The IPL Auction 2023, which took place on December 23, was off to a humongous start as age-old records were broken in the first hour of the auction itself, courtesy of cricketers from England.
The likes of Sam Curran and Ben Stokes, who were an integral part of England’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 victory, were anticipated to earn some big bucks.
The first English cricketer to go under the hammer was Harry Brook, who was coming on the back of a splendid performance in the Test series in Pakistan. The 6-feet tall batter with a long reach, who has the potential to hit the ball a long way attracted a bidding war and was sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for INR 13.25 crore.
The next Englishmen to be called out by the auctioneer was Sam Curran and the franchises commenced a six-way bidding war. The Man of the Tournament of the recently concluded World Cup went onto become the most expensive buy in the history of the IPL auction by the moment the bidding war ended. He was bought by Punjab Kings (PBKS) for a whopping INR 18.5 crore.
The next in line was the superstar cricketer, Ben Stokes, who is England’s go-to man and captain of the Test team. Stokes was also welcomed by a ferocious bidding war and it was the four-time IPL winners, Chennai Super Kings (CSK), who outbid the other interested teams for a massive of INR 16.25 crore. The duo of Stokes and Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be a treat for the CSK fans.
The next Englishmen was the 26-year-old Phil Salt, who was sold to Delhi Capitals (DC) for INR 2 crore. Reece Topley, who troubled the Indian top order earlier this year in a bilateral series made his IPL auction debut with a base price of INR 50 lakh. Topley interested multiple IPL teams and was sold to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for INR 1.9 crore. The 24-year-old Will Jacks from England was also bought by RCB for INR 3.2 crore.
Sam Curran’s elder brother, Tom Curran also featured in the auction but couldn’t attract any bids. The IPL Auction 2023 didn’t go well for the Toms as Tom Banton also went unsold.
The great English cricketer, Joe Root also put his name in the auction, he went unsold initially but was bought by Rajasthan Royals (RR) later in the accelerated auction.