Gujarat Titans (GT) coach Ashish Nehra expressed surprised that the team managed to fetch Kane Williamson for his base price at the IPL 2023 min-auction in Kochi on Friday (December 23).

Williamson was roped in by the defending IPL champions for INR 2 Crores as the New Zealand skipper was the first player to go under the hammer.

According to Nehra, Williamson brings a lot to the table as he is an experienced campaigner with a proven track record.

“Somebody like Williamson will bring in so much experience. He is a proven player, didn’t have a couple of good IPL seasons but IPL is so fast-paced that it takes very little time for thinking and perception to change. For us, if he would have gone for much more, we would have still gone for Kane Williamson. We believe in that player and wanted to have that mix of experience and youth. Kane brings a lot to the table for any team. We are privileged that we could have him, and on top of that at base price,” said Nehra while speaking at a media interaction, as quoted by News 18.

Nehra further stated that GT couldn’t go for someone like Sam Curran or Cameron Green because of the funds they had remaining in the purse.

“First you need to see how much funds you have and what you need. Auction is not like you will get whatever six-eight players you need. Very rarely it happens but we were lucky to get what we wanted and still have some money left. We knew earlier also that we can’t go for somebody like Stokes or Green or Curran because they are going to go big. We are happy to fill the slots we wanted to fill. I’m very surprised that we got somebody like Kane Williamson at base price,” he added.

In the min-auction, Sam Curran was snapped by Punjab Kings (PBKS) for a whopping INR 18.50 Crore, which made him the most expensive buy in the history of auctions.

On the other hand, Cameron Green was signed by Mumbai Indians (MI) for a hefty sum of INR 17.50 crore, making him the second costliest purchase in the history of IPL auctions.