The auctions for the tenth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) began in the morning today where 351 cricketers went under the hammer.
With eight franchisees competing to win players who fit in their game plans, many surprise came the way with the highest amount going as high as Rs 14.50 crore while many top players remained unsold.
Beginning from Martin Guptill, who remained unsold in the first session but found a buyer later, the IPL auction ended with the bidding on Lockie Ferguson.
Here are the highlights of the day-long IPL auction:
1- England all-rounder Ben Stokes became the costliest player of the auction with a whopping price of Rs 14.50 crore. He was bought by Rising Pune Supergiants.
Also Read: Six underdogs who hit the jackpot at the IPL 2017 auction
2- 18-year-old leg-spinner Rashid Khan and all-rounder Mohammed Nabi became first Afghanistan cricketers to be bought by an IPL franchise. Both Rashid and Nabi went to defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for Rs 4 crore and Rs 30 lakh to respectively.
3- The biggest name among unsold players was of South African spinner Imran Tahir, currently ranked No.1 in the ICC list for ODI and T20 bowlers.
4- Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Pragyan Ozha, Darren Bravo and Marlon Samuels also remained unsold during the day.
5- England pacer Tymal Mills, who is yet to play an ODI or a Test for his country, turned to be the biggest surprise package of the day. He was bought by RCB for Rs 12 crore.
6- Among the uncapped domestic players, T Natarajan, Mohammed Siraj, Krishnappa Gowtham and Aniket Choudhary were hottest picks.
7- Among non-regulars of India, Karn Sharma was bought by the Mumbai Indians for a whopping Rs 3.2 crore while Varun Aaron went to the KXIP for Rs 2.8 crore.
8- Out of 351 players up for auction, only 66 were sold.
9- Rs 91.15 crore was spent by eight frenchises.
10- Rising Pune Supergiants spent the most (Rs 17.20 crore) while Gujarat Lions spent least (Rs 3.85 crore).
