It was a frenetic weekend over at Bengaluru as the two mega gala called the IPL auctions saw over 600 players go under the hammer. It was action right from the start as names which were expected to go sold went sold, with some huge names being relegated to the unsold list. Each of the team had a memorable time at the time with Rajasthan Royals in particular having bought some huge names in a bid to win their 2nd title. Post the auction the Rajasthan Royals twitter account took a swipe at RCB in a hilarious manner.
The story as it happened –
Rajasthan Royals came into the IPL auctions for 2022 after having retained 3 players. Sanju Samson the captain was retained for 14 Crores along with English wicket keeper batsman Jos Buttler for 10 Crores and young Yashasvi Jaiswal for 4 crores. This gave RR a purse of 62 crores which they put to good use. Towards the end of auctions on day two they picked 30 year old Karun Nair who went unsold in the earlier rounds. Nair was bought for 1.4 Crores after a bidding war ensued between RCB and KKR. RR’s twitter team then took to the social media site where they posted a five second clip mocking RCB. The video shows a man slipping of a stairs which is apparently Karun Nair and a man trying to catch him only for the man slipping to be held by his friend which is apparently RR.
🤠pic.twitter.com/B5hW5xOuUz
— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) February 13, 2022
Rajasthan Royals make a huge splash in the auction table –
Rajasthan Royals were the center of attraction on both days of the IPL auction. The 2008 champions first bought former Punjab captain Ravichandran Ashwin for 5 crores. The move was curious because he now shares a dressing room with Jos Buttler whom he had Mankaded during IPL 2019 season. They then bought former two time IPL winner in Trent Boult for 8 crores. RR weren’t done as they picked Shimron Hetmyer for 8.5 Crores, young Indian stars Devdutt Padikkal for 7.75 crores, Prasidh Krishna for 10 crores and star leggie Yuzvendra Chahal for 6.5 crore. Apart from Karun Nair, RR also picked Nathan Coulter Nile, Rassie Van Der Dussen and James Neesham during the accelerated process along with Daryl Mitchell of New Zealand. Indian fast bowler Navdeep Saini too was picked for 2.6 crore after he was released by RCB.
Karun Nair’s IPL career –
Karun Nair who last played for India nearly 5 years ago was part of the KKR team last year. His last game in the IPL came for Punjab Kings during the 2020 season against Mumbai Indians where he scored a duck. Nair began his IPL career in 2013 for RCB making his debut against Mumbai. Since then he has played for RR, Delhi, KKR and Punjab. Nair has played 73 games in the IPL and scored 1480 runs with a strike rate of 128 and 10 half centuries. He was warming the bench all through IPL 2021 season for KKR and will hope he can find some game time as he looks to make a comeback into the Indian side, specially at a time when India is looking for middle order options both in test and ODI formats.