Chris Morris forced franchises to start a bidding war before he was bought by Rajasthan Royals for a staggering INR 16.25 cr in the IPL 2021 Auction on Thursday in Chennai.
A fantastic T20 player and an asset for any team with his all-round abilities, Morris became the highest-paid cricketer in IPL history. The previous all-time record was held by Yuvraj Singh, who was bought by Delhi Daredevils in 2015. The highest-ever bid for a foreigner was for Pat Cummins (INR 15.5 crore). Rajasthan will now have Jofra Archer and Chris Morris in the Powerplay and death overs.
Along with Morris, the Rajasthan outfit also shelled out money for all-rounders Shivam Dube and Mustafizur Rahman. While Dube was bought for a hefty price of INR 4.40 cr, Mustafizur went for his base price (INR 1 cr).
Royals also went for Chetan Sakariya (Rs 1.20 crore), KC Cariappa (Rs 0.20 crore), Liam Livingstone (Rs 0.75 crore), Kuldip Yadav (Rs 0.20 crore) and Akash Singh (Rs 0.20 crore).
After finishing at the bottom place in the previous season, Royals had parted ways with Steve Smith and Sanju Samson was assigned the captaincy in his place. Along with Smith, Oshane Thomas, Ankit Rajpoot, Varun Aaron and Tom Curran were also released from the Rajasthan camp.
Retained Players:
Sanju Samson, Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Riyan Parag, Shreyas Gopal, Rahul Tewatia, Mahipal Lomror, Kartik Tyagi, Andrew Tye, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anuj Rawat, David Miller, Manan Vohra, Robin Uthappa
Bought in the IPL 2021 Auction:
Shivam Dube (Rs 4.40 crore), Chris Morris (Rs 16.25 crore), Mustafizur Rahman (Rs 1.00 crore), Chetan Sakariya (Rs 1.20 crore), KC Cariappa (Rs 0.20 crore), Liam Livingstone (Rs 0.75 crore), Kuldip Yadav (Rs 0.20 crore), Akash Singh (Rs 0.20 crore)
