5 Indian cricketers with low base prices who fetched big money at IPL auctions

The auction for the 2016 IPL, that took place on 6 February 2016 at Bengaluru, turned out to be quite an eventful one as many expected. While a lot of things happened in line with the regular tradition, there were a number of trends which stood broken too.The most remarkable bit about the auction was the way in which some of the Indian players with a low base price ended up getting a lucrative contract. However, this is certainly not the first time something like this has taken place in an IPL auction.In the past few years, there have been quite a few instances of low-priced Indian cricketers running into a handsome deal at the auction. Including the 2016 IPL auction, let's take a look at some of the biggest such occurrences.

#5 Piyush Chawla - Kolkata Knight Riders

Chawla’s fortunes have changed since he joined KKR

Base Price – INR 50 lakhs

Purchased for – INR 4.25 crore

Former Indian leg-spinner Piyush Chawla had gone largely out of favour, even in the IPL, until the 2014 edition which changed everything. At a base price of INR 50 lakhs, Chawla managed to seal a contract worth INR 4.25 crore with the Kolkata Knight Riders at the auction, thereby earning 8.5 times more.

Since then, the leggie has been a vital cog in the KKR wheel and played a key role in his team’s 2nd title triumph in the year that he joined. As expected, Piyush Chawla has been retained by the franchise for the 9th edition of the IPL.

#4 Karn Sharma - Sunrisers Hyderabad

Sharma was lucky to be picked by his own franchise again

Base Price – INR 30 lakhs

Purchased for – INR 3.75 crore

At the 2014 IPL auction, Railways leg-spinner Karn Sharma made his way back to the franchise that he represented in the 2013 IPL, Sunrisers Hyderabad, as they roped him in for a INR 3.75 crore deal. The amount turned out to be 12.5 times more than Karn’s base price of INR 30 lakhs.

The leggie has been performing quite well for the Sunrisers over the past few years and has been retained in the squad for the 2016 edition of the IPL.

#3 Rishi Dhawan - Kings XI Punjab

Rishi Dhawan hit quite a jackpot at the 2014 auction

Base Price – INR 20 lakhs

Purchased for – INR 3 crore

Rishi Dhawan recently broke into the Indian ODI team at the back of some strong domestic performances, but back in 2014, he made news for a completely different reason. At the 2014 IPL auction, Rishi was snapped up by the Kings XI Punjab franchise for a whopping INR 3 crore.

The special things about this was the fact that the allrounder had a base price of just INR 20 lakh and got paid 15 times more. Rishi Dhawan was among the players that were retained by Kings XI Punjab for the 2016 IPL.

#2 KC Cariappa - Kolkata Knight Riders

The 2015 IPL auction was perhaps the only time Cariappa made news

Base Price – INR 10 lakhs

Purchased for – INR 2.4 crore

One of the biggest surprises of the 2015 IPL auction was sprung by the Kolkata Knight Riders when they paid INR 2.4 crore to get hold of an unknown spinner KC Cariappa. The young leggie had a base price of just INR 10 lakhs but was handed a contract which was 24 times heavier.

Cariappa neither got to play too many matches for KKR nor did he make a splash in the few chances that he got. As a result, he was released prior to the 2016 auction and landed a less lucrative INR 80 lakh deal with Kings XI Punjab.

#1 Pawan Negi - Delhi Daredevils

Negi’s allround efforts for CSK have inflated his value

Base Price – INR 30 lakhs

Purchased for – INR 8.5 crore

It was a historic moment when allrounder Pawan Negi pipped Yuvraj Singh to become the highest paid Indian cricketer in the 2016 IPL auction. Not only that, he managed to grab a contract which was around 28 times more than his base price of INR 30 lakh.

The Delhi Daredevils franchise shelled out INR 8.5 crore to acquire the services of the former Chennai Super Kings allrounder. Pawan Negi had been a useful contributor for his previous franchise; however, it will be interesting to see if he lives up to his hefty price tag.