IPL Auction 2019: 5 weirdest bidding wars 

The 2019 IPL Auction is done and dusted and we have seen a lot of surprise picks! As many as 60 players (out of 351) were bought by the 8 teams – speaning a whopping 108 crores in the process.

A lot of surprise bids were seen and that saw players from all over the world get some crazy prices. Here are the weirdest biding wars from the 2019 auctions that saw the player's prices shoot up like crazy:

#5 – Varun Chakravarthy

The mystery spinner

When the auction list was announced, a lot of people made their predictions for the player who will fetch the biggest bid. While his name was doing the rounds before, not many picked Varun Chakravarthy to be the biggest pick. And that was mainly because only a few knew about him.

Unless one has been following the TNPL or Tamil Nadu cricket, they wouldn't have known much about Varun. But now, with the IPL auction done and dusted, he is the talk of the town. Everyone wants to know who he is and why he has fetched 8.40 crores in the auctions.

Delhi Capitals started off the bidding at 20 lakhs for the spinner and were immediately joined by the Chennai Super Kings. The two sides were adamant on signing him at any cost and never kept the paddle down. At 3.4 crores, CSK thought they had him.

That was the maximum that could have bid for him as that was all they had left in their kitty. Just when they thought they had their man, Kings XI Punjab surprised all and joined in at 3.6 crores.

They then had a battle for Delhi Capitals and the price just kept rising. By now, it had reached 4.8 crores and DC backed out. KXIP were all smiles and thought they had him wrapped up for 24x his price. But there was a twist in the tale.

Rajasthan Royals popped up with a 5 crore bid. KXIP were stunned but were in no mood to let go of the player. The two sides kept bidding and the price had risen to 6.8 crores when RR backed out.

The KXIP team was jubilant once again but Kolkata Knight Riders put a stop to that within seconds. They were now determined to get the player despite having a little over 10 crores left and just 14 players in their squad at that time.

However, KKR kept bidding for him and it took a whopping 8.4 crore bid from KXIP to force stop the bidding from Knight Riders. Punjab got their man finally but for 42x his base price – the highest at the 2019 auctions.

#4 – Akshdeep Nath

The big breakthrough?

Akshdeep Nath has been in the talks for quite some time now. The wicketkeeper was the vice-captain of the Indian U19 side that won the World Cup in 2012.

That side can actually be deemed as the unluckiest squad ever in terms of making it big. There are a lot of talented players but most haven't been able to make it count on the big stage with the senior squad. Sandeep Sharma has shone in the IPL – not many youngsters have been consistently able to do that for the franchise.

Akshdeep Nath is no different. He was one of the best players in domestic circuit in the squad but has never gotten a chance in the Indian senior squad. His IPL career has also not been great and he was released by KXIP before the 2019 auctions.

However, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Super Kings seem to have a lot of faith in the 25-year-old. The wicketkeeper-batsman was the subject of a bidding war between the two south Indian sides.

Both RCB and CSK were constantly bidding for him before Chennai had to back to back out at 3.4 crores. That was the maximum they could bid and thus, Bangalore snapped him up for 3.6 crores – 18x his base price.

#3 – Prabhsimran Singh

Surprise surprise!

The hard-hitting batsman who idolises Virender Sehwag and Adam Gilchrist rose to limelight after his blistering knock of 298 in a U23 District Cricket Tournament in Amritsar, Punjab. Selected as one of the top 5 U-19 wicketkeeper-batsman in India right now, Prabhsimran is currently working with Kiran More at the NCA. He is a part of the India U19 and U23 setup and it is no surprise that there was a bidding war for him.

Up for auctions at Rs. 20 lakhs, Prabhsimran attracted interest from RCB and KXIP. Both sides were fiercely bidding for him and the price rose to 2.8 crores in no time. RCB backed out but Mumbai Indians entered the bidding war straight away.

MI and KXIP were willing to go all out for the 17-year-old and he was eventually sold to Punjab for 4.8 crores – 24x his base price.

#2 – Shivam Dube

RCB's big purchase

There was a lot of hype about Shivam Dube ahead of the IPL 2019 auctions. He had smashed 5 sixes in an over 2 days ago and had caught the eye of several franchises.

RCB were the ones who were keen on signing the all-rounder from the start and were caught in a bidding war with Delhi Capitals. The Bengaluru side managed to outbid DC and force them to stop at 1.1 crores but Mumbai Indians were ready to pounce on the chance of signing him.

MI and RCB kept bidding and the price went up to 3.8 crores. It looks like RCB had got their man but KXIP came in with a bid out of nowhere at 4 crores but that was their only bid.

Bangalore had outbid them straight away but MI were back in the running. They put in 2 more bids before RCB sealed the deal for 5 crores – 25x his base price.

#1 – Prayas Ray Barman

The next big thing?

While all other players in this list were known for some time, Prayas Ray Barman came to the limelight very recently. The 16-year-old leg-spinner made his debut for the Bengal senior side in the Vijay Hazare trophy and impressed.

At an economy rate of 4.45, he picked up 11 wickets in 9 matches, including a 4/20 vs Jammu and Kashmir. However, he was not tipped to fetch a whopping 1.5 crores at the auctions.

Starting off at his base price of 20 lakhs, Kings XI Punjab opened the bidding. RCB soon followed and the two were once again determined to outbid the other for the teenager. Surprisingly, KKR didn't make a bid for him and he was sold to RCB for 1.5 crores – 7.5x his base price.