"They spent their money extremely intelligently" - Amol Muzumdar says SunRisers Hyderabad had the best auction

Amol Muzumdar feels the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) used their money extremely intelligently and had the best IPL 2023 auction among all franchises.

SRH went into the auction with a remaining purse of ₹42.25 crore. They bought 13 players at the auction for a total of ₹35.7 crore to complete a full-strength 25-member squad.

While reviewing the auction on Star Sports, Muzumdar was all praise for the SunRisers Hyderabad, elaborating:

"They had a big purse in the morning, but they spent their money extremely intelligently. There was clarity in their planning. They knew that their bowling is their strength and that they need to spend in the batting."

The former Mumbai cricketer feels the IPL 2016 champions made judicious picks in the form of Harry Brook, Mayank Agarwal, and Heinrich Klaasen to strengthen their batting, observing:

"They spent more than 13 crores on Harry Brook and more than eight crores on Mayank Agarwal. They also picked Klaasen. According to me, if any team had the best auction, it was SunRisers Hyderabad."

Muzumdar added that Umran Malik is an X-factor in SRH's bowling attack, saying:

"It is looking like an extremely good team. They have Aiden Markram, Glenn Phillips and Natarajan, and Umran Malik is an X-factor in this team. In my opinion, this team did the best job today."

Although SRH had the biggest available purse heading into the auction, they opted not to spend big bucks on acquiring one of the three big-ticket all-rounders - Sam Curran, Cameron Green, and Ben Stokes.

They instead concentrated on beefing up their batting department by spending a total of ₹26.75 crore on Brook, Agarwal, and Klaasen.

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"They came with the best strategy" - Irfan Pathan on the Sunrisers Hyderabad

The Sunrisers Hyderabad failed to qualify for the IPL 2022 playoffs. [P/C: iplt20.com]

Irfan Pathan also concurred with Muzumdar's views, saying:

"It is the best team. They came with the best strategy. They had the most muscle and they showed intelligence along with might. It was a very good auction for them. They bought the most players, and also the best players."

SRH had released 12 players, including their skipper Kane Williamson, as part of their retention exercise ahead of the IPL 2023 auction.

It will be interesting to see if they give the captaincy reins to their veteran seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar or Agarwal, who was the Punjab Kings' (PBKS) skipper in IPL 2022.

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