IPL auction: England cricketers emerge hottest buys, Ben Stokes costliest player at Rs 14.50 cr

England all-rounder Ben Stokes was the costliest buy at the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction today, going to Rising Pune Supergiants for a whopping Rs 14.50 crore even as some unheralded Indian domestic players also enjoyed a hefty pay day here. 

The next big buy at the auction was also an England player, left-arm fast bowler Tymal Mills, who was taken by Royal Challengers Bangalore for a mind-boggling Rs 12 crore. 

Also making a splash were young Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan Arman, who stunned one and all by getting a Rs 4 crore (USD 600,000) bid from Sunrisers Hyderabad, and spin-bowling all-rounder Mohammed Nabi, also going to SRH. 

The auction however, came as disappointment for many including No. 1-ranked T20 International bowler Imran Tahir and India pacer Ishant Sharma who failed to find any takers.

Rising Pune Supergiants (RPSG), who removed Mahendra Singh Dhoni from captaincy on Sunday, bought Stokes for a whopping Rs 14.50 crore after defeating bids from Mumbai Indians, Delhi Daredevils (DD), Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).

Pune owner Sanjeev Goenka made it clear that they knew Stokes would go for a big price and that they were prepared for the fact that he would not be available to play the full tournament. 

"We knew he was going to be expensive. We do believe he is going to be there for the first 14 games and right now we are focussing on first 14, and we are very happy with this. We pretty much knew, we are not going to get him below this price," Goenka told reporters here. 

With capable seam bowling all-rounders at a premium, Stokes was in the wish-list of five franchises, who engaged in tough bidding for the player, who is now revered as the world's top all-rounder. 

The 25-year-old, who hasn't played franchise cricket till date, has a career strike rate of 134 plus while batting and a bowling economy rate of 8.60 in 77 matches. 

Promising pacer Mills also emerged another hot property, with the RCB finally managing to lay their hands on him for a whopping Rs 12 crore.

Interestingly, Stokes' limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan was taken at a base price of Rs 2 crore by Kings XI Punjab while all-rounder Chris Woakes was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for Rs 4 crore.

But the surprise of the morning session was 18-year-old leg-spinner Rashid Khan and all-rounder Mohammed Nabi being bought by defending champions SRH, making them the first Afghanistan cricketers to be bought by an IPL franchise.

While Rashid was snapped up for a whopping Rs 4 crore, Nabi went for Rs 30 lakh. Afghanistan captain Asghar Stanikzai, however, joined the likes of India's Ishant Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Pragyan Ozha, South African Imran Tahir, West Indians Darren Bravo and Marlon Samuels, to remain unsold.

The afternoon session saw Australians Nathan Coulter Nile, Daniel Christian, Hyderabad's Mohammed Siraj and England's Jason Roy bagging lucrative deals from franchises.

After being left out in the morning session, Coulter Nile emerged the hottest pick at a whopping Rs 3.5 crore for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) while 22-year-old medium pacer Siraj turned out to be the surprise package going for Rs 2.6 crore to the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).

New Zealand's swashbuckling opener Martin Guptill, who surprisingly failed to find any takers in the morning session went for Rs 50 lakh to Kings XI Punjab while England's Chris Jordan went to SRH for the same price. 

Railways' leggie Karn Sharma was bought by the Mumbai Indians for a whopping Rs 3.2 crore while Jharkhand pacer Varun Aaron went to the KXIP for Rs 2.8 crore.

Rising Pune Supergiants (RPSG) doled out for Rs 1 crore for all-rounder Christian and Gujarat Lions paid the same price for English opening batsman Roy. 

Among others, Delhi Daredevils won a competitive bidding war with Kings XI Punjab, to invest Rs 5 crore in South African pacer Kasigo Rabada while New Zealand fast bowler Trent Boult also was picked up for Rs 5 crore by KKR. Mumbai Indians bought retired Australian pacer Mitchell Johnson for Rs 2 crore.

