English cricketers led by all-rounder Ben Stokes and pacer Tymal Mills turned out to be the hottest purchases at the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction in Bengaluru on Monday, which also saw No. 1-ranked T20 International bowler Imran Tahir and India pacer Ishant Sharma failing to find any takers.
Rising Pune Supergiants (RPSG), who removed Mahendra Singh Dhoni from captaincy on Sunday, bought Stokes for a whopping £1.45 million after defeating bids from Mumbai Indians, Delhi Daredevils (DD), Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).
"This is a conscious strategy, we wanted an all-rounder on the team," RPSG owner Sanjeev Goenka said. Promising pacer Mills also emerged another hot property, with the RCB finally managing to lay their hands on him for a whopping £1.2 million.
Interestingly, Stokes' limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan was taken at a base price of £200,000 by Kings XI Punjab while all-rounder Chris Woakes was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for £400,000.
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 £400,000, Nabi went for Rs 3000,000. 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 £ 350,000 for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) while 22-year-old medium pacer Siraj turned out to be the surprise package going for £260,000 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 5000,000 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 £320,000 while Jharkhand pacer Varun Aaron went to the KXIP for £280,000.
Rising Pune Supergiants (RPSG) doled out for £100,000 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 £500,000 in South African pacer Kasigo Rabada while New Zealand fast bowler Trent Boult also was picked up for £500,000 by KKR. Mumbai Indians bought retired Australian pacer Mitchell Johnson for £200,000.
Australian pacer Pat Cummins was also bought by the Delhi Daredevils for £450,000 along with Tamil Nadu spinner M. Ashwin for £100,000. Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Matthews also went to Delhi Daredevils for £200,000 along with New Zealand all-rounder Corey Anderson for £100,000.
Pune bagged Bengal batsman Manoj Tiwary for Rs 5000,000 while West Indian batsman Darren Bravo also succeeded to attract KKR for his base price of Rs 5000,000.
Discarded India pacer Munaf Patel went to his home franchise Gujarat Lions for Rs 3000,000 while former West Indian skipper Darren Sammy was picked by KXIP for Rs 3000,000.
Mumbai Indians invested Rs 3000,000 each in Jharkhand batsman Saurabh Tiwary and Sri Lankan 31-year-old batsman Asela Gunaratne. Hyderabad too spent Rs 3000,000 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 3000,000 while Gujarat bought pacer Manpreet Gony for Rs 6000,000.
Among the uncapped domestic players, Tamil Nadu left-arm pacer T. Natarajan emerged one of the biggest gainers - he was sold for £300,000 to Kings XI Punjab, which is 30 times his base price of Rs 1000,000.
Rookie Karnataka spinner Krishnappa Gowtham and Rajasthan medium pacer Aniket Choudhary were sold for 20 times their base price of Rs 1000,000. While Gowtham was bought by the Mumbai Indians, Choudhary went to RCB for £200,000.
