The mega auction offered a golden opportunity for all the participating teams to pick the best players for the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League. The existing and new teams splashed the cash by making reasonable signings. However, at the same time, some deals turned out to be questionable.
As far as the Sunrisers Hyderabad franchise is concerned, they spent a whopping amount to acquire the services of West Indies international Nicholas Pooran. Some felt that the franchises wasted too much money on the wicketkeeper who hardly made an impact in the previous seasons of the IPL.
Nicholas Pooran was released by Punjab Kings ahead of the mega auction due to his woeful form. The southpaw hardly managed to make an impression with the bat. He endured an abysmal 14th season for Punjab Kings where he mustered 85 runs at a poor average of 7.72.
Muttiah Muralitharan explains why Sunrisers Hyderabad signed Nicholas Pooran for Rs 10.75 crore
The West Indies international enrolled himself at the mega auction for his base price of Rs 1.50 crore. Pooran sparked an intense bidding war among the franchises at the auction. Eventually, the Sunrisers roped him in for INR 10.75 crore.
While a certain section of the supporters thought that SRH batting coach Brian Lara convinced the owners to go for Pooran, Muttiah Muralitharan came up with another explanation. The former Sri Lanka spinner said Pooran was their Plan ‘B’ since they failed to sign their first-choice wicket-keeper, Ishan Kishan.
During a recent chat with Sportskeeda, the SRH spin bowling coach said, “I would say we’ve got 80 percent of our plans right. We didn’t get the remaining 20 per cent right because we couldn’t acquire Ishan Kishan. Had we purchased him, it would’ve been a perfect squad.”
He further added, “As I said, we initially wanted to buy Kishan. But once his bid crossed our budget, we were forced to look for alternatives. We wanted an international wicketkeeper who would be available for all the games, so we thought Pooran was the right choice once Kishan slipped away.”
