Punjab Kings paid a whopping sum of INR 11.5 crores to buy Liam Livingstone on the second day of the IPL auction 2022.
Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings led the bid of Livingstone at the start before PBKS entered and ruled the roost since then. They ousted KKR from the bidding process before Gujarat Giants stepped into the scene. Nonetheless, PBKS stuck to buying the English all-rounder and SunRisers Hyderabad’s late appearance too couldn’t stop them from securing the players.
On other hand, PBKS also paid 6 crores for bowling all-rounder Odean Smith. The West Indies player must have been noticed by the franchise during his performance against India in the recently-concluded ODI series, if not before. Smith has got some real good pace in his bolwing, while his power-hitting skills make him a special player.
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Smith has played 33 T20 matches so far taking 36 wickets in them. He has a batting strike rate of 130.61 in the matches.
PBKS, who had entered the IPL auction 2022 on Saturday with the highest base price, were lacking all-rounders but the addition of the two players – Livingstone and Odean - makes their squad strong.
The team had retained Mayank Agarwal and Arshdeep Singh ahead of the auction for 14 and 4 crores, respectively. Meanwhile, in the auction, their notable buys were Shikhar Dhawan, Jonny Bairstow, Shahrukh Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar and Arshdeep Singh.
