IPL 2021 Mini Auction

A new record

Rajasthan Royals paid ₹16.25 crore for Chris Morris, the most any franchise had paid for a player, ending the record Yuvraj Singh had held since 2015. Bangalore paid ₹15 crore for the New Zealand fast bowler Kyle Jamieson and Punjab ₹14 crore for Jhye Richardson. The market had decided that a fast bowler who could bat was the scarcest thing in the auction, and paid for it; Richardson played three matches.

The most expensive uncapped player was Krishnappa Gowtham, bought by Chennai for ₹9.25 crore, who did not play a match that season.

Maxwell at last

Glenn Maxwell had been one of the auction's great puzzles since 2013: bought for big money, frequently disappointing. Bangalore paid ₹14.25 crore for him, and this time he scored 513 runs. Further down the list, Rajasthan's ₹1.2 crore for the uncapped left-armer Chetan Sakariya bought 14 wickets, better value than any of the headline pace signings.

A season in two halves

The season was suspended in May when cases of the virus reached team bubbles, and completed in the UAE in September and October. Chennai Super Kings, who bought Moeen Ali for ₹7 crore and got 357 runs, won their fourth title. The 2022 mega auction followed four months later.

Reading the numbers

Overseas players took more than three quarters of the money in 2021, one of the highest shares in the archive, on Morris, Jamieson, Maxwell and Richardson above all. Bangalore and Punjab spent the most, together more than twice what any other franchise spent. Hyderabad spent the least, less than ₹4 crore.

Chennai, fourth on spend, won the title. More than half the players in the auction went unsold, and the most expensive uncapped buy did not play, while Sakariya, bought for a fraction of that price, was one of the season's finds.