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With the advent of two new teams (Ahmedabad and Lucknow) the 15th edition of India Premier League (IPL) will see 10 teams vying for the prestigious trophy.
In a situation like this, experts and fans were eagerly waiting to see how the two teams function at the auction table. Gujarat Titans led by Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya made couple of crucial signings and look set to make a glorious debut in the 2022 edition of IPL.
Gujarat signings
On the first day of the mega auction, Gujarat Titans signed players like Mohammed Shami (Rs 6.25 crore), Jason Roy (Rs 2 crore), Lockie Ferguson (Rs 10 crore), Abhinav Sadarangani (Rs 2.6 crore), Rahul Tewatia (Rs 9 crore), Noor Ahmed (Rs 30 lakh), R Sai Kishore (Rs 3 Crore).
28-year-old Indian all-rounder Rahul Tewatia was picked up by Titans for an amount of Rs 9 crore. Tewatia had a base price of Rs 40 lakh.
While talking about the signing of Tewatia, Gujarat Titans batting coach and mentor Gary Kirsten said that “he was on our list.” During the auction, Gujarat and Chennai Super Kings were involved in a tight bidding battle and eventually Gujarat roped in Tewatia.
Kirsten speaks
“He was on our list but you know how these auctions are like. I think every team has to pay a lot of money for someone and you will see that through the teams. When you get further down the list you try to be strategic in terms of how much money you are going to spend on anyone and then you get further down the list and you missing out on quite a few players which we did,” Kirsten said during an exclusive interview with Sports Today.
“One thing that was our priority was that we needed an Indian left-handed batsman and he (Rahul Tewatia) was kind of last of the quality guys that had IPL experience and CSK thought the same and it became a bidding war with them. It was how far could we go and we had won a few early bids where we did not pay as much we thought so we thought this time we could go little bit longer with Tewatia,” Kirsten further recalled.
Before the mega auction the Gujarat-based franchise had roped in Pandya for Rs 15 crore, Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan for Rs 15 crore as well and Indian batsman Shubman Gill for Rs 7 crore.
