By Glenn Moore
Big Australian names David Warner and Steve Smith may have gone unsold on the second day of the Indian Premier League auction, but there were no such concerns for 13-year-old left-handed batter Vaibhav Suryavanshi.
The youngster, who made his debut in India’s domestic Ranji Trophy at 12, was sold for $200,000 to Rajasthan Royals after a bidding war with the Delhi Capitals at the auction in Saudi Arabia.
Vaibhav Suryavanshi.
Suryavanshi hit a 58-ball hundred in the youth Test against Australia under-19s in October, but made one and three in his other innings in the two-match series.
He is the youngest player to be selected at the auction. The previous youngest was Prayas Ray Barman, signed five years ago by Royal Challengers Bangalore.
It was groundhog day for Warner as he again went unsold at the auction, likely ending a lucrative, run-laden connection with the blockbuster Twenty20 competition.
The explosive opener has scored 6565 runs at a strike rate of 140 and has an average above 40 in the IPL, but as on the first day, none of the 10 franchises were prepared to invest in the 38-year-old left-hander.
Smith also went unsold having set his stall out at the same base price of two crore ($365,000). Despite pairing with Ricky Ponting as Washington Freedom’s captain and coach to win Major League Cricket in the US, Ponting wasn’t keen on taking another punt on Smith.
Instead he packed his new Punjab Kings team with other Aussies, signing Josh Inglis, Aaron Hardie and Xavier Bartlett to join Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis, who were acquired on day one.
Nor was there any interest in English bowling veteran James Anderson. Seeking to make an IPL debut at the age of 42, he did not even come up in the bidding.
The biggest-earning Australian on day two was Tim David, the big-hitting all-rounder joining Royal Challengers Bengaluru for $550,000.
Close behind was Spencer Johnson. He was a Ponting target but Kings were outbid by Kolkata Knight Riders who offered $510,000.
However, Ponting did then land Hardie for $225,000 and, after missing out on Nathan Ellis (who went to Super Kings for $365,000), signed Bartlett, the top wicket-taker in BBL last summer, for $145,000.
Ponting had begun by signing the only one of the three Aussie keepers on the market to be sold.
Alex Carey may be Australia’s Test wicketkeeper but Inglis has the gloves in the white-ball game and it showed as he went for $475,000.
Carey and another gloveman, Josh Philippe, would later go unsold.
There were also no bids for Jason Behrendorff, Matt Short and Lance Morris while other Australians who had put themselves forward did not even make the bidding stage.
There is hope, though, for them and for the likes of Warner and Smith as between now and March players will inevitably be injured or, for personal reasons, pull out, creating late vacancies.
The biggest signing of the day was Bhuvneshwar Kumar who joined Royal Challengers Bengaluru for $2 million.
AAP
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