By Vadiraj Kanakagiri

Lucknow Super Giants made a great pick up, very early in the auction, when they had Quinton De Kock in the bag for just 6.75 crores. He would surely relieve his skipper KL off his wicket keeping duties. They made another great pick up later in the piece, by getting hold of the experienced batting pro, Manish Pandey, for just 4.6 CR.

They then secured the services of Jason Holder for 8.75 crores, who's been ever so impressive off late. To add the speed bowling stocks to their repertoire, they roped in Mark wood for 7.5cr. In spin department, they fought tooth and nail with the Lucknow team to get hold of Krunal Pandya for 8.25cr, making the brothers apart for the first time in their careers. They bought Deepak hooda too, for a reasonable price of 5.75cr.

With Hooda and Krunal having a bit of a history in the Baroda team, it is interesting to see them play together again.

The Gujarat Titans didn't seem to be in the mood for shopping too many players. They were picky. They were choosy. They seemed to be content with their buys. With more than 30 crores remaining in the purse, they are expected to buy whoever they want in tomorrow's rounds. They might also deprive some teams of their wants, by buying few players intentionally even if they don't want them, but because the other team desperately needs them.

Having already signed Hardik, Rashid and Shubman Gill, they needed to build their team around these three heavyweights. They got the explosive English opener, Jason Roy, for just 2Cr. This has to be one of the best steals.

Their fast bowling stocks went skyhigh by multifold, as they managed to buy the kiwi quick, Lockie Ferguson for 10 full crores. To join forces with him, Mohammed Shami was roped in for 6.25 crores, which was a good deal.

It remains to be seen what sort of strategy the Titans have with them to fill the numerous spots that they have left, with the second string players on show tomorrow.