The set of capped fast bowlers saw some great bidding battles on day 2 of the ongoing IPL Mega Auction in Jeddah, with veteran Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar being sold to Royal Challengers Bengaluru for Rs 10.75 crore.
Kumar, who is no longer part of the Indian team in any format, came into the auction at a base price of Rs 2 crore. Mumbai Indians and Lucknow Super Giant were at it from the word go. Neither franchise was ready to back off, until the bid reached Rs 10.5 crore. The RCB came in at this point with a bid of Rs 10.75 crore, which the other two could not match.
Kumar, who will be 35 before the start of IPL 2025, has 300 wickets from 287 T20 matches at an economy rate of less than eight. He last played for India against New Zealand in November 2022.
Another hot pick was Deepak Chahar, who has been in and out of the Indian team because of injuries. The right-arm medium pacer came in with a base price of Rs 2 crore, and sparked an intense bidding war among MI, Punjab Kings, and Chennai Super Kings, in which MI managed to prevail with a final bid of Rs 9.25 crore.
Mukesh Kumar and Akash Deep, too, attracted high bids. Kumar saw CSK and PBKS battling it out, with DC, for whom he played last season, exercising the RTM card. Punjab hiked their bid to Rs 8 crore, but DC matched it and executed the RTM option. Akash Deep, who had a base price of Rs 1 crore, was bought by LSG for Rs 8 crore.
The other players in the set were:
Tushar Deshpande to Rajasthan Royals for Rs 6.5 crore
South Africa's Gerald Coetzee to Gujarat Titans for Rs 2.4 crore
NZ's Lockie Ferguson to PBKS for Rs 2 crore.