When Kyle Jamieson woke up to see himself as the highest-paid Kiwi in IPL history

Shocked about how he went only for Rs 2.2 crore: DC co-owner on Steve Smith

Delhi Capitals bought former Australia captain Steve Smith at a price of Rs 2.2 Cr in the IPL 2021 mini auctions on Thursday. The DC co-owner Parth Jindal has said that he is “shocked” to get Smith in “only Rs 2.2 Cr”. "It was just incredible to get Steve Smith. We are shocked about how he went only for Rs 2.2 crore, but to get a player of the calibre of Steve Smith, it's going to add a lot to our squad, a lot to our balance. His leadership, his batting, his experience, everything. Everyone associated with Delhi is just thrilled. We discussed Smith's name before the auction and we thought that he would go for much higher, so we had thought that if an opportunity arises, we will go for him, but we never anticipated actually getting him," Jindal said. Jindal also talked about the squad and praised the domestic players like Meriwala. "I think it's a very exciting squad yet again. Meriwala has been doing really well in the domestic tournaments and he's an Indian left-arm quick which we didn't have in our squad last year. He gives us an added variation and Tom Curran has the cutters, the slower ones, the quick ones and he's very good with the bat as well, so he gives that added balance to the squad,” Jindal said. Apart from Smith, DC bought Umesh Yadav, Tom Curran, Sam Billings, Lukman Meriwala, Ripal Patel, Vishnu Vinod and Manimaran Siddharth. Delhi Capitals Retained players: Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Amit Mishra, Ishant Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin, Lalit Yadav, Avesh Khan, Praveen Dubey, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Chris Woakes.

Sam Curran ruled out of remainder of Test series against India

England all-rounder Sam Curran has been ruled out of the remaining Test series against India after having some difficulties of travelling solo during COVID-19. The ECB has told that the initial plan was to make Curran available for the fourth Test scheduled to begin from March 4. "On the basis of the above, and to give Sam the best chance of minimising his risk of exposure to the virus, it was decided to delay his return so that he could travel on the charter flight with the white-ball squad members due to fly on 26 February," an ECB spokesman said. Wicket-keeper batsman Jonny Bairstow also explained the difficulties faced by the players while travelling. "The journey [home] was fine, we just flew into Heathrow," Bairstow said. "The journey back out was four hours down to Heathrow where we nearly broke down, which was interesting. Then we had the flight out to Bangalore. We arrived there, had our tests and had to wait in the airport for our results to be negative. "Then we had a seven-and-a-half-hour bus journey across India to Chennai. We weren't allowed to stop on that journey either, which was interesting.” The England team is in India for a full tour. The two teams will now take on each other in the Day-Night Test in Ahmedabad slated to begin from February 24. The four-match series is presently leveled at 1-1.

Arjun Tendulkar has been picked purely on skill basis: Mahela Jayawardene

Former India batsman Sachin Tendulkar’s son Arjun was sold to Mumbai Indians for Rs 20 lakhs during the IPL 2021 mini auctions on Thursday in Chennai. MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene has said that Arjun has been picked purely on skill basis but admitted that the youngster would have a “big tag” behind him. "We've looked at it purely on a skill basis. I mean, there is going to be a big tag on his head because of Sachin. But, luckily, he's a bowler, not a batsman. So I think Sachin will be very proud if he could bowl like Arjun," ESPNcricinfo quoted Jayawardene as saying. The former Sri Lankan captain further said that it is going to be a learning curve for Arjun and he shouldn’t be put under any sort of pressure. "I think it's going to be a learning process for Arjun. He just started playing for Mumbai, and now the franchise. He will learn the ropes; he will evolve. He's still young. A very focused young man," he further said. "We have to give him time and hopefully not put a lot of pressure on him either. Just let him evolve and work his way up, and that's what we're there to help him to do," Jayawardene added. MI bought Adam Milne for Rs. 3.2 crore, Nathan Coulter-Nile for Rs. 5 Cr, Piyush Chawla for Rs. 2.4 Cr, James Neesham for Rs 50 lakhs, Yudhvir Charak for Rs 20 lakhs, Marco Jansen for Rs 20 lakhs apart from Arjun.

