Sam Curran became the most expensive player in the history of the Indian Premier League on Friday as World Cup winners England capitalized impressively on their success.
Curran, the player of the tournament when England combined for the same limited-overs title with Australia last month, returned to the Punjab Kings for an impressive £1.85million while Ben Stokes was not far behind in the financial stakes, effectively replacing him to Chennai Super Kings for £1.625m.
Harry Brook, who hit three hundreds in Pakistan’s recent 3-0 Test whitewash, became an overnight millionaire as Sunrisers Hyderabad were rewarded for their persistence in a spirited rivalry between some of the 10 franchises in the early part of proceedings in Kochi.
England star Sam Curran became the most expensive player ever in the latest IPL auction
His first IPL pay check was worth £1.325m for two months’ work; more than 20 times larger than the incremental contract the ECB gave him in October.
24-year-old Curran is highly regarded on the subcontinent – the £590,000 he fetched when Chennai acquired his services in the pre-2020 season auction made him the most expensive English lot.
This time, a bidding war ensued that made him the best-paid cricketer in the sport’s most lucrative competition. He played for Punjab in the 2019 competition before moving to four-time winners CSK.
He has typically featured higher up the order in the IPL than England, having opened for both Punjab and Chennai in the past, but it is largely for his work with the ball that he has caught the eye for England. earlier this winter, claiming figures of 4 -0-12-3 in the final victory over Pakistan and ended 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 £1.85million
Last year, he did not enter 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 made the himself not to be left behind.
In a frantic start to the auction action, Stokes was snapped up for his third seven-figure IPL sum, the fee matching the previous high bid for a player in Indian rupee terms – the 16.25 crores fetched to South African Chris Morris ahead of the 2021 season. It was Friday’s third biggest purchase, coming soon after Australia’s Cameron Green went to Mumbai for £1.75m, while he beat out former West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran who moved to Lucknow for £1.6m.
In recent years, Stokes has represented Rising Pune Supergiant and Rajasthan Royals but broke his finger in his first outing in his third season for the latter in 2021 and withdrew his name last year to focus on reviving Test cricket.
Joe Root, Stokes’ successor as England captain, regularly sidelined the IPL to put a similar focus on the traditional format but retains ambitions to play in the world’s top T20 leagues and was the penultimate pick on Friday, with Jos Buttler in Rajasthan for his base price of £. 100,000 in the final phase of the accelerated auction after being overlooked in the first session.
England teammate Ben Stokes is not far behind, joining Chennai Super Kings for £1.625m
Root’s hiring takes the number of Englishmen signed up for the 16th edition of the IPL next spring to 15. A record 14 English players have featured in 2021 and there could be more in the offing this but for previous participants Alex Hales, Sam Billings and Chris Woakes being among those to be pulled out.
Completing the list of eight who have attracted buyers are: Will Jacks, acquired 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 at £190,000.
Teenager Rehan Ahmed, who put himself in the shop window with seven Pakistani wickets in Karachi last week, went unsold after making himself £50,000, as did Dawid Malan, despite being the highest-hitting England batter in the ICC’s T20 rankings, England’s greatest. prolific T20 bowler Chris Jordan and Curran’s older brother Tom.
But there was a bounty for Ireland left-armer Josh Little, signed by reigning champions Gujarat Titans for £440,000 after impressing both for his country and in the Hundred, a competition in which he holds the best bowling figures five for 13.
Buttler, Jonny Bairstow, Liam Livingstone, David Willey, Jofra Archer, Mark Wood and Moeen Ali were all retained by their teams ahead of the mini-auction to fill the 87 remaining squad places.
In Australia, Billings made the most of two lives to hit a 48-ball 79 and claim the man-of-the-match award as Brisbane beat Adelaide by six runs at the Gabba to move off the bottom of the Big Bash League table.
