Be it as a captain or as a mentor, former India batter Gautam Gambhir has a knack of attending Indian Premier League auctions. Gambhir, one of the most successful leaders in the history of the tournament, prefers to lead from the front from the first possible opportunity. Speaking of the first challenge before an IPL season, nothing is more knackering than cracking the auction.
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With a large majority of his international matches for India coming before his two most successful IPL seasons as a captain, Gambhir’s active participation in the auction perhaps used to lay the foundation behind Kolkata Knight Riders lifting the silverware in 2012 and 2014.
Interestingly, Gambhir’s long-time teammate Rajat Bhatia had noticed a “lack of maturity” in his captaincy after representing Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) under him in 2010.
That said, Gambhir had put all such doubts to rest in only his second season as KKR’s captain. Adhering to the age-old notion of not tinkering around much with a winning squad, Gambhir hadn’t expressed interest in going on a shopping spree during IPL 2013 auction. A fan of “smaller squads”, the left-handed batter had only bought a couple of players before the sixth season of the IPL.
With Gautam Gambhir Present At The Auction Table, KKR Had Bought Only 2 Players For $675,000 In 2013
Gambhir, who wanted Kolkata co-owner and superstar Shah Rukh Khan to spend entire budget on a rookie spinner named Sunil Narine in the previous auction, was in great need of another “mystery spinner” to complement him in IPL 2013 auction. As a result, an iron-willed approach saw him successfully acquiring the services of Sri Lanka spinner Sachithra Senanayake.
While Narine had played 10 matches across formats for West Indies before his IPL debut, Senanayake had represented Sri Lanka 13 times before first playing for Knight Riders a decade ago. Speaking to the broadcaster during one of the auction breaks on the day, Gambhir had put into words how he would’ve been contended even without buying a single player in the auction.
“We always had the strategy to pick a mystery spinner to bowl with Sunil [Narine]. Now we’ve got [Sachithra] Senanayake. Having another mystery spinner is always a good option for a skipper. We have a small squad and we’ve always believed that the smaller the squad the easier it is to maintain. We were very happy getting into the auction, even without picking anyone. James Pattinson is also fit, he’s been picked in Australia’s Test squad for India, so we have all bases covered.”
Other than a mystery spinner, KKR had ticked another box by buying an overseas pace-bowling all-rounder in South Africa’s Ryan McLaren on what was a “slow” auction day for them. Having said that, neither of Senanayake ($625,000) or McLaren ($50,000) were their first-choice options. Originally interested in Sri Lanka’s Ajantha Mendis and West Indies’ Daren Sammy, Kolkata had lost both the players to Pune Warriors India and Sunrisers Hyderabad respectively as part of a par of the course phenomenon called “auction dynamics”.
A primary reason why Gambhir excelled as a captain at the Eden Gardens was his astute grasp regarding the changing nature of the surfaces at the stadium over the years. With pitches at their home ground having started to support fast bowlers by the second half of Gambhir’s leadership tenure, he didn’t require a lot of time for moving on to the likes of Morne Morkel, Andre Russell, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Trent Boult and Chris Woakes.
Gautam Gambhir’s IPL 2013 Auction Picks Hadn’t Lasted Long At KKR
While Narine has remained intact with the franchise not only in the IPL but other T20 leagues as well, Senanayake plied his trade for Knight Riders for a solitary season in spite of returning with nine wickets at an average of 23.22, an economy rate of 6.53 and a strike rate of 21.33 across eight outings.
In what was the last of his three IPL seasons, even the franchise’s second buy in that auction, McLaren, was released after playing just twice.
Pattinson, who was bought by KKR for his base price of $100,000 in IPL 2011 auction but didn’t get a single game for two seasons, was ruled out of the season because of “a non-cricket related medical condition in his lower abdominal region”.
