The Indian Premier League (IPL) is Undoubtedly the biggest brand in world cricket. Since its inception in 2008, all leading players in the world wait for the opportunity to feature in the biggest T20 league in the world. The cash-rich league makes young players overnight stars when the franchises acquire them in the IPL auction for a hefty amount.
With the next IPL auction just around the corner, we try to find out some of the all-time major steals in the auction. We look ahead at players that deserved a much higher amount in the auction that can be termed as ‘steals’.
3 Major Steals Of All Time In IPL History
3. Ab de Villiers
Ab de Villiers is unarguably one of the greatest IPL batsmen of all time. Mr. 360 has time and time again lit up cricket stadiums around India during IPL with his majestic batting. De Villiers first played for Delhi Daredevils when the franchise purchased him for Rs. 1.2 crores ahead of the first IPL season.
This can surely be termed a ‘steal’ as De Villiers surely deserved a higher amount after his impressing showing in the 2007 World Cup in which he played an integral part in taking South Africa to the semi-finals. After that De Villiers just kept evolving as a batsman and in no time became a world-beater in every format of the game.
Overall he has 4849 runs at an average of 40.40 and a strike rate of 151.91 in IPL. The South African superstar became a part of RCB in 2011 and now earns Rs. 11 crores every IPL season.
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2. Dwayne Bravo
The West Indies all-rounder is one of the most successful players in IPL history. There is never a shortage of action when Bravo has the bat or ball in his hands in the biggest T20 league. Not many are still aware of the fact that CSK made a game-changing buy in the IPL auction when they roped in Bravo for just Rs. 92 lakhs.
A player of the quality of Bravo should have easily gone for around Rs. 5-6 crores in the IPL auction. However surprisingly no other franchise apart from CSK looked interested to bid for Bravo in the auction. Since then Bravo has played an instrumental role in helping CSK win 3 IPL titles. The Chennai Super Kings paid Bravo Rs 6.4 Crore in the 2020 edition of the IPL.
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1. Kane Williamson
The New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson has always been an underrated performer in his IPL again. Time and time again he has helped Sunrisers Hyderabad win matches from miraculous situations but he continues to be in the shadow of David Warner.
Back in 2015 when Williamson was smashing batting records in international cricket was acquired by SRH for Rs. 60 Lakhs. Now this figure will certainly shock everyone as Williamson during that time was expected to go for a winning bid above Rs. 5 crores. Nevertheless, he ended up being one of the biggest steals in IPL history. It was only in the year 2018 that Williamson’s fee was increased and he was paid 3 Crore.
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