SRH also acquired the services of Sri Lanka all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga for Rs 1.5 crore.
Kavya Maran, who is the daughter of SRH owner Kalanithi Maran, was present in Dubai for the IPL auction. As SRH outbidded CSK for Hasaranga, Kavya's savage reaction has gone viral.
During the auction, Powell emerged as the costliest player in set 1 of the IPL auction, going to Rajasthan Royals for Rs 7.40 crore.
West Indies T20 skipper Powell, who had a base price of Rs 2 crore, was the first player to go under the hammer at the mini auction and as many as three teams showed keen interest to rope him in for the 2024 season.
Eventually, Rajasthan Royals got their hands on the big hitter, who also captains their team Barbados Royals in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL).
Head, who scored a match-winning century in the ODI World Cup final against India and also starred in the World Test Championship final against the Rohit Sharma-led team earlier this year, on the other hand, saw reigning champions Chennai Super Kings and SRH indulge in a bidding war.
The wicketkeeper batter was finally grabbed by 2016 champions SRH.
The trio of former Australia skipper Steve Smith, India's Manish Pandey and Rilee Rossouw went unsold, while England's Harry Brook was snapped by Delhi Capitals for Rs 4 crore.
(With PTI Inputs)