Abu Dhabi: England all-rounder Ben Stokes became the highest paid overseas player in the history of Indian Premier League (IPL) when he was bought for USD 2.16 million (approx) by Rising Pune Supergiants at the 10th IPL player auction in Bangalore on Monday.
The bid came alive when Stokes bid started and England fast bowler Tymal Mills was the second most expensive overseas player and he will play for Royal Challengers Bangalore,who notched him for USD 1.8 million (approx) after starting from a base prize of USD 75,000.
England’s ODI and T20 skipper Eoin Morgan was brought for for USD 300,000 by Kings XI Punjab, while Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews went to Delhi Daredevils for his base price of (USD 300,000 (approx). New Zealand allrounder Corey Anderson was also brought by Delhi Daredevils at his base price of USD 150,000.
Surprisingly Ishant Sharma, one of the mainstay of Indian bowling attack, didn’t not have any takers and he went unsold. Other high-profile who had no takers were Jonny Bairstow, Jason Roy, Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor, Alex Hales, Imran Tahir, Chris Jordan and Irfan Pathan.
WATCH: Which player got the top bidding? Gulf News Sports desk discusses...
At lunch break, Rising Pune Supergiants, who roped in Steve Smith as new captain in place of M.S. Dhoni, seems to have shut shop after spending their entire purse on Stokes. Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore who had bagged Mills had added two more - Pawan Negi and Aniket Choudhary.
King’s XI Punjab led by Murali Vijay had England skipper Morgan along with Matt Henry, Rahul Tewatia, Varun Aaron and T Natarajan. Gautam Gambhir’s Kolkata Knight Riders clearly had focused on beefing up their pace attack with in inclusion of Trent Boult, Chris Woakes and Rishi Dhawan.
Sunrisers Hyderabad has shown faith in Afghan players’ abilities as they are fast improving under the guidance of India’s former player and manager Lalchand Rajput. Afghanistan’s former skipper Mohammad Nabi and spinner Rashid Khan will becoming the first players from the associate nation to make the cross over from Kyber pass to IPL. They had also brought Tanmay Agarwal, Pravin Tambe, and Eklavya Dwivedi.
Powerhouse Mumbai Indians retained the aging Australian Mitchell Johnson and add more fire power by getting Karn Sharma, K Gowtham, and young Caribbean keeper Nicholas Pooran.
Gujarat Lions seems to be solely focusing on local players and they made sure to get Manpreet Gony, Nathu Singh, Basil Thampi, and Tejas Baroka.