Australian pacer Pat Cummins was also bought by the Delhi Daredevils for a whopping Rs 4.5 crore along with Tamil Nadu spinner M. Ashwin for Rs 1 crore. Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Matthews also went to Delhi Daredevils for Rs 2 crore along with New Zealand all-rounder Corey Anderson for Rs 1 crore.

Pune bagged Bengal batsman Manoj Tiwary for Rs 50 lakh while West Indian batsman Darren Bravo also succeeded to attract KKR for his base price of Rs 50 lakh.

Discarded India pacer Munaf Patel went to his home franchise Gujarat Lions for Rs 30 lakh while former West Indian skipper Darren Sammy was picked by KXIP for Rs 30 lakh.

Mumbai Indians invested Rs 30 lakh each in Jharkhand batsman Saurabh Tiwary and Sri Lankan 31-year-old batsman Asela Gunaratne. Hyderabad too spent Rs 30 lakh for Australian Ben Laughlin while Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) put an equal amount on Aussie fast bowler Billy Stanlake.

West Indian stumper Nicholas Pooran was taken by Mumbai Indians for Rs 30 lakh while Gujarat bought pacer Manpreet Gony for Rs 60 lakh.

The uncapped Indian players had a field day too with little-known Tamil Nadu left-arm seamer T Natarajan going for Rs 3 crore (USD 448,000) to Kings XI Punjab, 30-fold hike over his base price of Rs 10 lakh. 

Rookie Karnataka spinner Krishnappa Gowtham and Rajasthan medium pacer Aniket Choudhary were sold for 20 times their base price of Rs 10 lakh. While Gowtham was bought by the Mumbai Indians, Choudhary went to RCB for Rs 2 crore.

India discards Varun Aaron fetched Rs 2.8 crore (USD 418,000) from Kings XI Punjab while leg-spinner Karn Sharma was bought for Rs 3.2 crore (USD 477,000) from Mumbai Indians. 

Kerala medium pacer Basil Thampy went to Gujarat Lions for Rs 85 lakh after Rising Pune Supergiants left the bid. His base price was at Rs 10 lakh. The Gujarat franchise also roped in Rajasthan pacer Nathu Singh for Rs 50 lakh.

Uttar Pradesh wicketkeeper Eklavya Dwivedi and veteran Mumbai leggie Pravin Tambe went to Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs 75 lakh and Rs 10 lakh respectively, while Haryana southpaw Rahul Tewatia was sold to Kings XI Punjab for Rs 25 lakh.

Mumbai stumper-batsman Aditya Tare and Maharashtra middle order batsman Ankeet Bawane were bought by Delhi Daredevils for Rs 25 lakh and Rs 10 lakh respectively.

For left-arm spinner Pawan Negi, it was another hefty pay day as he bagged a Rs one crore deal from RCB starting at a base price of Rs 30 lakh. 

It was definitely much less than last year when Negi's Rs 8.5 crore deal with Delhi Daredevils had surprised one and all. But being an Indian player proved to be his advantage. 

For senior Test players like Cheteshwar Pujara and Ishant Sharma, it turned out to be an embarrassment as both went unsold at their base prices of Rs 50 lakh and Rs 2 crore respectively. 

Among the other notables are India's Irfan Pathan, Unmukt Chand, Pragyan Ojha, Manvinder Bisla, Parvez Rasool and Abu Nechim Ahmed, Sri Lanka's Dinesh Chandimal, Kusal Perara, Aussie Brad Hodge, South African Kyle Abbot, Kiwis Ross Taylor and Ish Sodhi, West Indians Samuels, Jason Holder and Johnson Charles.

