The five-time Indian Premier League (IPL) winners, Mumbai Indians (MI) went all out in the mega auction to get back their top-order attacking batsman, Ishan Kishan.
The franchise spent Rs 15.25 crore for Kishan and this is the first time MI have broken the barrier of Rs 10 crore in an IPL auction. On the other hand, the 23-year-old has also become the costliest player of the IPL 2022 auction so far.
MI commenced the bidding for Kishan, Punjab Kings (PBKS) entered at Rs 2.20 crore and the duel went on till Rs 5.25 crore. PBKS gave up after Rs 7 crore while Gujarat Titans entered the field late. Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) entered after Rs 12 crore and went toe-to-toe with Mumbai. The most successful team of the competition outbid SRH and bagged Kishan for Rs 15.25 crore.
After the 2021 edition of the IPL, MI had retained their skipper Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard, Jasprit Bumrah and Suryakumar Yadav. The teams were only allowed to retain four players due to which the Mumbai-based franchise had to release Kishan.
The southpaw was initially bought by Mumbai in 2018 for Rs 6.4 crore. The left-handed batsman has the ability to provide a robust start to the innings and can also accelerate the game in the middle-overs.
Ahead of the 2019 player auction, the Mukesh Ambani-backed IPL team had retained 18 players and Kishan was one of them. After an ordinary 2019 season, the batsman was still a part of the Mumbai franchise for the next season. In the 2020 edition, the Rohit-led team grabbed their fifth title and Kishan played an instrumental role in the team’s victory.