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Sam Curran became the most expensive player in Indian Premier League history on Friday as England’s World Cup winners cashed in spectacularly on his success.
Curran, the player of the tournament when England linked both limited titles together in Australia last month, returned to Punjab Kings for a staggering £1.85m, while Ben Stokes was not far behind in the financial stakes, effectively replacing him. at Chennai Super Kings for £1.625 million.
Harry Brook, who scored three hundred in Pakistan’s recent 3-0 Test shutout, also became an overnight millionaire as Sunrisers Hyderabad were rewarded for their persistence in a spirited fight between several top 10 franchises at the beginning of the proceedings in Kochi.
England star Sam Curran has become the most expensive player ever in the latest IPL auction
His first IPL paycheck will be worth £1.325m for two months of work; more than 20 times larger than the incremental contract given to it by the ECB in October.
The 24-year-old Curran is highly valued on the subcontinent: the £590,000 he fetched when Chennai secured his services at the 2020 pre-season auction made it England’s most expensive lot.
This time, a bidding war ensued, making him the highest-paid cricketer in the sport’s most lucrative competition. He played for Punjab in the 2019 competition before moving on to four-time winners CSK.
He has generally stood higher on the IPL order than he has for England, starting for both Punjab and Chennai in the past, but it was mainly for his work on the ball that he caught England’s attention earlier this winter, claiming numbers of 4.-0-12-3 in the final victory over Pakistan and finishing the World Cup with 13 wickets at a parsimonious average of 11.38.
Curran, the hero of England’s Twenty20 triumph, has returned to Punjab Kings for £1.85m
Last year, he did not make the auction due to a stress fracture in his back and was not guaranteed a place in England’s best T20 XI when he returned from injury for the tour of Pakistan in September, but he soon became unbeatable. .
In a frenetic start to the auction action, Stokes pocketed his third seven-figure IPL sum, the fee equaling the previous highest bid for a player in Indian rupee terms – the 16.25 crore that the South African Chris Morris got it before the auction. 2021 season. It was the third-biggest buy on Friday, coming on the heels of Australia’s Cameron Green going to Mumbai for £1.75m, while he edged out former West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran who moved to Lucknow for £1 ,6 millions.
In previous years, Stokes represented the Rising Pune Supergiant and Rajasthan Royals, but broke his finger in his first appearance of his third season for the latter in 2021 and retired his name last year to focus on revitalizing Test cricket.
Joe Root, Stokes’ predecessor as England captain, regularly bypassed the IPL to put a similar focus on the traditional format, but retains ambitions of playing in the world’s top T20 leagues and was Friday’s penultimate pick, joining Jos Buttler in Rajasthan for its base price of £100,000 during the dying moments of the fast-track auction after being passed over in the opening session.
His England teammate Ben Stokes was not far behind, joining Chennai Super Kings for £1.625m.
Root’s acquisition brought to 15 the number of English registrations for the 16th edition of the IPL next spring. A record 14 English players in 2021 and there could have been even more this time, but for previous entrants Alex Hales, Sam Billings and Chris Woakes to be among those withdrawing.
Rounding out the list of eight that attracted buyers were: Will Jacks, bought for £320,000 by Royal Challengers Bangalore; Adil Rashid and Phil Salt, who went for £200,000 each to Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Capitals respectively; and Reece Topley, another RCB pick for £190,000.
Teenager Rehan Ahmed, who showcased seven Pakistani wickets in Karachi last week, was unsold after being available for £50,000, as was Dawid Malan, despite being the highest-placed England batsman in the ICC T20 ranking, the largest in England. prolific T20 bowler Chris Jordan and Curran’s older brother Tom.
But there was a bounty on Ireland’s left wing Josh Little, signed by the reigning champions Gujarat Titans for £440,000 after impressing for both his country and the Hundreds, a competition in which he has the best bowling figures of five for 13 .
Buttler, Jonny Bairstow, Liam Livingstone, David Willey, Jofra Archer, Mark Wood and Moeen Ali were retained by their teams ahead of the mini-auction to fill the remaining 87 team spots.
In Australia, Billings made the most of two lives to hit a 48-ball 79 to take the man of the match award as Brisbane beat Adelaide by six runs at the Gabba to climb out of the bottom of the Big Bash League table. .