English batsman Harry Brook was picked up for Rs 13.25 crore by SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the IPL mini auction 2023. The 23-year-old will be making his debut in the Indian Premier League after a solid year and staggering performance. Brook was sold for 9 times his base price of Rs 1.5 crore after a bidding war between Rajasthan Royals and SunRisers Hyderabad. While SunRisers could afford the hefty price tag, entering the auction with the largest purse, Rajasthan Royals (RR) have a different story to tell.
With just Rs 13.2 crore in their kitty and needing at least three other players to fill their squad with the mandatory 19 players, Rajasthan could scarcely afford to spend Rs 13 crore on a single player. If Rajasthan Royals had managed to secure Brook for Rs 13 crore, they would have just Rs 20 lakh left to secure two more players— a strenuous task considering that the lowest base price for players in the mini auction is set at Rs 20 lakh.
As RR's social media account itself highlighted, they definitely couldn’t afford Brook for Rs 13 crore.
So what was the strategy in trying to bid for a player they couldn't afford? The positioning could be to make other teams spend more. By engaging in the bidding war, Rajasthan Royals was possibly trying to jack up the price of key players that other teams are interested in. This way Rajasthan can better leverage their small purse to snatch up other players that they really want in their squad.
The 2008 champions used the same trick to raise the price for 24-year-old English all-rounder Sam Curran. Despite knowing that they most likely wouldn't be able to secure Curran, an apt prediction considering that Punjab Kings bought the player for a record-breaking Rs 18.5 crore. Rajasthan still put in bids in what seemed to make the bidding between Chennai Super Kings, SunRisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians aggressive.
