There were a number of uncommon names who were sold at astronomical amounts in the Indian Premier League auction over the two days with franchisees digging deep to boost their squad among a plethora of choices available to them out of the talent pool. (IPL auction highlights)
However, what turned to be the two most interesting cases were probably that of Mayank Dagar and Aryaman Birla. While the former was bought by Kings XI Punjab for ₹20 lakh, the latter joined Rajasthan Royals for ₹30 lakh — ₹10lakh more than his base price. (Indian Premier League squads and salaries - full list)
Aryaman is the son of business tycoon Kumar Mangalam Birla, the chairman of the Aditya Birla Group. The 20-year-old has played just one match for Madhya Pradesh so far and scored 22 runs in the two innings.
For the uninitiated, Dagar is the nephew of KXIP’s director of cricket Virender Sehwag.
While the 21-year-old did go unsold in the first round of auctions, he was snapped up in the second round with Sehwag likely to have played a part in the process and the management sticking to it, given that the franchise eventually became the last team to complete the minimum set of players required.
Dagar, a former India under-19 player, represents Himachal Pradesh in the domestic circuit and has the experience of 13 T20s under his belt. His strike rate is modest at 20.8 and has 12 wickets from those matches.
{{/usCountry}}Dagar, a former India under-19 player, represents Himachal Pradesh in the domestic circuit and has the experience of 13 T20s under his belt. His strike rate is modest at 20.8 and has 12 wickets from those matches.
{{/usCountry}}This, however, isn’t the first time that players with prominent backgrounds but hardly any playing experience have managed to bag an Indian Premier League contract.
A few years back, Tejaswi Yadav, son of former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav was bought by Delhi Daredevils only to be on the dug-outs throughout the tenure of his contract.