Rajasthan Royals made an aggressive start in the IPL auction 2024 in Dubai, dishing out Rs 7.4 crore for West Indies T20I captain Rovman Powell. A Royal in the Caribbean Premier League, Powell set his base price at Rs 1 crore.
RR and Kolkata Knight Riders were engaged in an intense bidding war for the middle-order batter, who is a brilliant fielder, too. He was released by Delhi Capitals ahead of the auction.
But, the Rs 7.4 crore winning bid by RR also means that they have spent half their purse on the West Indian.
RR also targeted England's Harry Brook, but were outbid by Delhi Capitals at Rs 4 crore.
World Cup-winner Travis Head was another top buy in the early stage of the IPL auction 2024. The bidding war was, expectedly, intense, as Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings went all out to but the Australian all-rounder. But, SRH finally managed to prevail with a winning bid of Rs 6.8 crore.
The IPL Governing Council handed the franchises a list of 1,166 players and, as per their wish list, it was pruned to 333. Of them, 214 are Indians, 119 overseas and two from associate nations.
The 10 franchises can collectively spend up to Rs 262.95 crore.
Among the 77 slots available, 30 are earmarked for overseas players.
Smith goes unsold
Among the players who went unsold in the first set of players, the biggest name was Australian star Steve Smith. He had set his base price at Rs 2 crore.
South Africa's Rilee Rossouw, veteran India middle-order batter Manish Pandey and former Karnataka and current Vidarbha batter Karun Nair, too, went unsold.