KPL auction: Pavan Deshpande earns highest bid; Karun Nair, Shreyas Gopal unsold

Pavan Deshpande was, after a period of hectic bidding, was snapped up by Shivamogga Lions.

Pavan Deshpande and Aniruddha Joshi were from Pool 'A' of the auction list.

Pavan Deshpande (₹7.3 lakh) reaped the biggest reward in the player auction for the 8th edition of the Karnataka Premier League (KPL) held here on Saturday. After a period of hectic bidding, all-rounder Deshpande was snapped up by Shivamogga Lions.

Fellow elite Pool ‘A’ player Aniruddha Joshi was signed by Mysuru Warriors for ₹7.1 lakh.

Attacking batsman Jonathan Rongsen, despite featuring in the lower Pool ‘B’, went to Bengaluru Blasters for an impressive ₹6 lakh.

Karnataka State team regulars Karun Nair, Shreyas Gopal and Ronit More went unsold, as there are doubts surrounding their availability for the KPL due to possible domestic and international commitments.

Read: Shahbaz Nadeem takes India A closer to victory

There are similar availability concerns surrounding other big names like K. Gowtham, Prasidh Krishna, Manish Pandey and R. Samarth, but franchises took the gamble and picked them.

Santosh Menon, KSCA Hon. Assistant Secretary, explained, “Should a player get picked to play Duleep Trophy, franchisees have the option of replacing him with a player from the auction list. They will be compensated on a pro rata basis.”

Players like K.B. Pawan and Amit Verma, who currently play for other States, are eligible to compete in the KPL because they have represented Karnataka in the past, Santosh added.

Robin Uthappa, although in the Pool ‘A’ list initially, asked to be left out of the auction due to his commitments with the Kerala Cricket Association. Stuart Binny was not part of the auction list, as he will be away playing club cricket in England.

Mysuru Warriors created a flutter when their team officials bid and picked Karun Nair, only to back out later. After selecting Karun, Mysuru team officials called Karun on the phone, but the batsman informed them that he will not be available to play the tournament. The team officials then asked for the bid to be retracted. Officials from other franchises objected, but KSCA accepted Warriors' request, and allowed Warriors to pick Samarth in place of Karun.

The picks (winning bid amount in brackets) Belagavi Panthers: Subhang Hegde (3,05,000), Dikshanshu Negi (1,00,000), Stalin Hoover (1,10,000), R. Samarth (2,10,000), Manish Pandey (2,00,000), D. Avinash (20,000) Ritesh Bhatkal (3,05,000), A.M. Kiran (20,000), S. Rakshith (60,000), Abhinav Manohar (4,60,000), Mir Abbas (2,65,000), Abdul Majid (20,000), Arshdeep Singh (4,00,000) M.B. Darshan (1,30,000), Sharan Gowda (20,000), Lochan Appanna (20,000), Dharshan Machaiah (20,000), Zahoor Farooqui (2,05,000) Bijapur Bulls: Bharath Chipli (1,20,000), K.C. Cariappa (2,50,000), Prateek Jain (4,50,000), M.G. Naveen (3,50,000), Pranav Bhatia (1,40,000), Shimon Luiz (20,000), B.A. Mohit (20,000), G.S. Chiranjeevi (20,000), Swapnil Shivaji (1,00,000), Suneel Raju (4,10,000), Samarth Ooty (20,000), Liyan Khan (20,000), M.P. Bhareth (3,10,000), Praveen Kumar (30,000), Suraj Kamath (50,000), S.L. Akshay (2,00,000), Jashwanth Acharya (20,000), Raajoo Bhatkal (1,80,000) Ballari Tuskers: C.M. Gautam (50,000), Devdutt Padikkal (50,000), K. Gowtham (1,90,000) Abhishek Reddy (2,50,000), C.A. Karthik (4,70,000), Prasidh Krishna (5,80,000), Abrar Kazi (4,60,000), K.P. Appanna (3,00,000), Zeeshan Ali Sayyed (20,000), Mohammed Niyas (1,80,000), Bhavesh Gulecha (1,40,000), Ruchir Joshi (20,000), Santok Singh (45,000), Vishnu Priyan (20,000), Gaurav Dhiman (20,000), Sharath Srinivas (30,000), Suraj Reddy (20,000), Sharana Basawa (20,000) Hubli Tigers: Vinay Kumar (3,60,000), Praveen Dubey (3,10,000), Shishir Bhawane (1,80,000), Aditya Somanna (2,60,000), Mohammed Taha (5,70,000), Shivil Kaushik (75,000), Mahesh Patel (1,20,000), Suraj Seshadri (20,000), Mithrakanth Yadav (30,000), M. Vishwanathan (45,000), K.L. Shrijith (60,000), Luvnith Sisodia (95,000), K.B. Pawan (3,55,000), David Mathias (50,000), Vidyadhar Patil (2,45,000), Abhilash Shetty (1,00,000), Parikshith Shetty (20,000), Dheeraj Shashidhar (30,000) Mysuru Warriors: J. Suchith (2,50,000), Vyashak Vijay (2,10,000), K.V. Siddharth (50,000), Amit Verma (5,20,000), Aniruddha Joshi (7,10,000), Kushal Wadhwani (1,05,000), Vinay Sagar (65,000), M. Venkatesh (2,65,000), Shoaib Manager (4,65,000), K.S. Devaiah (1,80,000), Saurabh Yadav (20,000), Manjesh Reddy (20,000), P. Sankalp (35,000), B.U. Shivakumar (20,000), Ram Sarik (20,000), Jayesh Babu (20,000), Kishan Bidare (20,000), D. Nishchal (20,000) Shivamogga Lions: Abhimanyu Mithun (3,60,000), Pavan Deshpande (7,30,000), T. Pradeep (50,000), Nihal Ullal (1,10,000), Prithviraj Shekawat (60,000), Rishabh Singh (20,000), Rohit Gowda (20,000), Arjun Hoysala (3,00,000), Akshay Ballal (50,000), Nidish (3,80,000), K. Rohit (20,000), S. Prashanth (40,000), H.S. Sharath (2,25,000), K. Hoysala (20,000), Pradeep Gangadhar (20,000), S. Shivaraj (20,000), Sujith Gowda (1,30,000), S.P. Manjunath (1,80,000) Bengaluru Blasters: V. Koushik (2,80,000), Manoj Bhandage (80,000), Rohan Kadam (3,20,000), B.R. Sharath (2,40,000), D. Bharath (20,000), I.G. Anil (1,05,000), Anand Doddamani (2,45,000), Anurag Bajpai (20,000), Nikin Jose (85,000), Naga Bharath (3,55,000), Nishanth Shekavat (20,000), R. Jonathan (6,00,000), Bharath Dhuri (3,85,000), Muthanna Chandrashekar (20,000), Kishore Kamath (20,000), Kuldeep Kumar (20,000), Rishi Bopanna (20,000), Aditya Goyal (20,000)