'People will outbid you and you will outbid them' - Ashish Nehra reveals Gujarat's auction strategy

Ashish Nehra, the Gujarat team's head coach has admitted to paying a bit extra for some players and losing other players to other teams in the auction.  He pointed out that sometimes they would outbid the other teams as well. However, Nehra also defended some of the buys and informed that they were always on the team's radar.

Many have criticized the strategies that Delhi implemented in the auction. Be it the last-minute purchase of a wicketkeeper or paying some huge amounts of money to players with little experience. They were involved in some other intense bidding wars as well but weren't successful. Liam Livingstone was one of the players they aggressively targeted.

In a conversation with Cricbuzz, he said, "Jason Roy and Lockie Ferguson were always part of the plans. Liam Livingstone (was also part of the plan), we went till 10 crores but that's the IPL for you. People will outbid you and you will outbid them. Look at a team like CSK, successful team, they lost three back-to-back bids for Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tripathi and the third against us."

Speaking of the last-minute buy of the wicketkeepers, he said that they paid a bit extra for Matthew Wade (2.4 crores). He also pointed out that they got one of India's best wicketkeepers in Wriddhiman Saha. The two were purchased in the final round of the auction when they had no other keeping option.

Ashish Nehra also spoke about Dominic Drakes as he was on their radar to buy. They purchased him for 1.1 crores, and Nehra was in shock at having gotten him for such a low price.

"I've seen him with the bat. The kind of price we got him for, I was surprised. Very very happy, very very pleased. When you talk about foreign guys who can be part of the IPL for a long, he is one of them. Tomorrow what will happen, only time will tell but he definitely has the talent and the X-factor," Nehra said.