Australia's Glenn Maxwell was picked up for a whopping 14.25 crore by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the Indian Premier League 2021 auction after an intense bidding war with Chennai Super Kings (CSK). He came into the auction at a base price of Rs. 2 crore. Maxwell, who had a disappointing season in IPL 2020 where he managed just 108 runs from 13 matches, has an impressive overall record in the IPL of 1505 runs from 83 games at a strike rate of 154.67. He was released by Punjab Kings ahead of the auction. He has been a mainstay in the Australian limited-overs set-up and has 1687 runs from 67 T20Is in addition to 6581 runs overall from 301 T20s at 27.19 and a strike rate of 152.05.
Maxwell has enjoyed a good run of form recently as well, hitting 66, 37 and 70 in the Big Bash League for Melbourne Stars.
Maxwell's big-hitting ability and his success in India in previous IPL seasons were factors behind teams bidding for him aggressively.
Finally, for RCB, Maxwell was a replacement for Moeen Ali, another big-hitting all-rounder whom they had released ahead of the auction.
RCB had gone into the auction with a salary cap of Rs. 35.4 crore. With the likes of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers in their midst, Maxwell's addition will only bolster their batting line-up.
RCB had also released Maxwell's friend and long-time Australia teammate Aaron Finch ahead of the auction. However, Maxwell is unlikely to replace Finch at the top of the order though the Australian has played as an opener before.
Maxwell's most successful IPL season came in 2014 when he smashed 552 runs from 16 matches at 34.50 and a strike rate of 187.75.
Riding on Maxwell's superlative effort, Punjab Kings made the final of the league that season and finished runners-up to Kolkata Knight Riders.