Mumbai’s all-rounders earn more than icon players

While Ajinkya Rahane and Suryakumar Yadav emerged the most expensive players, fetching a maximum cap amount of Rs 7 lakh and Rohit Sharma got Rs 6 lakh, it was Mumbai all-rounders Jay Bista, Shivam Dubey and Shashank Singh who received most aggressive bidding. All three were sold at Rs 5 lakh each.

The stand-in captain for India’s Twenty20 tri-series in Sri Lanka, Rohit was picked despite being unavailable for majority of the tournament. The league is slated to take place from March 11 to 21 at Wankhede Stadium and Rohit may feature only if his franchise, Mumbai North West, reach the final. The T20 tri-series also featuring Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will start on March 6 and the final is on March 18.

Bista and Dubey starting at base price of Rs 1.50 lakh in the first class category, matched iconic player Shreyas Iyer, and overshadowed the other two iconic players Abhishek Nayar and Siddhesh Lad, who were sold at base price of Rs 4 lakh.

Singh benefited the most, as he started at a base price of Rs 1 lakh in List A players category. Each team had a total spending cap of Rs 35 lakh. Wicketkeeper-batsman Eknath Kerkar received Rs 4 lakh from Mumbai North Central in the List A category.

Mumbai South snapped opening batsman and off-spinner Bista after five teams bid for him. He is the most expensive player in his team, as iconic player Abhishek Nayar was sold at base price of Rs 4 lakh.

Left-handed batsman and medium pacer Dubey went to Mumbai South Central, piping  Lad, who was snapped up for a base price of Rs 4 lakh, as the most expensive player in his team. All-rounder Shashank also attracted the most aggressive bidding, before Mumbai North East had the final say. Surya, though, is the most expensive in Mumbai North East at Rs 7 lakh.

“Suryakumar has been the best batsman throughout, and  is a match winner. And we are confident that he would get the team together and can be the best captain of the tournament. We want to make a mark by selecting the best cricketing talent from Mumbai. Key players like Suryakumar and Dhawal Kulkarni are the highlights, and Shashank's presence will balance the squad,” Mumbai North East team owner Jai Kedia said.

There were total six icon players in Rohit, Rahane, Iyer, Lad, Nayar and Surya. Initially, there were ten icon players, but Shardul Thakur, like Rohit, is part of the Indian team. Dhawal is injured and is set to miss the bulk of the tournament. He went unsold in icon players list, but got base price of Rs 1.50 lakh in the first class players list. Mumbai skipper Aditya Tare is injured and went unsold while Pravin Tambe was unsold from the icon players and got Rs 3.20 lakh, well over his base price of Rs 1.50 lakh in the first class players list.

Each team has an icon player, five first-class players, a List A player, and at least four from developmental and emerging players.