A special night for me and my family: Mitchell on Ind T20 League auction

New Zealand all rounder Daryl Mitchel was back home wrapping a gift for his daughter whose fifth birthday was the next morning when nearly 15 thousand kilometres away in Dubai the Indian T20 League auction was on. Mitchell prior to this had only one previous IND T20 League gig in 2022 for Rajasthan where he was picked for his base price of INR 75 Lakhs. He turned up for them for two matches, was subsequently released and then couldn't find any takers in the 2023 season. 

But an eventful year or so including an impressive ODI World Cup campaign in India meant his chances of getting sold were high this time around. Three franchises were interested in acquiring the services of the 32 year old but it was the five time champions Chennai that snapped him. They edged an intense bidding war to seal the deal at a staggering INR 14 crore. 

"It was obviously a pretty special night for us as a family, sitting here with my wife watching the whole auction," Mitchell said. "To see your name come up and then to go through that whole experience is definitely something that will stick with us for the rest of our lives."

"Your heart starts to pump a little bit, as you see the paddles going up. But having been through the auction before and going unsold, it was a pretty special night last night to experience that," he added.

Starting off from a base price of INR 1 crore, the scuffle was mostly two way with Delhi and Punjab competing for him aggressively. But at the point where Delhi left the bidding, in came Chennai at INR 12 crore. Punjab kept going and dragged it out till INR 13.75 crore and almost had their man until Chennai returned and raised their baton at the very last second, to push the bidding to INR 14 crore. Punjab withdrew instantly and Chennai got their man- a fierce striker of the cricket ball who plays spin extremely well and can likely fill the void left by England international Ben Stokes in the middle order. Mitchell was thankful and said a life changing contract like this can help him and his family for the future. 

"She [his daughter] has got a pretty good present, waking up to that - not that she understands what's going on. But that's the whole thing about these sorts of situations - it helps set up your family in many ways so that they can grow up and enjoy the things they love.

"For me, that's the really cool thing about it. They're the ones that are the reason why you do all this," Mitchell said.

Besides the elation of a lucrative contract and the chance to player under the most successful IND T20 League skipper, Mitchell will share the dressing room with familiar faces in Devon Conway, Mitchell Santner and Rachind Ravindra, who Chennai bought in the recent auctions for INR 1.80 crore.