New Delhi: Delhi Capitals (DC) are “shocked” at getting Steve Smith as cheap as Rs.2.2 crore at an Indian Premier League (IPL) auction on Thursday, and happy that the Australian batting mainstay would provide “balance” to a team that is yet to win an IPL title in 13 attempts.
DC reached the final last year but lost to Mumbai Indians. “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 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,” DC co-owner Parth Jindal said.
“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,” he said, still to get over the “shock”.
Smith, 31, led Rajasthan Royals in the 2019 and 2020 IPL, and was released before the auction that took place in Chennai. Fast bowler Umesh Yadav was bought for his base price of Rs.1 crore, besides four domestic players — Lukman Meriwala, Ripal Patel, Vishnu Vinod and Manimaran Siddharth at their base prices. Each one of them had a base price Rs 20 lakh.
“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,” said Jindal.
DC’s assistant coach Mohammad Kaif was also thrilled to have Smith in the Delhi side. The first buy of the auction for DC was Smith (base price: Rs 2 crore). Yadav, who started his IPL career with the Delhi franchise, was bought by DC for his base price of Rs 1 crore.
After a fierce bidding war with SunRisers Hyderabad, the DC acquired English all-rounder Tom Curran (base price: Rs 1.5 crore) for Rs 5.25 crore. Sam Billings, who was part of the Delhi franchise in IPL 2016 and 2017, was bought by DC for his base price of Rs.2 crore.
Left-arm medium-fast bowler Lukman Meriwala, who was acquired by DC for his base price of Rs.20 lakh, has taken 72 wickets in 44 matches at an average of 14.54 in his T20 career. He plays for Baroda in domestic cricket and finished as the second-highest wicket-taker in the recently concluded T20 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy with 15 scalps.
