IPL Versus Selectors: Who Knows Best?

NEW DELHI: The huge demand at the IPL auction for Kevin Pietersen, the biggest national team reject around these days, isn't the only instance of franchises taking decisions contrary to those made by country selectors. While the dynamics of IPL team building are different, a look at the top 15 Indian players auctioned on Wednesday reveals little regard for choices made by Team India selectors.


IPL 7 Auction: Day 1 coverage | Who got whom | Team compositions

Sure, the core of the Indian T20 team — Dhoni, Kohli, Jadeja, Dhawan, Rahane, Rohit Sharma etc — were all retained by their franchises. But of those auctioned, only four of the 15 Indians who fetched the highest prices —Yuvraj, Bhuvneshwar, Amit Mishra and Shami — find a place in the India squad for the upcoming World T20 in Bangladesh.

The remaining 11 — Karthik, Murali Vijay, Uthappa, Piyush Chawla, Yusuf Pathan, Ojha, Sehwag, Vinay Kumar, Manoj Tiwary, Unadkat and Ishant — were neither retained by their franchises nor picked for India's T20 squad. But in the IPL, they are trusted and high-value property.

Mohit Sharma and Varun Aaron, who do find a place in the India squad, commanded a lower price than Unadkat, Ishant, Zaheer or Umesh Yadav, who have been discarded by the national selectors while looking for T20 fast-bowling options. Sharma and Aaron are only 20th and 21st on the list of top Indians auctioned in Bangalore, well below the others.

Of course, the dynamics of team building in the IPL are very different from picking a national squad — with clear cut brackets for 4 foreigners and 7 Indians in the XI — but logic would suggest that those in the national team should get more attention at the auction than rejects with similar skill sets.

This variance with choices made by national selectors isn't repeated with other teams like Australia, probably because their top players were not all retained by franchises. Of the top 10 Aussies auctioned on the first day — Mitchell Johnson, Glen Maxwell, David Warner, Mitchell Starc, Michael Hussey, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Aaron Finch, Steve Smith, George Bailey, Brad Hodge — all except Smith and the retired Hussey are headed for Bangladesh. But that Aussie squad also includes 43-year-old spinner Brad Hogg, who went unsold at the auction.