The BCCI released the final list of all the players taking part in the IPL 2022 Mega Auction and it contained the names of 590 players in total. 370 of them were Indian Players and the remaining 220 were overseas players.
Like every season, the players list have been divided into different categories depending on their base prices. Base price is the minimum bidding amount of a player which is set by the BCCI after some consideration. The eight base prices that have been set this year are – 2 cr, 1.5 cr, 1 cr, 75 lakhs, 50 lakhs, 40 lakhs, 30 lakhs and 20 lakhs.
It is important that the teams study the lists separately with sheer focus because they have to set a plan of priorities ahead of the Mega Auction to keep a check on their spendings.
However, the audience must have an idea on which players to watch out for in the Mega Auction too.
Thus in this article, we are going to talk about the 1 crore base price bracket, precisely the Indian players in that division.
Let us now have a look at all the Indian players in the 1 crore price bracket:-
- Manish Pandey
- Nitish Rana
- Wriddhiman Saha
- Prasidh Krishna
- T Natarajan
- Kuldeep Yadav
- Jayant Yadav
- Piyush Chawla
- Kedar Jadhav
- Ajinkya Rahane
Now let’s discuss the Top 5 players that the IPL franchises can target from this price bracket.
Top 5 Players with Base Price of 1 Crores
1. Kuldeep Yadav – Kuldeep Yadav is perhaps the most underrated spinner in India right now. Even a few years ago, he used to be a household name in India after his consistent performances for India in ODI and T20I. He was also one of the most lethal bowlers in the Indian Premier League during his peak days at Kolkata Knight Riders.
However, something changed around the year 2019. KKR started dropping Kuldeep Yadav from their playing XI to fit in their new young bowlers and he started to be sidelined. His bad relations with the club started affecting his performances and he started to underperform for the National team as well.
A couple of injuries was the final nail in his coffin and was enough to put him out of the Indian squad as well. However, he is now getting back in form and is ready to prove his worth once again.
The IPL 2022 will be Kuldeep’s best shot to prove his mettle to the world with a stellar performance and it’s almost a do or die situation for him. Thus, a number of franchises will probably be willing to take a bet on him.
Kuldeep Yadav has picked up a total of 40 wickets in 45 matches in his IPL career.
2. Prasidh Krishna – Prasidh Krishna had been one of the key players in the KKR squad in the last few seasons of IPL and despite being fairly consistent, he was let go of by the franchise. They can not be much blamed though as they could retain only 4 players.
He picked up 12 wickets in 10 matches last season. In overall, he has 30 wickets to his name in 34 matches.
Prasidh Krishna has established himself well with the Indian Senior Team as well. In fact, he is now a regular starter for India in the ODI and T20I formats and has provided some good performances.
The 25-years old picked up 3 wickets in the 3rd ODI between India and South Africa recently and it was his best performance for India in the recent past.
3. Manish Pandey – Manish Pandey was the best batsman in the Sunrisers Hyderabad squad last season. Although he maintained a slow run rate he made sure that played a responsible knock for the team. As no other SRH batsman was able to score big runs in IPL 2021, his knocks were important.
He scored 292 runs in 10 matches in IPL 2021. His performance in IPL 2020 was great too. That year he scored 425 runs in 16 matches. Manish Pandey has scored 3560 runs in 154 matches in his IPL career.
However, what he aces at is fielding. Manish Pandey is probably the best fielder in India after Ravindra Jadeja. Given the importance of fielding in shorter formats, Pandey becomes a very desirable player.
Many teams can bid for him if he is available in a 4-5 crore range. His base price is set at 1 crore rupees.
4. Thangarasu Natarajan – Former Sunrisers Hyderabad player Thangarasu Natarajan was one of the finds of the 2020 season. He was just too good and people started comparing him with Jasprit Bumrah. This was mainly due to his pin-point yorkers and fabulous death over bowling.
He picked up 16 wickets in the same number of matches that season and he was also called up by the National team. His performance with team India was commendable as well and he was having the time of his life.
Then in IPL 2021, he injured himself while playing for SRH and was ruled out for the rest of the season.
Natarajan made a recovery in July 2021 but again got injured ahead of the Vijay Hazare trophy in November and was under rehabilitation.
However he is not fit again and has registered for the Mega Auction. If he is indeed recovered from his injury fully, he can be a great asset to any team that buys him and we all know what he is capable of doing.
5. Nitish Rana – Although former KKR and Mumbai Indians star Nitish Rana has had a rough patch in the last few IPL seasons, we can not write him off seeing his brilliant record in the tournament. He has great potential and we all know his excellent batting ability. However, his form is a thing of concern.
He is slowly improving though. The 2021 season was his best IPL season so far in terms of runs scored. Nitish Rana scored 383 runs in 17 matches. He had a highest score of 80 runs in IPL 2021 and helped KKR to reach the Final.
However, his inconsistency is something that he has to work on as it can be a disadvantage for the side who buys him in the Mega Auction.
Nitish Rana played for Saurashtra in Domestic cricket this season and he was fairly decent. It will be a tough call to make for the Franchises but Nitish is definitely a player worth keeping on your list.
Also Read:- TATA IPL 2022: Top 5 Overseas Players with Base Price of 1 Crore in Mega Auction