Mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy is the unlikely star of auction as KXIP pay Rs 8.4 crore — up from base price of Rs 20 lakh.
The high-octane IPL auction was in full swing, with as many as four franchises locked in a frenetic bidding war to procure mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy for the upcoming season. Watching the intense battle on television made the 27-year-old queasy.
“The whole experience was something new for me. It was pedapedappu (heart-stopping tension) macha,” Varun Chakravarthy admitted on Tuesday evening. “I was just hoping that I get picked for my base price of Rs 20 lakh at least. But the way the bidding panned out surprised me to be honest,” he quips.
Every IPL auction throws up a couple of interesting, yet unknown names that piques curiosity levels of franchises. It was a similar script that played out this time around as well. Along with Chakravarthy, it was Shivam Dube, the young and sinewy all-rounder from Mumbai who hogged the limelight. Dube rose into prominence after he walloped five sixes, just a day ahead of the auction in a Ranji Trophy duel against Baroda. Not surprisingly, Royal Challengers Bangalore went all out for him, snapping him for a cool sum of Rs 5 crore, from his eventual Rs 20 lakh-base price.
Chakaravarthi, in many ways, is a bit of an unknown commodity and the bidding war that he kicked off between Delhi Capitals, Chennai SuperKings, Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab was the highlight of the evening. Long after he was eventually picked up for Rs 8.4 crore by the Kings XI, the obscurity surrounding him refused to cease.
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