IPL-4 Day 1 - Winners and Losers (part 1)

Day 1 of the auction is now over and a total of $68.55 million has been committed as payment to players from 8 countries ($38.265 million to Indian players). Indian economy seems to be truly doing well!

Chennai Super Kings retained 4 players (Dhoni, Raina, Vijay, and Albie Morkel) which in hindsight seems to be a good move. If they could retain more they would have. With the remaining money they were going for the same winning combination that they had last year. Unfortunately they missed out on Muralitharan (losing a close bidding war with Kochi) but gained Bravo (for a bargain - relatively speaking). They still have $1.375 million to pick the remaining 5-6 players. Here is the team so far:
MS Dhoni - $1,800,000.00
Suresh Raina - $1,300,000.00
M Vijay - $900,000.00
R Ashwin - $850,000.00
S Badrinath - $850,000.00
Doug Bollinger - $700,000.00
Albie Morkel - $500,000.00
Michael Hussey - $425,000.00
Dwayne Bravo - $200,000.00
Wriddhiman Saha - $100,000.00

They now need openers and spinners. They have selected the 4 international players who they would want to play each game. They might get 3-4 more international players as insurance (this might include Thisara Pererra, a SL allrounder, Ravi Bopara, England allrounder, or even Chris Gayle). Among Indian players they would go for Balaji and Gony. They would also try to pick up Mukund, Hemang Badani, Anirudh Srikanth, R. Satish, and S. Sriram as the 'cachement area' picks. On the whole this team would closely resemble the team from last year (Hayden might even be the batting coach with his Mongoose) and I would give them a A grade.
 
Mumbai Indians like CSK had also retained 4 players. And on day one they picked up 4 more players. This is how the team looks like as of now:
Rohit Sharma - $2,000,000.00
Sachin Tendulkar - $1,800,000.00
Harbhajan Singh - $1,300,000.00
Kieron Pollard - $900,000.00
Andrew Symonds - $850,000.00
Lasith Malinga - $500,000.00
Davy Jacobs - $190,000.00
James Franklin - $100,000.00

At this point, MI have their marquee players but still need to build a team. This team of strong personalities might come together out of respect for Sachin. The team still needs openers, wicket-keepers, batsmen, and spinners. With the remaining $1.36 million they may not get good talent in all these positions and would have to rely on 'cachement area' players like Rayudu, Dhawal, Rahane, and Pinal Shah. Paying $2 million to Rohit seems a lot (may be a million more)! Tomorrow they would go for Wasim Jaffer, Ajit Agarkar, Jaidev Unadkat (who may get a lot of interest and sell for over $200K). They already have 5 international players and would try to get up and coming players like Xavier Doherty, Moses Henriques, or Paul Harris. Overall at this point I would give them a C- grade.

Bangalore Royal Challengers had Anil Kumble help them with picks which in my opinion is a great idea. They had retained Kohli who can learn a lot from Vettori about captaincy. They also picked the other 2 members of the future Indian team middle order: Saurabh Tiwary ($1.6M seems like a lot) and Cheteshwar Pujara. They have Zaheer and Dirk Nannes as they fast bowling pillars while Dilshan and AB round up their selection so far. This well balanced team seems to have the best fielding side of all teams but they have spent the most. With little more than $1M remaining they would go for Vinay Kumar, Mithun, and Pankaj Singh among the Indians and look for openers and wicket-keepers among international players. They are sure pick up the entire young Karnataka team as their 'Cachement area' players (Manish Pandey, Akhil, C. Gautam, and Binny). They must be glad that they didn't pay the $2.1M to get Uttappa (they stopped bidding after $900K). And they have built yet another good and entirely new team compared to last year (with all selections being good team players). Overall I would give them a B+ (highest spenders without any 'super stars').

Hyderabad Deccan Chargers is another team that has an entirely new look. In fact, they have picked up key players from the Bangalore Challengers last year's team (Steyn, White, Pietersen). In all probability Sangakara would be their captain and JP Duminy their solid middle order batsman. Among the Indian players they selected Ojha, Ishant, Shikar Dhawan, and Amit Mishra. This team has all the elements needed to be a contender this year. Like Bangalore they would also look for wicket keepers and openers tomorrow. They would also be interested in middle order allrounders. They can afford to do that since they have $3.5M still to spend. I would expect them to bid for every overseas allrounder (not many Indian all rounders remain). The key catchment area player for Hyderabad is T. Suman. He gave a good account of himself last year. Among Indian players they would surely go for Venugopal Rao, Rayudu. Overall I thought they did very well and I would give them A+.

The Kochi (only team with no name yet) side like the conglomerate that they are went for every player and got the following (as a result over paying for everyone and getting the discards of other teams for the most part):
Mahela Jayawardene - $1,500,000.00
Muttiah Muralitharan - $1,100,000.00
Ravindra Jadeja - $950,000.00
Sreesanth - $900,000.00
RP Singh - $500,000.00
Brendon McCullum - $475,000.00
Brad Hodge - $425,000.00
VVS Laxman - $400,000.00
Parthiv Patel - $290,000.00
Steven Smith - $200,000.00
Ramesh Powar - $180,000.00

But the fact of the matter is that they assembled a good team and still have over $2M to spend tomorrow. They would go for all rounders and middle order batsmen. Mahela, Muralitharan, McCullum, Hodge, and Steve Smith are excellent international picks. With Jadeja and Powar they have a good spinning combination. Sreesanth and RP may not pose a strong fast bowling duo but having Parthiv Patel (back up keeper and opener) and VVS should help with grooming young 'Mallus' from the catchment area. Oveall I would rate Kochi's day one performance a B- (lacked maturity by bidding for every player).

Stay tuned for part 2....