The Indian Premier League 2022 witnessed an altogether different phenomenon this year. While the season threw up new bowling stars like Umran Malik and Arshdeep Singh, the likes of Umesh Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, and Tim Southee were also reborn as quality T20 bowlers, which seemed like a thing that might never happen.
Along with these established players, who were bought low in auction, but went on to regain their IPL stardom, there were new stars too, who were bought at very low prices but punched way above their weight and performed way better than they were expected to at the time of the auction.
Here is a list of five of them:
Kuldeep Yadav – Delhi Capitals – Price: Rs 2 cr
Among the players that feature on this list, Kuldeep Yadav had more to prove than most as he was almost living on the margins having been relegated to the third spinner in the Kolkata Knight Riders set-up and losing his place in the India squad as well. Even when he was in the Indian team, Ravi Bishnoi was preferred over him and that would have certainly shattered the confidence of the young man.
But instead of giving up, Kuldeep, who was picked up for a meagre price of Rs 2 crore by the Delhi Capitals, worked hard with the management under the tutelage of head coach Ricky Ponting. He increased his bowling speed and worked on the variations. The support he got from his captain Rishabh Pant from behind the stumps was unparallel as well.
Oozing confidence, the 27-year-old went on to pick 21 wickets in 14 games at an average of 19.95 and a good strike rate of just above 14. He was a bit expensive though with an economy rate of 8.43, but this ability to pick wickets in crunch situations almost got Delhi Capitals through to the Playoffs, only if Pant did not drop a Dewald Brevis sitter.
Umesh Yadav – Kolkata Knight Riders – Price: Rs 2 cr
Umesh Yadav’s career, at least the white ball one was termed as over two-three years ago. He did not feature in any of the games in the 2021 IPL season and played only two games in 2020.
However, for both Kolkata and Umesh, the unavailability of Pat Cummins for the first few games of IPL 2022 turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Not only was the 35-year-old Vidarbha Express picking wickets regularly, but he was also a menace in the Powerplay, choking out the runs and forcing the batters to commit mistakes.
Of the first ten matches that he played, he was the Power Player of the match on four occasions and only Jos Buttler had better numbers than him in that category. In total, Umesh picked 16 wickets in 12 games at an average of 21.19 and a brilliant economy of just 7.06 which is his best ever in a 12-season long career.
The fact that Umesh was not even picked in the regular auction and Kolkata bid for him in the accelerated auction makes his journey even more fascinating
Mohsin Khan – Lucknow Super Giants – Price: Rs 20 lakh
Changing the base can cause a change in fortune is a common saying in league sports. Madhya Pradesh pacer Mohsin Khan lived by that saying as changing the base from Mumbai Indians to Lucknow Super Giants meant that Mohsin got more opportunities and with that, he was able to display most of his talent.
The left-arm pacer who went on to clock a maximum speed of 150 kmph in one of the games and picked 14 wickets in just 9 games, got a lucky entry into the playing eleven. It was the injury to Avesh Khan, another Madhya Pradesh bowler and the mainstay of the Lucknow bowling attack that made him part of the playing eleven.
Bought for a base price of Rs 20 lakh only, Moshin with his brilliant bowling at both the top and death, went on to prove that his worth is way more than that.
Mukesh Choudhary – Chennai Super Kings – Price: Rs 20 lakh
Mukesh Choudhary is another player like Rajat Patidar, who was able to make it to the squad of Chennai Super Kings only because the main swing bowler and their most expensive buy Deepak Chahar was ruled out of the season with an injury.
Choudhary, who was a net bowler for the Sunrisers and Chennai in previous editions, grabbed the opportunity with both hands, picking 16 wickets in 13 games and most importantly bowling those early overs with decent swing to trouble all sorts of batters. Maharashtra born Choudhary was signed for only Rs 20 lakh.
Obed McCoy – Rajasthan Royals – Price: Rs 75 lakh
This West Indian pacer, who is known for his slow deliveries bred life into the dead Qualifier 1 after he restricted David Miller and Hardik Pandya to just seven runs in the 19th over when they needed 23 from the final two overs to get to victory. With that over, he gave Rajasthan every chance to win that game as Prasidh Krishna had 16 runs to defend, but unfortunately, he was not able to. Rajasthan might have lost the game, but once again, Obed McCoy’s supremacy with slow balls and in-dipping yorkers was firmly established.
In this season, McCoy was able to play just seven games, but even in those games, he picked 11 wickets, including three in Qualifier 2 to push Rajasthan to the final, even where he tried his best to defend an undefendable total of 130. To be able to pull all of this off at a price of Rs 75 lakh only was nothing less than the biggest bargain of the season for the Royals.
And a special mention to:
Tim Southee – Kolkata Knight Riders – Price: Rs 1.5 cr
Tim Southee’s story was like that of Umesh Yadav. Not a favoured T20 bowler, the Kiwi sprang to his best self at the fag end of the last season and carried it into this season as well. His form was so good that even Pat Cummins had to sit out to accommodate him in the KnightRiders’ playing eleven.
The 33-year-old Kiwi took 14 wickets from nine games and was a serious threat to batters early in the innings with his brilliant line length and dangerous swing bowling. His economy of 7.85 was equally outstanding given the fact that in the T20s, he had always been flogged all over the park by batters and has been considered an easy target. This was his best season in the IPL with the ball.
Southee, who was picked for just Rs 1.5 crore, his base price at the auction, also fielded brilliantly and took some stellar catches this season. In total, he took four catches.
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