Auction for the biggest T20 franchise competition in the world was held in Bengaluru on Monday. Ben stokes made history by becoming the most expensive foreign player a franchise has purchased in the IPL auction ever. An intense day of bidding oozed a strong English flavour. England all-rounder Ben Stokes emerged as the most expensive overseas player with Rising Pune Supergiants signing him for a whopping Rs 14.50 crore. While Royal Challengers Bangalore bought English left-arm pacer Tymal Mills for a record breaking Rs.12 crore ever paid to a specialist Bowler. Kevin Pietersen who was bought for Rs. 9 crore by Delhi Daredevils in IPL 2014 was easily dwarfed by Stokes. Among the other English men where Chris Woakes who went to KKR for Rs. 4.2 crore, Eoin Morgan was bought by Kings XI Punjab for Rs. 2 crore and Jason Roy was roped in by Gujarat Lions for Rs. 1 crore in the second round.
During their tour of India last month, top England players showed keen interest to play in Indian Premier League. According to sources Ben Stokes had said "It is a good opportunity to experience a different competition. This year's IPL is a chance not just for myself but to a few other English guys to go and experience what it is like and get a different side of T20 cricket rather than just in England. I'm looking forward to seeing if I get a chance." before the first ODI in Pune.
England is scheduled to play two ODI on May 5 and 7 against Ireland. However it is likely that Stokes shall be available for full duration of IPL as they are playing against lowly Ireland as per ECB. After replacing Mahendra Singh Dhoni as captain by Steve Smith a day earlier, RPS were determined to have Stokes in their playing 11. "Yes, we were determined to get Stokes and he would be available until playoffs. He will play all the league games. He is a potential match winner." said Supergiants owner Sanjiv Goenka.
Total of Rs.91.15 crore was spent by eight franchises on Monday’s IPL auction. 66 players were bought from the pool of 350 plus amongst which 27 are overseas players. Two young Afghanistan players leg-spinner Rashid khan and spin-bowling all-rounder Mohammed Nabi were also able to charm the Hyderabad franchise SRH by being bought for Rs. 4 crore and Rs.30 lakh respectively.
Off lastly domestic talent was well recognised and rewarded by the franchises. Three uncapped Indian players T Natarajan, Aniket Choudhary and K Gowtham were bought ahead of some established names. Karnataka’s off-spin bowling all-rounder K Gowtham was bought by Mumbai Indians for Rs. 2 crore after setting base price of Rs.10 lakh. His remarkable batting spell against Australia during the three-day tour game at Brabourne Stadium has managed him to attract the franchises. Aniket Choudhary, 27-year-old left-arm medium pacer from Rajasthan impressed the Indian team management after he claimed four wickets against Bangladesh in a tour match. He was roped in by Royal Challengers Bangalore for Rs. 2 crore. T Natarajan of Tamil Nadu caught attention in the Tamil Nadu premiur League last year due to live coverage of all T20 matches. He was a regular member of Tamil Nadu Ranji team this season. T Natarajan was fetched for Rs. 3 crore by Kings XI Punjab.
Ishant Sharma with the base price of Rs. 2 crore went unsold this season. Amongst the other top rated unsold players were Irfan Pathan, Imran Tahir, Ross Taylor Cheteshwar Pujara, Brad Haddin and Nathan Lyon.
Franchise's claimed this year’s IPL auction to be the trickiest one and it showed that IPL is much more than what happens on the field. The world now waits to see the action begin on April 5.
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