IPL AUCTION: Hetmyer heads to RCB; Pooran to Kings XI

• Brathwaite joins Narine and Russell at KKR

By Avenash Ramzan

West Indian players Shimron Hetmyer and Nicholas Pooran have been snapped up by Indian Premier League franchises for the 2019 edition of the tournament, set to start on March 23 and conclude in mid-May.

At the auction on Tuesday in Jaipur, 70 slots were available from a pool of 351 players, with a maximum of 20 to be filled by overseas players.

Hetmyer, the left-handed Guyanese batsman, was snapped up by Royal Challengers Bangalore, joining T20 star bats Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, while Pooran, the destructive Trinidad and Tobago wicketkeeper/batsman, joins T20’s leading runscorer and century-maker Chris Gayle at Kings XI Punjab.

Both Hetmyer and Pooran were bought for 4.2 crores or US$588,000.

Fellow West Indian Carlos Brathwaite got a US$700,000 deal with Kolkata Knight Riders, where he will join Caribbean counterparts Sunil Narine and Andre Russell.

Hetmyer, 21, has had an outstanding year in international cricket, blasting three ODI hundreds, including one on the recent tour of India where he amassed 259 runs in five matches, striking at 140.

He was also Guyana Amazon Warriors leading runscorer in the Hero Caribbean Premier League (Hero CPL) with 440 runs, the third most in the tournament behind Colin Munro’s 567 and Glenn Phillips’ 457. Hetmyer also scored his maiden T20 hundred during that competition.

Pooran, 23, also had a fantastic Hero CPL, scoring 267 runs in 10 games, at a strike rate of 144. He also struck 18 sixes in the tournament. In the recent T10 League, Pooran was the leading runscorer with 324 runs in nine games, at an astonishing strike rate of 245.

West Indies captain Jason Holder and Trinidad and Tobago’s left-arm spinner Khary Pierre are among the group of unsold players, which includes Brendon McCullum, Martin Guptill, Yuvraj Singh, Dale Steyn, Fawad Ahmed, Chris Woakes, Glenn Phillips and Shaun Marsh.