(With agencies) 

Highlights: 

* A total of 66 players were sold inclusive of 27 overseas players in the IPL auction

* IPL Auction 2017 concludes 

* Lockie Ferguson sold to Pune Supergiants for INR 50 lacs

* Sayan Ghosh sold to KKR for INR 10 lacs

* Manoj Tiwary sold to Pune Supergiants for INR 50 lacs

* Darren Bravo sold to KKR for INR 50 lacs 

* Aksh Deep Nath sold to Gujarat Lions for INR 10 lacs

* Pratham Singh sold to Gujarat Lions for INR 10 lacs

* Rahul Tripathi sold to Pune Supergiants for INR 10 lacs

* Ishank Jaggi sold to KKR for INR 10 lacs

* Sanjay Yadav sold to KKR for INR 10 lacs

* Shubham Agarwal sold to Gujarat Lions for INR 10 lacs 

* Shelly Shaurya sold to Gujarat Lions for INR 10 lacs

* Chirag Suri is sold to Gujarat Lions for INR 10 lacs 

* Kulwant K is sold to Mumbai Indians for INR 10 lacs

* Milind Tandon is sold to Pune Supergiants for INR 10 lacs

* Shashank Singh is sold to Delhi Daredevils for INR 10 lacs 

* Rinku Singh is sold to Kings XI Punjab for INR 10 lacs 

* Munaf Patel is sold to Gujarat Lions for INR 30 lacs

* D Sammy of West Indies sold to Punjab for Rs 30 lakh 

* Jamaican cricketer Rovman Powell sold to KKR for Rs 30 lakh 

* Australian cricketer Daniel Trevor Christian sold to Pune for Rs 1 crore. Christian is known as a powerful hitter, and also bowls medium pace.

* Sri Lankan cricketer Asela Gunarathna sold to Mumbai Indians for Rs 30 lakh. He is an aggressive right-handed batsman who occasionally bowls part-time medium pace. 

* Rahul Chahar and Saurabh Kumar sold to Pune for Rs 10 lakh each 

* Right-hand batsman Mohammed Siraj sold to SRH for Rs 2.6 crore

* Australian cricketer Billy Stanlake sold to RCB for Rs 30 lakh 

* Australian cricketer Ben Laughlin sold to Hyderabad for Rs 30 lakh 

* Navdeep Saini sold to Delhi Daredevils for Rs 10 lakh 

* Praveen Dubey sold to RCB for Rs 10 lakh 

* Nathan Coulter-Nile is sold to KKR for Rs 3.5 crore 

* Saurabh Tiwary sold to Mumbai Indians for Rs 30 lakh 

* Jason Roy sold to The Gujarat Lions for Rs 1 crore 

* Guptill sold to Punjab for Rs 50 lakh 

* Manpreet Gony sold to The Gujarat Lions for Rs 60 lakh 

* Indian speedster Varun Aaron bought for Rs 2.8 crore by Kings XI Punjab. 

* Jaydev Unadkat sold to Pune for Rs 30 lakh. The 25-ye-old hails from Porbandar in Gujarat. He had also played the Under-19 Cricket World Cup.

* Pankaj Singh, Billy Stanlake, RP Singh, Glenn Phillips, Brad Haddin, Niroshan Dickwella, K Perera, Shane Dowrich, Anamul Haque, Farhaan Behardien, Thisara Perera,   remain unsold 

* New Zealand cricketer Matthew James Henry sold to Punjab for Rs 50 lakh. He is a right-arm fast-medium bowler. 

* Rishi Dhawan sold to KKR for Rs 55 lakh in IPL 2017. He is primarily a medium slow-bowling all-rounder who bats in the middle-order.

* All-rounder Karn Vinod Sharma sold to Mumbai Indians for Rs 3.2 crore. He had made his Twenty20 International debut against England in 2014.

* Pravin Vijay Tambe sold to Hyderabad for Rs 10 lakh. Tambe made his IPL debut at the age of 41 when Rajasthan Royals v Delhi Daredevils at Jaipur in May 2013. 

* English cricketer Christopher Roger sold to KKR for Rs 4.2 crore. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm fast-medium pace bowler.

* Mayank Dagar, Sarabjeet Ladda, Manoj Tiwary, Mitchell Swepson, Akshay Wakhare, Cheteshwar Pujara, Abhinav Mukund, Michael Klinger, S Badrinath, Marlon Samuels, Evin Lewis, D Bravo, Nick Maddinson, Parveez Rasool, Jason Holder remain unsold 

* Rashid Khan Arman is sold to SRH for Rs 4 crore. He is another Afghan player to be picked in IPL 2017

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* Tejas Baroka is sold to Gujarat for Rs 10 lakh 

* Murugan Ashwin, who plays for Tamil Nadu, sold to Delhi Daredevils for Rs 1 crore. He was bought at the IPL 2016 auction by the Rising Pune Supergiants for 4.5 crores, which was 45 times the original base price of 10 lakhs.