IPL 2021 Mini Auctions: Full list of sold and unsold players

The IPL 2021 mini auctions held at The Leela Palace in Chennai sprung up several surprises. While in-form T20 batsmen like Alex Hales were completely ignored, inconsistent IPL performers like Glenn Maxwell fetched huge sum of money. Chris Morris after being released by the Royal Challengers Bangalore went onto become the most expensive buy in the history of the tournament and returned to Rajasthan Royals, the franchise he played with in the 2015 season. On that note, here is the complete list of sold and unsold players from the IPL mini auctions this season. Karun Nair - 50 lakh - unsold Alex Hales - 1.5 cr - unsold Jason Roy - 2 cr - unsold Steve Smith - 2cr - Delhi Capitals - 2.2 crore Evin Lewis - 1 cr - unsold Aaron Finch - 1cr - unsold Hanuma Vihari- 1cr- unsold Glenn Maxwell - 2cr - RCB - 14.25 crore Kedar Jadhav- 2 Cr- Unsold Shakib Al Hasan - 2 cr - KKR - 3.2 crore Moeen Ali - 2 cr - CSK - 7 crore Shivam Dube - 50cr - RR - 4.4 crore Chris Morris - 75 lakh - RR - 16.25 cr Dawid Malan - 1.5 crore - Punjab Kings - 1.5 crore Glenn Philips - 50 lakh - unsold Alex Carey - 1.5 cr - unsold Sam Billings - 2 cr - unsold Kusal Perera - 50 lakh - unsold Adam Milne - 50 lakh - MI - 3.2 crores Mustafizur Rahman - 1 crore - RR - 1 crore Jhye Richardson - 1.5 crore - Punjab - 14 crores Nathan Coulter Nile - 1.5 crore - MI - 5 crores Sheldon Cottrell - 50 lakh - unsold Umesh Yadav - 1 crore - DC - 1 crore Adil Rashid - 1.5 crores - unsold Rahul Sharma - unsold Mujeeb Ur Rahman - 1.5 crores - unsold Harbhajan Singh - 2 crores - Unsold Ish Sodhi - unsold Piyush Chawla - 50 lakh - MI - 2.4 crores Qais Ahmed - unsold Himanshu Rana - 20 lakh - unsold Hari Nishanth - 20 lakh - unsold Sachin Baby - 20 lakh - RCB - 20 lakh Rahul Gahlaut - 20 lakh - sold Rajat Patidar - 20 lakh - RCB - 20 lakh Himmat Singh - 20 lakh - unsold Vishnu Solanki - 20 lakh - unsold Atit Sheth - 20 lakh - unsold Ripal Patel - 20 lakh - Delhi Capitals - 20 lakh Shahrukh Khan - 20 lakh - Punjab - 5.25 crore Ayush Badoni - 20 lakh - unsold K Gowtham - 20 lakh - CSK - 9.25 crores Vivek Singh - 20 lakh - unsold Vishnu Vinod -20 lakh - Delhi Capitals - 20 lakhs Sheldon Jackson - 20 lakhs - KKR - 20 lakhs Kedar Devdhar - 20 lakhs - unsold Mohd Azarharuddeen - 20 lakhs - RCB - 20 lakhs Avi Barot - 20 lakhs - unsold Mujtaba Yousuf - 20 lakhs - unsold Ankit Rajpoot - 30 lakhs - unsold Lukman Meriwala - 20 lakh - DC - 20 lakh Chetan Sakariya - 20 lakh - RR - 1.2 crores Kuldeep Sen - 20 lakhs- unsold Riley Meredith - 40 lakh - Punjab - 8 crores Tushar Deshpande - 20 lakhs - unsold M Siddharth - 20 lakhs - DC - 20 lakhs Karanveer Singh - 30 lakhs - SRH - 30 lakhs KC Cariappa - 20 lakhs - RR - 20 lakhs Sandeep Lamicchanne - 40 lakh - unsold Midhun Sudeshan - 20 lakh - unsold Tejas Baroka - 20 lakh -unsold Rovman Powell - 50 lakh - Unsold Shaun Marsh - 1.5 crores - Unsold Corey Anderson - 75 lakhs - unsold Devon Conway - 50 lakhs - unsold Darren Bravo - 75 lakhs - unsold Rassie van der Dussen - 50 lakhs - unsold Chesteshwar Pujara - 50 lakhs - CSK - 50 lakhs Martin Guptill - 50 lakhs - unsold Pawan Negi - 50 lakhs - unsold Kyle Jamieson- 75 lakhs-