England all-rounder Ben Stokes was the costliest buy after the first round of IPL players’ auction on Monday, going to Rising Pune Supergiants for a whopping ₹ 14.50 crore (USD 2.16 million) after an intense bidding war.
Pune Supergiants, who removed Mahendra Singh Dhoni from captaincy on Sunday, entered late into the bidding at ₹ 13 crore and clinched the deal at ₹ 14.50 crore defeating bids from Mumbai Indians, Delhi Daredevils, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Interestingly, Stokes’ limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan was taken at a base price of ₹ 2 crore (USD 298,000) by Kings XI Punjab.
With capable seam bowling all-rounders at a premium, Stokes was in the wish-list of five franchises, who engaged in tough bidding. The newly appointed England Test vice-captain thus became the first million dollar buy of the 10th edition auctions.
“He is a form all-rounder. We wanted to bolster on that front. It’s a gamble, we have got good young Indian players.
We are going to put youngsters under big players and keep our fingers crossed. It’s a risk but we are ready to take it. We have got all-round options and gives us more options down the order,” Pune Supergiants coach Stephen Fleming reasoned the big buy.
The first round of bidding for Stokes saw Mumbai, Delhi and RCB match each other till it reached ₹ 10.50 crore after which the Reliance-owned franchise pulled out.
Delhi and Bangalore continued before Sunrisers entered the fray. But just when it looked that Stokes would go for around ₹ 12.5 crore, Pune entered the fray.
For left-arm spinner Pawan Negi, it was another hefty pay day as he bagged a ₹ 1 crore deal from RCB starting at a base price of ₹ 30 lakh.
It was definitely much less than last year when Negi’s ₹ 8.5 crore deal with Delhi Daredevils had surprised one and all. But being an Indian player was his advantage.
New Zealand all-rounder Corey Anderson went to Delhi Daredevils at his base price of ₹ 1 crore.
One of the notable names that went unsold was former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan, whose base price was ₹ 50 lakh.
