Sri Lanka spin legend Muttiah Muralitharan, who is the spin bowling mentor of Sunrisers Hyderabad, said that the franchise got what they wanted from the IPL 2020 auction held on Thursday.

The Sunrisers picked up seven players from the auction and according to Muralitharan, that is exactly what they planned.

“Our aim was to get young Indian batsmen, overseas all-rounders and some back-up players. And we went according to our plans and bought all seven players whom we wanted,” Muralitharan told The Telegraph.

“If you look at our squad, it is very balanced. But one thing, picking the right team doesn’t guarantee that we will perform well. We have to do give our best on the ground as well,” Muralitharan said.

The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) spent Rs 4 crore for spinner Varun Chakravarthy. When the master spinner was asked if the Sunrisers were ever interested in Varun, he said: “We didn’t go for him because we didn’t need any spinner. But KKR must have some plans, that is why they bought Chakravarthy. It won’t be good form my side to make any comment about Varun, I wish him all the best.”

Praising young Indian batsmen Virat Singh and Priyam Garg, Muralitharan said: “They are very talented, hope they will come good for us.”

Sunrisers suffered a setback when their star all-rounder Shakib-al Hasan was banned for a year. As his replacement, the Sunrisers bagged two overseas all-rounders — Australian Mitchell Marsh and West Indies’ Fabian Allen. “As I told you, we wanted them and got them,” Murali said.

Sunrisers’ head coach Trevor Bayliss, commenting on the same matter, said: “We obviously wanted someone like Mitch Marsh. We wanted a strong hitter in the middle-order who could also double up as medium pacer…

“That’s why we got Mitch.Bayliss was also hopeful that the young Indian recruits will serve the franchise well. We have got five local Indian boys. They are all good young players,” he said.