Uttar Pradesh’s Prashant Veer and Rajasthan’s Kartik Sharma are the latest entrants into the IPL crorepati club.
The youngsters entered the IPL auction on Tuesday with a base price of ₹30 lakh. After some fierce bidding among the franchises, both went to the five-time champions Chennai Super Kings for ₹14.2 crore each, becoming the joint-most-expensive uncapped Indian players.
Prashant, a 20-year-old left-arm spinner all-rounder, and keeper-batter Kartik, 19, shone for their domestic sides and CSK certainly took note of it.
Now, the duo’s objective is to learn as much as possible from CSK icon Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
“I always wanted to play for CSK because of MS Dhoni. Not just his aggression, but how he remains calm and relaxed even during tense, pressure situations is something I want to learn,” Prashant said.
“Obviously, everyone in my family and my friends are elated. On my part, I would thank my father (Manoj Kumar) and Lokendra Singh ChaharSir for their constant support. And yeah, now that I’m in CSK, I’ll look to learn as much as I can from MS Dhoni,” said Kartik.
Prashant has so far played two first-class and nine T20s at the senior level. Tight bowling and being strong on both sides of the wicket with the bat are among his strong points.
“Prashant knows how to play the situation. He has a very good temperament, which we saw at the Uttarakhand Gold Cup during pre-season,” UP U-23 coach Gyanendra Pandey said.
The USP of Kartik, coming from a middle-class family in Bharatpur in Rajasthan with eight first-class, nine List A and 12 T20s so far, is his penchant for hitting sixes. “Given his talent, he should have played in the Rajasthan senior team from 2023 itself. But there was no room to accommodate him then,” recalls Rajasthan head coach Anshu Jain.
Kartik hopes to return to the field soon, having undergone surgery on his left little finger. “He’ll be missing even the first phase of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. But we’re confident he’ll be fit for the knockouts,” Rajasthan physio Magan Singh Chauhan said.