England all-rounder Sam Curran has become the costliest player sold in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction. The 24-year-old Curran was bought by Punjab Kings for Rs 18.50 crore in the mini-auction held in Kochi on Friday.
Nicholas Pooran is the most expensive wicketkeeper of all time. He was bought by Lucknow Super Giants for 16 crores. The mini-auction started at 2.30 pm on Friday and went on till 8.30 pm i.e. for 6 hours.
The teams had a total purse of Rs 206.5 crore and a maximum of 87 players could be bought. However, all 10 teams together spent only Rs 167 crore and bought 80 players. All-rounders were in high demand. Rs 103.95 crore was spent on them. This is 62.25% of the amount spent in the auction.
The names of 405 players were in the auction. However, only 153 players bid. 73 remained unsold and 80 players found buyers. These include 29 foreign and 51 Indian players.
Uncapped Vivrant and Irish Little surprised everyone
In the auction of uncapped players, the bid on Vivrant Sharma of Jammu and Kashmir surprised everyone. Vivrant, capable of batting with left spin bowling, was bought by Sunrisers for Rs 2.6 crore. Uncapped fast bowler Shivam Mavi was also bought by Titans for Rs 6 crore.
Apart from him, Bengal pacer Mukesh Kumar was bought by Delhi for 5.50 crores. Left-handed pacer Josh Little, who took a hat-trick against New Zealand in the T20 World Cup, also got a big bid. He was bought by Gujarat Titans for 4.40 crores. He was in the IPL auction for the first time.
Sam Curran has become the costliest player in IPL auction history. Punjab bought him for Rs 18.50 crore. The previous record of the most expensive player was in the name of Chris Morris of South Africa. He got Rs 16.25 crore. Cameron Green (Rs 17.50 crore) also left behind Morris’ record.
Nicholas Pooran of the West Indies is the costliest seller so far as a wicketkeeper. He was bought by Lucknow Super Giants for 16 crores. Earlier, the highest-paid wicket-keeper was Mumbai’s Ishan Kishan (15.25 crores).
As expected, fast bowling all-rounders were in high demand in the mini-auction. All the all-rounders collected Rs 103.95 crore in 6 hours. Punjab bought the player of the tournament Sam Karan of the last T20 World Cup for the highest amount of Rs 18.50 crore.
Australia’s Cameron Green was bought by Mumbai Indians for Rs 17.50 crore. England Test team captain Ben Stokes got Rs 16.25 crore. He was bought by Chennai Super Kings. Jason Holder was bought by Rajasthan Royals for Rs 5.75 crore.