* Basil Thampy is sold to The Gujarat Lions for Rs 85 lakh. He made his first-class debut for Kerala in the 2014–15 Ranji Trophy.

* Young Rajasthan pacer Nathu Singh sold to Gujarat for Rs 50 lakh 

* Kings XI Punjab buy uncapped bowler T Natarajan for Rs 3 crore

* Left-arm medium-fast bowler Aniket Choudhary, who plays for Rajasthan in domestic cricket, sold to RCB for Rs 2 crore

* Wicketkeeper batsman Aditya Tare, who plays for Mumbai in domestic cricket, sold to Delhi Daredevils for Rs 25 lakh 

* Eklavya Rakesh Dwivedi, right handed wicket-keeper who plays in domestic cricket for Uttar Pradesh, sold to Hyderabad for Rs 75 lakh 

* Left-handed batsman Rahul Tewatia, who plays for Haryana in the Ranji Trophy, sold to Kings XI Punjab for Rs 25 lakh 

* K Gowtham, the Karnataka all-rounder, sold to Mumbai Indians for Rs 2 crore

* Mohammad Nabi creates history, becomes first Afghanistan player to be picked in IPL. He is sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs 30 lakhs.

* Left-handed top-order batsman Tanmay Agarwal sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs 10 lakhs. 

* Right-handed middle-order batsman Ankit Ramdas Bawne, who plays for Maharashtra in domestic cricket, sold to Delhi Daredevils for Rs 10 lakh

* At the end of set 5, Imran Tahir, Pragyan Ojha, Brad Hogg, Ish Sodhi, Lakshan Sandakan, Kyle Abbott, Ishant Sharma remain unsold

Australian fast-bowler Mitchell Johnson sold to Mumbai Indians for Rs 2 crore

* Australian fast bowler Patrick James sold to Delhi Daredevils for Rs 4.5 crore 

English fast bowler Tymal Mills sold to RCB for Rs 12 crore

* New Zealand's Trent Alexander sold to KKR for Rs 5 crore 

* Fast bowler Kagiso Rabada (South Africa) sold to Delhi Daredevils for Rs 5 crore 

* Johnson Charles, Dinesh Chandimal, Nathan Coulter-Nile remain unsold 

* West Indian Nicholas Pooran sold to Mumbai Indians for Rs 30 lakh 

* Andre Fletcher of West Indies remains unsold 

* Australia's Ben Dunk, English wicket-keeper Jonny Bairstow remain unsold 

* Guptill, Sean Abbott, Chris Jordan remain unsold 

* New Zealand all-rounder Corey Anderson went to Delhi Daredevils at his base price of Rs 1 crore. 

* Eoin Morgan sold to Punjab for Rs 2 crore 

England all-rounder Ben Stokes sold to Rising Pune Supergiants for a whopping Rs 14.50 crore -- the costliest buy after the first round of IPL players' auction today

* Irfan Pathan remains unsold

* Angelo Mathews sold to Delhi Daredevils for Rs 2 crore 

* Pawan Negi sold to RCB for Rs 1 crore

* Faiz Fazal, Alex Hales, Ross Taylor,Jason Roy remain unsold

Delhi Daredevils (Rs 23.1 crore balance purse), Kings XI Punjab (Rs 23.35 crore), Kolkata Knight Riders (Rs 19.75 crore), defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad (Rs 20.9 crore), Royal Challengers Bangalore (Rs 17.8 crore), Rising Pune Supergiants (Rs 17.5 crore), Gujarat Lions (Rs 14.35 crore) and Mumbai Indians (Rs 11.5 crore) were in the fray to buy smartly to complete their squads.